Published: February 24, 2008 12:38 am      

PUBLISHING: Kenmore native is a poet and entrepreneur

KENMORE — If you’re a poet, you have to be observant.

There are observations galore when 38 year-old Kenmore poet, publisher and literary entrepreneur Geoffrey Gatza begins talking. He operates what is known as a “literary press” dubbed BlazeVox Books, which has a mission of publishing local poets, including his own work, and broadcasting to the world that the Buffalo area is rife with talent.

“Buffalo, it’s one of the best cities for poetry,” he says of the region’s thriving literary culture. His publishing enterprise, which takes great advantage of the Internet, modern print-on-demand technology and the sales power of Amazon.com, has made 70 books available since 2001. There are also two BlazeVox Web sites offering made-in-Buffalo poetry for sale, with a section called “Mobilis in mobili” (from Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo, “moving in a moving thing”), the equivalent of a free literary download.

The rarefied world of modern poetry has taken notice of Gatza’s radical methods for putting poems in the hands and minds of readers. He recently was awarded a grant from the respected national organization Fund for Poetry, and attended the Associated Writing Programs conference, a poetry publishing convention of sorts, in New York City.

How does a long-time Kenmore kid become a player in such an exotic milieu?

“I got the best education I could get,” he said of his upbringing. Gatza is a product of Kenmore’s Jane Addams School, Lindbergh School, Kenmore Middle School, and Kenmore West High School.

“I had terrific teachers,

wonderful teachers. One teacher wore Opium (perfume). I can smell it today. I still remember it, and I was 7 years old.”

This is a poet at work. In the space of a brief conversation, he can comment on the poetry business, make cogent observations about professional football, and quote chapter and verse of the Bible.

His resume also includes fighting in the Desert Storm war as a Marine (“We had a clear purpose for being there. I lost a friend of mine, from Kenmore.”), and the Culinary Institute of America, the prestigious cooking college in Hyde Park, New York. After working in New York City restaurants, he returned home to work as a sous chef in the kitchen of The Mansion, the Delaware Avenue hotel.

Studying accounting at Daemen College, Gatza took a literature course, and the orbit of his life changed. He fell in love with poetry, and helped found the extracurricular “Step Journal” at Daeman. “It became the template for BlazeVox,” he said.

He is back in Kenmore, running his empire and enjoying the way his life has turned.

“Kenmore is great. We needed to make a 911 call once, and they responded within 10 minutes. The parks are clean, exceptional. I wrote a poem that begins ‘Why do I feel this way? I joined the Marines to get out of here.’ Kenmore is a place where municipality works wonderfully,” he said.

He is similarly methodical when explaining his interest not only in poetry but in the business of distributing poetry.

“It’s this process of living through things. You can’t help yourself from learning. People automatically say ‘I don’t like it.’ I’ve seen war, among other things, and I’m not one to immediately say no.”

Of his newest collection, “Not So Fast, Robespierre,” he mentions “the real human moments. You get to a point where things just happen, so you try to write them down.” The book is a compilation of short, high-impact poems about Gatza’s friends, and places in Western New York.

He is grateful for his teachers, very aware of the connections, Internet and otherwise, of the poetry world, and frighteningly articulate, in print and in person. Local writer Kevin Thurston has referred to Gatza as “Buffalo’s Johnny Appleseed of publishing,” and BlazeVox is definitely bearing a harvest.

Ed Adamczyk is a contributing writer for the Tonawanda News who lives

in Kenmore. Contact him at edinkenmore@gmail.com.