THE EARTH
by Francesca Del Moro
[the earth]
by Giampaolo De Pietro
[the earth]
orbiting
matter
- blow, blow -
if there wasn’t
[water]
it would be less
thick
and we Ring a Ring-o’Roses
of I am
with the steps and
a big sleep’s
thirst
all,
very
eternal,
flows.
[then, the story of breathe
and of no consequence]
- attheawakeningjustafterwardseachelementlands, and -
Giampaolo De Pietro
THE BOOKSHELF OF POETRY AT MILLELIBRI DI BARI
by Francesca Del Moro
Millelibri is a small bookshop specialised in poetry whose titles range from the latest issues by contemporary authors to books that are now hard to come by. On its shelves, ancient family bookcases, and on ancient bedside and chess tables lie new and second-hand books and other objects relating to the world of writing and to the lives of writers. Refusing to surrender to the fierce logic of the ‘latest issues’, Millelibri tries to host the whole catalogues of contemporary publishers specialized in poetry in order to illustrate their path, their program, their vision and its development over time. It is also available as a physical place where poets can meet an audience of enthusiasts and gain new readers. In addition to poetry, the bookshop offers a selection of second-hand, classic novels at affordable prices, choosing the best editions as for quality and conservation status.
For this ILLUSTRATI issue, the booksellers Serena Di Lecce and Grazia Galasso have chosen to recommend and comment Cenere, o terra by Fabio Pusterla and Madreterra Madreterna by Lino Angiuli.
Bookshop Millelibri - Via dei Mille 16 (BA) - facebook.com/libreriamillelibri
Cenere, o terra
by Fabio Pusterla
There remains ash, or clotted earth,
the high stone wall above the seas
shimmering in light
Invoking memory, evanescent but as strong as hope, Cenere, o terra (Ashes, or Earth) is the flight of a swallow entering a dream and recording what is left on earth. Its voice is a countermelody, its attitude is to listen. While air swirls, water swallows and fire burns bridges, earth is a quiet and horizontal spare space on which past and future cast their shadows. When a milder hour falls on things, it might happen that exactly that one ticket emerges from a pocket or among some finds from the past – both individual and collective – making everything seem “a joyful / sum of opportunities”. Waiting for the bud caught in a freeze-frame “almost standing wordless”, precariously on the verge between catastrophe and blooming; in the suspension of breath in a purgatorial air or in a sunset begging for a pause in a hectic time: it is here that all the beauty of Fabio Pusterla’s latest work is revealed. The poet and translator from Switzerland adds a new, precious and much needed title to Marcos y Marcos’ catalogue.
Cenere, o terra, Fabio Pusterla, Marcos y Marcos 2018
Madreterra Madreterna
by Lino Angiuli
There. A grounded silence
calls by nickname the good mistral
so that it opens its transparent curtains
Lino Angiuli’s love for the earth is no surprise. His love story with his land, the matria, has been going on for years. The texts collected in this beautiful book by Quorum Edizioni, with images by renowned photo-artists, are the result of an anthological selection made by Angiuli himself, one of the most prominent Apulian poets of his generation. If, on the one hand, the book shows the overview of a long career, it also gives readers who already love his work the opportunity to see it in a new light, sorted by theme and given a new meaning by a new context. This real-life Apulia greets its readers from inside its villages: postcards where sounds, colors, lights, smells and roughness stand out in a way that asks for the attention of all senses. But mother earth is above all a mother tongue that keeps on creating new words, with which to evoke, once and again, the wonder of the first gaze.
Madreterra Madreterna, Lino Angiuli, Quorum edizioni 2018