Poetry Rules

I was recently talking with a friend about contemporary Italian women poets. We both love Amelia Rosselli , but Patrizia Valduga and Alda Merini  have a special place in my pantheon. I know my friend is probably shaking her head at this point, since she does not love Merini. But, it cannot be helped! I checked whether Poetry Magazine has a page doveted to her. And, I was glad to find her there even if her poems are spare and not among her most relevant. I wrote the magazine a polite note too since her bio is not updated. She passed away 3 years ago. Maybe it's time for an update. Merini's life was characterized by hardship and great suffering. She got married very young and had 4 kids. Since--out of rage--she had raised a chair against her husband one day, she was sent to an asylum. Being perfectly sane, she wrote wherever and however she could and this prevented her from becoming mad. She had to undergo electroshock treatment too (as other famous writers: i.e. Sylvia Pla...

Yes. I will confess it. I am busy working on Jack's bio, but I have also started writing a new poetry collection. I had lunch with my fellow poet and friend Marco last Friday and we ended up talking about Pasolini. Then, after lunch and on my way home, I could not help stopping by one of my favorite spots here in Rome. And, I found myself treading in Pasolini's very footsteps. One of his poems kept resonating in my head. The place is so amazingly inspiring, that I ended up sitting on a bench on the lawn in the shade. I had my pad with me and, as I sat there, a 3 years old boy and a blackbird inspired a line. I wrote it down. It is a powerful line.

It was simply great having Jack in Rome! The reading at the Circolo degli Artisti on the 17th and the one at Chiccen on the 18th were a great opportunity to catch up and touch base. Even more important was the dinner we had at Olga and Ludo's place on the 19th. Olga kindly lent me a notebook that I filled with notes. This time I did not record the interview--as I had done in Bologna last year--but I took an impressive number of notes. Jack enjoys talking about his past and so the conversation spanned from his childhood to the present day. I received plenty of feedback on his early girlfriend who introduced him to poetry, on living in the Bronx, recollections of his mother, amusing episodes concerning his grandparents, how he got to send a short story to Hemingway and the letter that the novelist had sent to him as a reply. I even brought him a perfectly legible copy of that same letter that I received from the University of Indiana, together with a copy of the reply letter he had r...

SF poet laureate Jack Hirschman and Rome's Revolutionary Poets Brigade --i.e. Marco Cinque, Alessandra Bava, Olga Campofreda, Marco Lupo, Angelo Zabaglio/Andrea Coffami, Ludovica Lanini, Mariano Macale, Fabio Apperito & Marco De Cave--will be reading at the Circolo degli Artisti here in Rome next Thursday, May 17th. Mark the date. The Brigade will also be presenting their first Anthology published by Edizioni Ensemble , that I've edited and translated. We promise poetry will be incendiary! See you there. Segnate la data sull'agenda. Giovedì 17 maggio, il poeta laureato di San Francisco, Jack Hirschman , e la  Rome's Revolutionary Poets Brigade (ovvero Marco Cinque, Alessandra Bava, Olga Campofreda, Marco Lupo, Angelo Zabaglio/Andrea Coffami, Ludovica Lanini, Mariano Macale, Fabio Apperito & Marco De Cave) terranno un reading al Circolo degli Artisti in Via Casilina Vecchia 42. La Brigade presenterà anche la sua prima Antologia poetica, pubblicata da Edizio...

I have spent the morning rereading two poetry chapbooks. There is so much to learn from one's peers. Andalucia  by Lisa Marie Basile is such an exquisite book made of the same stuff as fire is made of. An incandescent gem that really makes me hold my breath at times: " To etch the entire Iberian Peninsula into my skin,/the bouganvillas, the little bloody tapas:/finger tips and femurs and cracked mirrors. To live/ on the seaside with gluttony and lust as lovers./To wear myself like a cloak with a human head and/ jaguar spine. To sail forever never finding land. "  This chapbook is a marvelous journey in a foreign land and into the inner world of the poet. Lisa knows how to chisel words and have them convey pure emotion. I want to read more of her works, soon. Paulina Spiechowicz was born in Krakov (Poland), but has lived and studied in Italy and now in Paris. She writes in Italian and has a great command of the language. Her writing is mesmerizing and dense. Her bo...

The poetry I love has to be potent. Words in poems need to resonate in my head and in my soul. Those very words need not to be adorned, but they have to be made of flesh and bone, of blood and marrow. Those words (and poems) only will be able to convey emotions in a way that make me feel them. The poetry I heartily dislike is the poetry that is fakely true: words woven with artifice, beautiful words put together with some sort of taste, but plainly soulless. Some days ago I was listening to a poet--who also happens to be the editor of a poetry magazine--reading some poems. And, I could not help thinking that she sounded so amazingly artificial. That is why I pretty much wrote a status line on FB that said: "Nobody read their poetry as if they were Anne Sexton , please and thank you!" One of my friends  remarked: "And please, nobody write their poetry as if they were Sylvia Plath ." I cannot but agree: either you have a voice or you have not. I may not be the best p...

Art has inspired a lot of lines lately. Chagall, Caravaggio, Carrington are just a few painters on whose works I wrote some poems in the past few days. I woke up to Van Gogh's Chair this morning. I don't even know what inspired the thought, but I felt compelled to write a poem in its honor. I like the way objects can drive emotions. I like when I can breathe some life into them. I swear, I love the way my Muse incites me to write some days!