Poetry Rules

How sad to wake up to the news of Michel Butor 's death, this morning. I read the news on my friend, Daniele Ferroni's Facebook feed. Daniele had a special relationship with the French novelist and poet, certainly one of the most iconic figures of the Nouveau Roman . The two have been good friends for almost fifteen years and Daniele produced exquisite publications of the master's work. He was also so generous as to ask me to translate some of Butor's poems. A demanding task in many ways, because Butor would use the French language in a down-to-earth way but filled with poetical genius that made me strive a lot. I so hope to have done justice to his words. May his path be forever graceful now, as was his life.   Michel Butor                                                                   

A few days ago, John and I met Marco Cinque , my poetical brother, for lunch. Marco is not only an incredibly talented poet, he is an amazing photographer and musician. Jack Hirschman considers him Italy's best engaged poet and I thoroughly agree. I was so pleased to have him take pictures of John and me. Right in front of his office on a wall there is a message that says: "La poesia salverà il mondo" (i.e. Poetry Will Save the World). Marco insisted in taking a picture of us there, among others. I am in love with this photo. It tells so much. It means so much to me. I am posting that very picture and a few others Marco took on that day.

I know I lost track of my poetry in the past few months. Sometimes life seems to get in the way and there is very little I can do to stop it from interfering with writing. Summer is always the best season for me to reconnect with myself and to fill my notebooks with a good amount of poems and words. John is a good creative force and so is love. No wonder this August has put me back on track. I have been writing, reading, editing and submitting with renewed vigor. And then there is this beautiful demon named love and its siblings life and art. My tricephalic Muse, for which I am truly grateful. Bernini's Cerberus  

It seems I am writing poems again after being on a hiatus. I am not one of those writers/poets who sits at the desk and starts writing. I cannot force myself to write, if I do, I will end up writing a poem without "voice." I always "struggle" with my Muse. I realize many consider the Muse unnecessary to write. Many believe that writing comes from hard work only. True, but then I guess I must belong to a different breed of writers. I love the act of creation when it happens, but I also know that I can't open my notebook, stare at the blank page and fill it for the sake of filling it. Writing comes to me. It is a gift. Something triggers my imagination and words pour on the page.  And, I hardly ever edit my poems. When they come to me, they are "perfect." Or, so they seem to me. Humbert and Lolita made their appearance in the first poem I wrote a few days ago. I was thinking at how, as much as I love Nabokov , I detest his novel  Lolita . I must confes...

I was happy to receive an e-mail from NonBinary Review ' s Editors, Lise Quintana and Allie Marini , this week, informing me that my poem "Bound to Her Father's Spear Hurled Over the River's Current" was nominated for the Best of the Net Award! The poem appeared in Bullfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable 's issue published last Spring and it was inspired by the myth of Camilla, a woman warrior I am very fond of. I still own the book where I first read about her aged 8 or 9. You may admire this issue's amazing cover by  MANDEM  here below. And, you can get a free copy of the issue by downloading the Lithomobilus app for i-Phone or i-Pad. This is my second Best of the Net nomination. I was nominated by  Cease, Cows  two years ago for my poem " Baltic Dream with Dostoevsky ." I am very pleased to be nominated again. For a Pushcart nomination there is still hope, I guess! ;)

April is here to stay and you should really do something poetic this month whether you are a Poet or not. Here is a few ideas of how you might celebrate poetry for the coming 30 days:  1. Read a poem a day  2. Write a poem a day (if you need prompts, you may enjoy Kelli Agodon 's  here )  3. Listen to poets read their poems (try YouTube, I am suggesting one I love here )  4. Watch a movie or docu-movie about a poet ( Bright Star , Sylvia , etc. My suggestion here )  5. Attend a reading  6. Take part in a reading  7. Record some poems to send to your family or friends  8. Buy a poetry collection, or more (choose indie bookstores whenever you can!)  9. Take poetry to work (delight your colleagues!) 10. Buy some chalk and write your lines in the streets (be a street poet!) 11. Leave some poems in a cafe for others to read 12. Buy a poetry journal 13. Suscribe to a poetry journal 14. Write a letter or an e-mail to a poet you ...

Favorite Bedtime Stories by John Fitzgerald (Salmon Poetry, 2014) is a book of poetry that grabs the reader with the sinuosity of a leopard. It has a subtle way of penetrating in the pores and, much like the poet himself states, “I am poet and cannot explain” what makes this “voice like dirt” so intoxicating. “Where I am men hide , ” seems to me the perfect key to understanding the subtleness at play. And no, it’s not up a tree with the leopard, but in the leaf that we are turning, in the traces Fitzgerald so skillfully disseminates along the pages. “I am coiner of words , ” he says, and of tales I shall add. Reading this collection one moves swiftly from apes and wild beasts, to the fifteen poems of The Charter of Effects , an almost philosophical journey in the footsteps of a poet named Likeness (or the Likeness of the Universe) whose Muses are in no way ordinary: Presence is the muse who says she is this very moment. Every night I close the blinds she every m...

