Poetry Rules

So April is Poetry Month and though it is now coming to a close I think I celebrated in the best way, so far.  I have attended Patti Smith's The Poet Speaks , her Tribute to Ginsberg's poetry. I have even managed to hand her--via her daughter Jesse--a copy of my chapbook Nocturne (PulcinoEdizioni 2013) that is dedicated to her. Not to mention the surreal and almost poetic conversation after she left the stage door. I have heard Patti play the best version live ever of "Beneath the Southern Cross" and I have heard her talk about poetry like only a poet can do. Her advice was superb. I have written a few poems I am quite proud of. Long live Poetry! Long Live Patti! Patti (copyright Luigi Orru) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CEbAf-EHQ0

Tina Modotti 's exhibit at the Auditorium could not have been a more poetic event, given the poem by Pablo Neruda  decorating a wall of the hall and dedicated to the famous revolutionary photographer and written upon her (still mysterious) death in 1942. Tina did not want to be considered an artist but just a photographer and yet, her stills are so much more than photographs. Her black and white works are imbued with life, work, poverty, politics and truth. Vivid, raw and extraordinarily beautiful. A passionate civil canto in pictures, full of her fire and her brave heart.