La mia poesia "Una soluzione geniale" su "Versante Ripido"

La mia poesia "Una soluzione geniale", una delle opere selezionate per il concorso "COMUNItariSMO – pensare è oltrepassare", è stata pubblicata sul n. 9 (Dicembre) della rivista  Versante Ripido. apsv

 
... Leggi "Una soluzione 

geniale" e tutte le altre...



... Leggi tutta la rivista,
le poesie vincitrici
e tante altre ...

Il mio racconto "Termini, ultima meta" su IGEA NEWS

Il mio racconto "Termini, ultima meta", vincitore del terzo premio del concorso "In poche parole", è stato pubblicato sull'ultimo numero (ottobre-novembre 2016) del giornale romano IGEA News. apsv



"In serata sul 90, di ritorno a Termini, solita meta. Toni arancioni e rosa navigano nei finestrini; guardi i passeggeri inerti, demotivati ... "

.... Continua a leggere il racconto ... 

(lo trovi a pag.9)

My Poem "A Leviathan, In The End" In Peculiar Mormyrid 4

Yesterday another supreme example of subversive creature finally made it to the shore of this unreal world. It is the fourth one and its name is Peculiar Mormyrid. ssp

As the editors point out, "this issue presents the results of a submarine inquiry in which surrealists from around the world attempt to reclaim the sea from capitalist exploitation and, in-tandem with global warming and rising water levels, re-colonize the land with aquatic forms of being".

My modest contribution to its marvelous motley apparel is a poem in English and French, 'a leviathan, in the end' or 'un léviathan, à la fin' and a drawing, 'La mer'.

Now dive into its depths:

PDF version

Print version 

'A leviathan, in the end'

Recensione: " TRUMPED. Distopie prossime venture "

IL MURO DEL FATO di Luigi Pellini

Un'umanità sbandata si abbandona alla violenza in attesa di Trump (non il Donald, non dico di più per non rovinare l'effetto sorpresa). Stile ricercato e ruvido al tempo stesso. Molto efficaci alcune metafore e similitudini, eccessive e fuori luogo altre: l'abuso rischia di disturbare la lettura ed annullare la tensione narrativa. Un buon racconto a cui però avrebbe giovato un lavoro di rifinitura.

GESTIONE DEL DISSENSO di Rubrus

Un manipolo di eletti forgia la volontà del popolo (del web), che si tratti di Trump o di batteri plasticofagi. Breve ma brillante, dalla dizione sincopata e frenetica come la realtà che racconta. Punteggiatura da sistemare in qualche periodo.

MISS AMERICA di Luigi Lo Forti

Un agente della sicurezza di origini messicane è chiamato a scegliere tra il bene del Presidente e quello della nazione. Idea semplice ma buona, la narrazione si regge perlopiù sulla conversazione tra i due protagonisti. Riuscitissimo il finale sospeso.

AMALABOMBA di Marco Donna

Per scongiurare l'avanzata dell'opposizione filoislamica, Trump, presidente di un paese allo stremo, decide di ricorrere all'arma finale. Uno dei miei preferiti, stilisticamente pulito e ricco di accenti satirici e grotteschi oltre che di vari riferimenti intertestuali. Assolutamente credibile l'idioletto di Trump.

UN CASO D'OMONIMIA di Cristina Falzolgher

Mentre la Cina e i nuovi sfavillanti Stati Uniti post-Trump si spartiscono il mondo, Matteo, un immigrato italiano, si prepara a un estenuante colloquio. Scrittura elegante che mescola formalità e quotidiano. Ho apprezzato l'idea di guardare agli USA in un'ottica 'italiana' e di parlare (anche) del nostro paese.

IN CERTI CASI È MEGLIO ESSERE ATEI di Valentino Peyrano

Un'alleanza inedita con la Russia getta un'ombra sul mondo intero, ma il castigo divino non è un concetto esclusivamente cristiano. Molti spunti interessanti per una carrellata di presagi. Qualche errore ortografico da correggere.