If I look at my poetry accomplishments, it seems 2015  has started incredibly well. I have had 4 poems accepted for publication in Menacing Hedge and 2 poems accepted in  The Más Tequila Review . My heartfelt thanks to editors Kelly Boyker and Richard Vargas. I also received feedback from Kristy Bowen that my fifth chapbook, "Love and Other Demons," will be published by {dancing girl press & studio} next year. I am so happy to have a second chapbook published by dgp after Diagnosis , which has been released just 2 weeks ago. Thank you to all of you who have purchased it already. I hope some more of you will follow the hare in this Plath-inspired chapbook. My translations into English of a selection of poems by my fellow RBP poet Marco Cinque has just been published by CC.Marimbo Press in California. The book's title is At the Top of My Voice . The New Anthology of American Poets that I have edited and translated should be released by February, or anytime soon. I h...

I love receiving books for Christmas. Not just poetry books. I like novels, as well. I will attempt to give a few suggestions based on my personal experience. Whatever you choose for your family and friends, may it be something you love. I hardly ever buy books I have not read (or that I would not want to read) as gifts. Also, choose indie whenever you can!          1.   Support small presses! Here are a few worth picking one or more books from: Two Sylvias Press   http://twosylviaspress.com/ Dancing Girl Press  http://www.dancinggirlpress.com/ Blood Pudding Press https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress Hyacinth Girl Press http://hyacinthgirlpress.com/ Sundress Publications https://squareup.com/market/sundress-publications Misty Publications http://www.mistypublications.com/ 2. Support women writers ! A few suggestions when it comes to poetry. Some books I have  read or reviewed this year and that I truly love: ...

Today I woke up to a new copy of They Talk About Death chapbook sold. I am sure I owe the sale to the recent, beautiful review by lovely poet Sandra Marchetti appeared in the amazing Fall 2014 edition of Menacing Hedge . Fall is coming and some projects are drawing to a close. I have completed the translations of Paper Offerings by Alejandro Murguía , current SF Poet Laureate, and I have translated and edited  A New Anthology of American Poets . Both should be published by the end of the year. I am also translating the Poet for a new publication and, last but not least, I have asked 16 contemporary women poets to allow me to translate their poems for an Italian magazine I collaborate with. I plan to complete these translations by December. With the new year I have decided to put poetry translation projects on hiatus, in order to concentrate solely on the Poet's biography. I want to complete it by next year, as earliest as possible. And then there is my poetry. Right no...

I am writing again. I am so grateful the Muses are being kind with me. I have just completed a new chapbook and I am also working on new poems. Jack's biography is moving forward as well. It seems I just needed a break from a very, very heavy year. I have been feeding my soul with lots of books, movies and art, lately. I have met and friended many wonderful poets--Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion of 100 Thousand Poets for Change among them. There have been poetry readings. There will be more shortly. As I wait for John to be back in Rome in July, I can say life is good. Poetry too. The lavender is blooming at last. Summer is here to stay!

I have always smiled at the expression "writer's block," possibly because it is not  something I had to face in any serious way before. I thought writing would always flow naturally from my head and pen. But, in the past few weeks, it seems I am unable to write. Whatever poem I end up writing makes me shake my head. It seems I am wasting paper, time, energy and words. I know fighting it is possibly not the best cure and I wonder if there is a cure. So, if you happen to read this and you have a suggestion, please send it my way! Whatever works for somebody may not work for everyone, but I'd be happy to try. I want to #poem  for real, again. Thanks!

I have always been fascinated by Plath's bee poems, the culminating section of Ariel . They are haunting. The poems date back to the Fall of 1962, just a few months before she committed suicide. Despite the idyllic setting of Court Green in Devon where she was writing them, these poems set the tone of her "breakdown" and they also mark the incipient end of her relationship with Ted Hughes . As she writes in her diary, on October 9, 1962: "Everything is breaking: my dinner set is breaking in half, the health inspector says the cottage should be demolished. There is no hope for it. Even my beloved bees set upon me today when I numbly knocked aside their sugar feeder, and I am all over sting..." I have reread Sylvia's bee poems several times in the past few days and I am captured by their imagery, by the powerful metaphor of how painful the poetry craft can be. Muse bring me a sting, I shall write... Justin Fitzpatrick, The Arrival of the Bee Box 

