[2] After graduating from high school, the poet delayed going to college and took a job in a factory winding resin tubes and in a residential treatment center working with emotionally disturbed adolescents.

Living in New York City, in part to keep in touch with the punk scene, he walked by the St. Mark's book store one day and his eye was caught by a reprinted version of BLAST, with its shocking pink and diagonal title.

[4] This was followed by "Artificial Heart", a collection which enhanced Gizzi's reputation as a lyric poet writing as a modern troubadour in a style which is allusive and oblique.

The title poem of this collection is "a sustained examination of the relationship between public and private spaces, as well as a complex reflection on war".

[8] Gizzi's collection, "Archeophonics", continued his investigation of language; the title of the book refers to the excavation of lost sounds analogous to the process of archeology.

[9] Critic James O'Connor maintains that in "Fierce Elegy "we find the poet writing at the height of his powers.

Gizzi has also held residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Foundation of French Literature at Royaumont, Un Bureau Sur L’Atlantique, and the Centre International de Poesie Marseille.