Poetry Rules

Last Monday morning I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Angela Davis on "The Meaning of White Supremacy Today" at Rome's Tre University. The lecture theater was amazingly crowded and a standing ovation with raised fists greeted her arrival. Having written my dissertation on an Afro-American author,  I could not help being there. Davis is a legend in so many ways. The ongoing call she made for socialism, intersectional struggles, and global citizenship warmed my heart. Somebody posted a few clips from her lecture on YouTube. Enjoy! 

I've always loved photography. As a kid, my dad taught me to use his manual camera and he was very good at explaining all the technical aspects of how it works, but I was never fascinated by the physics behind it. I didn't want to master the camera, I rather used it to capture fleeing moments. I consider myself an amateur, but I do enjoy taking pictures. I'm fascinated by light and color, by the poetry cocooned in a statue, a flower, a landscape. There are places I visit over and over again and they never tire me because they show me what I love most from different angles, colors, light. I guess I totally share Diane Arbus's though when she says: "A picture is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."

Some claim poetry is a muscle that should be exercised on a daily basis. Some poets write every single day of their life. Even my poetry guru does. As much as I admire poets who can achieve this goal, I know it is something that does not work for me and it never will. Inspiration is the key to writing poetry for me. Something must turn me on. When that happens poetry flows and there is no stopping it.

Sometimes I look at the amount of rejections I receive and wonder. Whenever I submit "weaker" poems, I expect rejections to start flowing in my inbox. But, if one of  my poems I consider among my best takes 25 rejections before it is accepted, I question many things. Perhaps I should stop questioning too much and move forward, which is what I plan to do. Reaction to rejections from now are likely going to be: 1. Wear a new stripe of determination (as my beloved Queen Kate Laity suggests) 2. Submit the rejected poems to another journal within the following 24 hours 3. Stop asking myself why!

As this year draws to its end, I look back at this year's achievements and I cannot but be grateful. The year started with the publication of my second American chapbook, Diagnosis , by Kristy Bowen and her magical dancing girl press . This spring my translations of Alejandro Murguia's poems,   Offerte di Carta (Paper Offerings) was published by Gilgamesh Edizioni. Another book in translation I am very proud of  Nuova Antologia di Poesia Americana (New Anthology of American Poetry), was published by Edizioni Ensemble. My poems "Crave What Matters" and "Lullaby (for Philip Levine)" have been published in the Anthology Ovethrowing Capitalism Vol. 2 edited by Jack Hirschman and John Curl. I wish to thank all the Editors who have accepted my poems for publication in their journals: Thank you to Kelly Boyker Guillemette for having accepted for publication four of my poems in the Spring issue of the amazing  Menacing Hedge .  Two of the poems, "Unfa...

I have been writing a few confessional poems lately. It has not been easy. I guess the reasons are at least a couple. The first one is that I find it difficult to talk about myself. But, I also feel that I have reached an age where I can more easily deal with sides of my past that have left a scar. The second reason is that most of the times I end up writing confessional poems as prose poems . I think I am still mastering the art and do not feel always very comfortable with it. This must also be the reason why I choose it. The topics are uncomfortable, and so must be my writing. If most of the times I write a poem on the spur of the moment, with little if no editing at all, writing a prose poem becomes a real task. I write many drafts. I cut out so much of what I wrote initially and yet these poems end up being much, much longer than my non-prose poems.  I have just finshed writing a poem called Unter den Linden , as the name of the Avenue leading to the Brandenburg Gate...

Long-distance relationships require a lot of patience and love. This is what I tell myself every time John flies back to the States. It is hard and I feel pretty much like Demeter who has to let Persephone head back to Hades. Well California is not exactly Hades, but I hope to have conveyed the message. I am ready to keep myself as busy as I can till next summer. It won't be hard this year. I am currently managing Pandemonium (aka as my translation agency) all by myself since the month of September. It is hard and engaging, but a beautiful endeavor as always. I am also resuming my work on the WIPs. And, getting ready for more reading too. I have a pile of TBR books and two brand new additions I bought in the past few days that I simply cannot wait to read: Toni Morrison' s latest novel, God Help the Child , and Patti Smith 's M-Train . And so, John has just left Rome. Jack is in Italy, but not heading to Rome this year. Alas, fall does not tread lightly. Let the winter...