Joseph Maviglia’s poetry is music from the soul. He writes about ordinary life, people, working-class society, social justice, and being an immigrant in Canada’s effervescent cultural mosaic. Much like Leonard Cohen’s text poems and Gordon Lightfoot’s narrative songs where life is a journey, a story, and a song, the simple quality of presentation is much more than what first meets the eye. His work is powerful in its use of intellectual wit and imagination, sometimes with a touch of humour.

Music is language, especially in the lyrical pen of poet and songwriter, Maviglia. He composes mostly in free verse and narrative/text poems, the overall context alluding to a story, one that could easily be sung as well as spoken. His ability to be both creative and intensely wise is woven into the fabric of his words and the subtle nuances that link song and verse. “The words you use for this rage anger heat / fall flat. The drums are saying / arrive explode” (“The Congas”). Even the spacing between words add another dimension to the expressive nature of his poetry.

This selection of poems is distinctly subdivided chronologically, presenting an anthology of memoirs and thoughts from previous eras. Each section is identified by a subtitle and a date. A few of the sections are totally dedicated to music, like “Winter Jazz” and “New Work (jazz dharma).” The second last section, “On Poetry and Song,” is purely narrative, a few pieces read like essays on themes relating to both music and poetry, with some reference to visual art as well. This section begins with an author’s note to explain his intent in these works and to identify them based on the era in which they were written (2003-2010). In “The Difference,” an essay comparing song and poetry, Maviglia explains: “A song is a poem with music. The one determining factor for me is the purity of the words coming at the same time the melody comes… poems can do that, they don’t have exterior music to fall back on for a listener or reader.”

Heritage and ancestry are important to Maviglia. The themes of his family and his fellow Italian immigrants bleed throughout his work. “We carry heritage a long way here. / Bellhops to a dying culture / you might say dwelling in history / because we have stopped living.” One can’t expect to move forward without periodically looking back.

Maviglia’s anthology of poems and songs (and essays) shares some insights into the mind of the musical poet. His words are precise and to the point, exacting a clear image of life—his life and the lives he observes around him. It’s very thought provoking and demands the reader’s full attention to his sense of place and details. His discerning eye captures intense details of humanity, both in the home, in the workplace, and even on the streets. His words are culture, both spoken and sung, a sometimes raw look at the world around us, “and time well held is time well-heeled / and time is time alone” (“scansion inanimate”).