Whiskey's Road

Rich Magi, son of an Estonian immigrant father, writes frankly about the legacy of alcoholism he inherited from a family that never talked about its painful past - a grandmother who never calls ahead and comes on the night train, a father who seems not to notice his son, a mother who martyrs herself. He writes of drinking, his own despair and, in an ultimate burst of healing and hope, the end of a fifty-year addiction.

Rich Magi, the only son in a blue-collar Massachusetts family, writes frankly about the emotional realities of his life as a young boy in a family that never talked about its own painful past. He focuses particularly on his father, conjured in images of beer, anger, and the haunting sounds of an accordion, and both their descents into the despair of alcoholism. Throughout the poems, he chronicles his struggle to come to terms with his own past and accept the limitations of his family and his understanding of them. The chapbook is divided into three sections - Disconnections, Descent, and Dawn - that trace his fifty-year journey with addiction. Ultimately, he steps off Whiskey's Road and writes his way to freedom.

Rich Magi is a retired teacher and poet living at the Jersey Shore with his wife, Pam. His family is his pride and joy. When he's not writing, he's helping other travelers on Whiskey's Road.