This has been a busy poetic week in so many ways. I have been writing the biography each and every day, some days adding just a few hundred words, some other up to a thousand. I don't mind the uneven pace--as it pretty much depends from my daily work schedule--but it is very important for me to keep the wip rolling. This morning I have finished tweaking the review I wrote for a really beautiful chapbook. And, I truly hope to find a home for it soon. I feel this work will stay with me for a long time. I love it when poetry touches me this way. I have also finished translating the last poem in the poetry manuscript of a SF poet that is due to be published here in Italy in the coming Fall. The poet and I are very happy regarding this collaboration. Last, but not least, I have also translated 2 poems from French by Michel Butor that are a thing of Beauty. Butor is such a exquisite poet. It is a joy to be able to translate him into Italian. And, I should not fail to mention th...

I will write everywhere and anywhere, but if I am in a writing mood and I have a choice I will usually head to write en plein air . Much like the Impressionists painted, I love to find myself amidst nature and Beauty. Living in the Eternal city is indeed a privilege. Even from my home in the countryside, I am just a few miles away from exceptional beauties. The Appian Way is indeed one of my favorite places. The area is blessed with so many ruins and surrounded by an amazing rural setting that it is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. Sitting close to the old monuments, enjoying the chirping of the birds, spotting the occasional rabbit, fox or hoopoe on a spring day inspires me in ways I cannot properly describe. I was there yesterday in the late afternoon and, as I took a break from my writing, I also took some pictures at dusk. I hope they convey how breathtaking the Appian Way is.

I am so happy to announce that John Claude has a new upcoming book,  Autumn in the Abyss, published by Omnium Gatherum .   Among my friends I have many poets and poetry lovers and I cannot recommend this book enough to you since the novella--that gives the book its title--deals with poetry. John wrote the novella in Rome a couple of summers ago. One day I was reading to him about the mysterious disappearance into the woods of poet Lew Welch in 1971. This  triggered John to write what I truly consider one of his best works. I am posting the blurb from the book here below, as well as its cover: "When enigmatic poet Henry Coronado disappears six months after the New Year's Eve, 1959, Welcoming Chaos event, he takes with him a profound secret wrapped within the words of his poem, Autumn in the Abyss. Fifty years later, an ill man's research into Coronado's work and life reveals that poetry can indeed change the world, or leave it in ruins. The Word is a living thi...

Does poetry need labels? I have been thinking a lot about this topic lately. I am part of a group of poets known as the Revolutionary Poets Brigade. We write poems that are not  meant for old, dusty, elitarian parlors on topics dealing with social themes--such as injustice, labor, etc.--and that are closer to people and their struggle. This said, I know that as much as the social aspect of poetry has a deep resonance for me, I also know that there is another aspect of poetry that truly grabs me. It's the "me, myself and I." It's talking about oneself, about one's body, one's feelings without hindrance or fear. I know some people and poets detest confessional poetry , but it is really the poetry I consider closest to my spirit. Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath 's poems have played a key role in making me love this form of poetry, making me always more aware of how poetry can deal with love, death, suicide, sex, abuse, but also menstruation at 40. Why should ...

I like how art inspires my writing all the time. Yesterday it was  Frida Kahlo 's turn, again. I have always been a fan of etymology and cannot but smile when I think that the word inspiration does indeed have the same root as the words inhale, breathe. This amazing work by Kate D. McDowell  nails down my concept of inspiration! Kate D. McDowell, "Canary 3"

I have had a few very productive days and I am quite happy with the two latest poems I have written. I am always fascinated by how my imagination works. I often read something that touches me which becomes a trigger for words. It happened with two articles that I have read just a few days ago. The former focusses on a dream Roberto Bolaño had at the time he was imprisoned in 1973. A curious dream. In my poem the dream turns into an object. A real object belonging to Bolaño that lead me on an unexpected journey. The latter deals with a disputed work by Jackson Pollock . The poem I wrote is a love ride that reminds me of one of J.G. Ballard 's novels.  I love it when poetry rules! Ruth Kligman & Jackson Pollock Roberto Bolaño in Chile (circa 1970)

I have spent a few days at Laugharne's Boathouse  lately. No, I haven't been there in person. I have only allowed myself to surf online and read more about a place that was so significant to one of the poets I love most. Thomas spent there his last few years before dying in NY after having gotten roaring drunk at the White Horse tavern . His writing shed was perhaps the place I concentrated most on. A place I would so love to visit sooner or later. Needless to say that all this fueled my imagination and that I ended writing a poem. Dylan Thomas has also made it into the biography I am writing. It's all about how the Poet met the Überpoet. But this is a whole diffferent story! Dylan Thomas' Boathouse                             The Shed                                               ...