This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

Belleville in Verse

In Honor of National Poetry Month, We Speak with Anthony Buccino

How patient you were
as you watched me play
with my plastic men
on the carpet strewn
with dead soldiers,

Thus starts “Old Man”, Anthony Buccino’s poem in which he comes to terms with what it must have been like for his father, a World War II veteran, watching his son play war games as a young boy.  Buccino, who grew up in Belleville, uses his poetry both as a way of understanding his past as well as to ponder the infinite curiosities of everyday living.

Buccino worked on the school paper throughout high school, and wrote rock n’ roll reviews in the 70’s, but after he got married, his writing went into dormancy for the next twenty years.  It wasn’t until he started a job in Jersey City about 10 years ago that inspiration drew him to write again.  As he ate his lunch outside by the waterfront, he wrote what would eventually become the poetry collection, One Morning in Jersey City.

His second collection, Voices from the Bus, deals with commuting from New Jersey.  Buccino says his daily commute provided him with the time and material for contemplation, “I ride the PATH… and I look out at the Meadowlands and you see the trains going two miles away and you say where are those people going and who are they?”  Buccino answered these questions by putting his musings into a book of poetry.

This same innate curiosity led him to create two special books.  When the town of Nutley refurbished their World War II memorial, Buccino attended the ceremony.  As he looked out at the plaques with the names of the young men who had lost their lives in the war, he was struck by the question, “Who are these guys?”  This single question led to a tremendous amount of research, and to the creation of two books Sons Honor Roll, first for Nutley where he lived and then for Belleville where he had been raised.  The work he put into these books resulted in an outpouring of stories from local residents who had personally known the veterans, and also to the completion of a monument in Belleville.  Buccino says of his experience, “It really struck me the power of one person just with a few words”.  After publishing Honor Roll, the war memorial on Union Ave, which had stood blank for 60 years, was filled in with the names of the soldiers honored in the book.

It is apparent how important Belleville is to Buccino and his writing.  Much of his work deals with the past and the places he grew up in as a child.  In reflecting on the role Belleville plays in his writing, Buccino says, “When you see the condos going up in the field that you played in, you remember a lot more about those games”.  In Yountakah Country, where he directly deals with the history of the area and in American Boy: Pushing 60 where Buccino explores his journey from childhood to manhood, Belleville is more than a backdrop – it is a constant character in Buccino’s writing.

 Anthony Buccinohas published twelve books including six full-length poetry collections. His poem At The Vet, which appeared in Volume 55 of U.S. 1 Worksheets, is nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010. Two of his poems have earned Honorable Mention in the annual Allen Ginsberg Awards. Visit http://www.oldbelleville.org/BuccinoBelleville.pdf to see some of Buccino's work in a local, historical context. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?