Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Michael Gizzi 1949-2010 Poet Michael Gizzi died Monday in his home in Providence, R.I. He was born in 1949 in Schenectady, New York to Carolyn B. and Anthony J. Gizzi. He received his BA and MFA from Brown University. For seven years he worked as a tree surgeon in southeastern New England, before...
Read MoreI think of Michael frequently as I go through the poetry books and arts/poetry magazine we published together at Hard Press Editions. He shall always be remembered fondly by me as a teacher with a bold spirit, a sincere writer and, of course, a real poet.
Anne Bei
September 27, 2022 | Work
I believe his beautiful spirit lives on in the people, of which I am one, that he inspired. Rest in Peace Michael
Renee McLeod
August 15, 2011 | Cambridge, MA
Michael was a very nice and warm person, to say it simply. May God bless him. Rest is peace.
Donna Williams Stone
July 18, 2011 | New York, NY
I was another student in the MA program at Brown, and Michael and I were, I believe, in the poetry workshop class with Michael S. Harper. Michael G was an edgy, soulful poet and made a lasting impression on me and I'm sure all our fellow students--who he was and his work. Condolences to all his family and to his extended family-of-choice---friends---in Providence and elsewhere. We struggled with similar problems though, at the time, I don't think he and I understood any of this. Now, more...
JADE BENSON
November 01, 2010 | BREWSTER, MA
Michael, or "Uncle Mike," was my most influential teacher thus far. He was a tree surgeon, turned poet, turned high school English teacher. He taught me creative writing and film at Lenox Memorial Middle & High School. His unconventional use of words and how they go together made me rethink the English language. I had previously learned to read in the most conventional way, sounding it out, looking at pictures, but Mike changed all of this. He did not like punctuation and we were forever...
Caitlin Pumphrey
October 27, 2010 | Boston, MA
Tom and Peter,
I was numbed learning of Mike's passing to a better place. I will pray for him in Mass. If you remember, I was his roommate @ Epic Rehab this past July. His knee and my hip. He was a pleasure to live with and an unassuming soul. My condolensces to you and your family.
Kevin McKinley
October 24, 2010 | Seekonk, MA
Michael was so unassuming and treated me as an equal, but I would have loved to have been his student (and I experience a certain jealousy reading the tributes of those here who did). Like many who fumbled more than once in the course of living their own (I imagine), he was a great life coach. And he was one of our best poets. Pure gold. We will keep rereading, and hopefully teaching, Mike's books. Yes, they have that swing! For now, I cannot accept his loss and miss him deeply. Our...
Jonathan Skinner
October 20, 2010 | Bowdoinham, ME
with our condolences and much love to the Gizzi family.
brenda & atticus
Brenda Coultas
October 17, 2010 | Ny, NY
Tom, Peter,
Michael's voice is silenced and pieces of our past drift away. I'll never forget his laugh, his lope.
My thoughts are with you,
Steve Jusczyk
http://www.pbase.com/sjusczyk/image/129248528
October 15, 2010