Peter Alevizos

I like to say I’m not a poet.

But I am.

I write poems -- sitting in my car or walking on the beach, or when I wake up. Or, I may write them while enjoying a few glasses of Scotch. I write them because something in me makes me do so. As you read them, I hope you can feel them, that they have meaning for you, and that you can relate to them and their message.

But I’m not just a poet. I’m also a businessman. I graduated from Harvard, attended Wharton where I obtained my MBA, spent five years at Goldman Sachs, and finally moved to Hawaii and built Kauai Village Shopping Center. That set the stage for a productive career in real estate development, acquisition and finance in Florida and Massachusetts.

So, how did a man focussed on facts, figures, and deals become a poet? No one taught me how to write poetry. I started writing poems as an undergrad as a way of expressing my thoughts and feelings. If it was in my heart and mind, I let it spill out. Line followed line, without thinking, without structure, without planning, but when I was done, I had what appeared to be a poem.

In 2023, after a long hiatus, I began writing poems again. They flowed – faster and faster. I was expressing myself through an artistic outlet, feeling a creative spirit inside me that I was compelled to follow. Writing poems gave me a new version of who I was and what I could do. It also became a purpose or calling to follow and enjoy.

Writing poetry is a release and an outflowing of what I observe and feel, including many of my thoughts, wonderings, and conclusions about life. They are all from the heart, but some relate more intimately to my feelings of love and concerns about family, myself, and the world around us. I write what I observe, feel, and think as openly as I know how.

I want my reader to be able to easily grasp what I write. When I am inspired by what I observe in the physical world, I try to paint it, with words rather than brushstrokes on canvas. I have also written during times of emotional upheaval. In these poems, I share honest feelings by observing myself and matching my words to the emotions as truthfully as I can.

I’m still an active businessman, and a devoted father, and grandfather, but maybe I’m also a poet. Just maybe, you can be both at the same time.