Roughly five years ago, then-editor of the journal Verse-Virtual Firestone Feinberg invited me to collect some of the poems I had been writing about my father and add some biographical notes in order to create a ‘portrait’ of him for publication. The ensuing piece, which I called “Starman” after one of the poems I had written (and ripped from the Bowie song of the same title) developed into my first book of poems, Unburial. “Starman” collects poems, biographical sketches and photos of the man who was my father, and whose sudden and premature passing left its mark on me in ways I am – now older than he ever was – perhaps still unable to fully understand.

February 11, 2025 marks thirty-five years without him.

I’ve made an Unburial playlist for anyone who wants to read the book in a different way, in which each poem is paired to a song that is meant to extend it or comment on it. It’s a pretty good playlist, I think!

Of course, my father is very much alive and well in the Romanesco poems of Mario dell’Arco, which I published last November. There are no extant recordings of my father’s voice, and no video footage (that I am aware of), so the poems in Day Lasts Forever serve also as a reimagining of his voice, a way for me to engage in dialogue with him through the medium of translation. You can read a review of the book by Anna Aslanyan in the Times Literary Supplement.

Ti amiamo.