Marco Melfi’s debut book of poetry, Routine Maintenance, is a marvelous must-read! Melfi has had work published in several magazines, is a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio, winner of Fiddlehead’s 2021 Ralph Gustafson Prize, and an Edmonton Poetry Festival Board member. Take a break from your backyard garden preparations to sit down with Melfi’s poems and a fresh espresso. You won’t be sorry.
When did you start writing poetry and why?
Poetry’s been my chosen genre for a long time, going back to early university and stemming from my father’s interest in poetry. Growing up, his bookshelf contained Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson and others. He kept (still keeps) a notebook by his nightstand or in his van while my brothers and I were at soccer practice. I began carrying a notebook and filling it with short lines and observations that would become poems.
How did this first collection come about? Were you sitting on all these poems or did you craft them as a book as you wrote them?
Routine Maintenance was about six years in the making and a big boost was participating in Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio. In that program, I wrote and refined many of the poems under the guidance of an excellent poetry mentor, Kayla Czaga.
There is a wonderful poetic pinpointing of everyday moments in your work. Is this where poetry comes from for you?
Thank you for sharing that. Yes, the everyday moments provide so many potential poems, whether scenes from the bus window or objects from around the house or yard. I’m drawn to the images and the vocabularies that can be paired with them. I hope the scenes are relatable or recognizable, helping to invite readers into the poems.
Several poems make use of prose-like sentence structure which creates a smooth rhythm and flow. Did this take several edits or does this style come naturally?
There are always edits ha! I admire how other poets, like Czaga or Carmine Starnino, employ a prose-like structure. I enjoy the familiarity of the sentence and how, within a poem, its shape or sense can be altered depending on line lengths or breaks. My earliest drafts vary between clipped lines to full phrases and it’s through the editing process that I try to find the rhythm and flow.
Often a debut collection of poems can feel very daunting and vulnerable. How has it been for you?
Overall, it has been a memorable experience and I’m very grateful to Gaspereau Press for bringing the collection out. I’m part of a supportive community of writers in Edmonton. While I have had individual poems published, a debut book was different. I did worry (which is a touch funny given that “worry” is a recurring theme in the book) how family, friends, or coworkers would respond, some who knew I wrote poetry and many who did not. But the reception has been positive. I am thankful for how people have engaged with the book and what they’ve shared.
“Nonno” appears in some of the poems. Why did you choose to write about him?
Up until his passing about a decade ago at the age of 95, my Nonno (my father’s father) would regularly share stories about his experience as a soldier and prisoner during WWII, the family’s immigration to Canada, the decades he worked for CN and more. After he passed, I returned to these stories and found them rich material for poems. I enjoyed how poets like Alice Major or Tim Bowling featured and honoured family in their collections. The importance of work or routine, themes in the book, I learned from my Nonno.
How has your Italian heritage influenced what or how you write?
It’s influenced me in many ways: the traditions, the food, the newcomer work ethic, the language. I feel there is a correlation between the sonorous quality of Italian and my appreciation for poetry’s sonic effects. Plus, I heard lots about notable authors growing up, including Giose Rimanelli and Leonardo Sciascia who come from my parents’ hometowns (Casacalenda and Racalmuto).
Which poem are you most excited about reading at any future readings and why?
I enjoy attending open stages and reading poems. Prior to the book, I often choose works in progress as a way to test how a poem sounded and what edits may be needed. Then and now, I usually choose poems with strong scenes or imagery. I have a series of poems about objects that are fun to read.
What advice do you have for writers trying to write about their everyday lives?
Write whatever you see and hear, wherever you are, often. It can start as a list or quick notes: the messy counter top, the chickpea on the floor, the magpies on the back fence. Bring a notebook everywhere.
What are you working on now?
I’ve been savouring this period following the release of Routine Maintenance – reading at events and talking about it with poets like yourself. Before its release and since, I’ve been drafting new poems, excited by themes from photographs to food, for a possible second collection.
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