EL MURO di Davide Schito

Un passaggio segreto è l'ultima speranza di due fratelli messicani. Cosa potrebbe andare storto? Tutto. Forse il racconto che più si concentra sulle conseguenze di un'eventuale vittoria trumpiana coniugando orrore e normalità. Scrittura priva di sbavature ed efficace, anche se forse qualche dialogo poteva essere asciugato.

COSA SI ASPETTAVANO QUESTI GENI? di Fabio Fracas

Una giornalista ex-soldatessa e la cronaca del fallimento del progetto trumpiano di separare uomini e donne nelle Forze Armate. Accattivanti la resa dei siparietti e la rappresentazione del febbrile mondo giornalistico statunitense. Tanti colpi di scena e non poca inquietudine. Peccato per quell'irritante virgola posta troppe volte tra soggetto e verbo.

TRUMPLAND di Claudio Bovino

Trump ha vinto le elezioni, ma è solo una Stonatura nella tempo-sfera che il Primo Accordatore dovrà sistemare. Creativo e frizzante sia nel lessico che nella trama, con elementi più propriamente sci-fi/fantasy rispetto ai racconti precedenti. Invenzione non poco suggestiva la DTPD. Molto bello anche il finale.

TU LO CONOSCI TRUMP? di Luigi Pellini

Cinque personaggi aspettano di poter parlare con Trump all'American Dream Hotel (nomen omen!). Un po' stephenkingiano, combina in maniera eccezionale ironia e dramma e si legge davvero con gusto. Rispetto all'altro racconto dello stesso autore, dove pure una serie di interrogativi venivano ripetuti per creare una certa coesione narrativa, mi pare che qui la ripetizione della domanda funzioni molto meglio. Difetto comune l'eccessivo ricorso a metafore (non quelle della trama): se alcune risultano poetiche, altre mi lasciano perplesso.

LA TERRA DEI LIBERI di Luigi Lo Forti

Accoppare Trump perché altro modo non c'è. Praticamente una riscrittura/rielaborazione dell'altro suo racconto: la donna misteriosa è accompagnata dagli stessi profumi di Miss America più su, è lo stesso personaggio. Lui è diverso, ma anche molto simile. Anche qui finale sospeso, ma le intenzioni sono ben più chiare.

Giudizio complessivo

Encomiabili e curiosi alcuni racconti, buoni ma con meno verve altri. Non ci sono strafalcioni, ma personalmente avrei apprezzato una cura maggiore nell'editing.

Voto: 3,5 /5

Incuriosito dalla mia recensione? Puoi acquistarlo qui.

***

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English Version Of My Poem "Medea" in Fine Flu Journal

The fourth issue of Fine Flu Journal, committed
to publishing fiction, poetry and photography,  is out!
I am very happy to announce that it features the English version (my own translation) of my poem
"Medea". ssp


Read "Medea" in English

Read the whole issue (highly recommended)

My Humble Contribution To A Storehouse Full Of Athletes

 

It all started with some old pics that Steven Cline had gathered. ssp

Go and see how it ended up.

A Storehouse Full of Athletes

With the participation of Stephen Kirin, Karl Howeth, Jason Abdelhadi, Casi Cline, yours truly, Maria Brothers, Dale Houstman, and Craig S Wilson.

My Short Piece "Bulb(e)'s Girlfriend" For A Bulb-Themed Association Game

Of late I took part in a word association game launched by the surrealist journal Peculiar Mormyrid.They were "looking for text, visuals, audio, and video submissions". The word was 'BULB'. ssp

I wrote a short piece whose title parodies the Italian novel La ragazza di Bube (Bube's girlfriend) by Cassola and whose plot is a travesty of my vague memories of Bubu de Montparnasse. Yes, I don't know what I was thinking. All misconceptions and imprecisions are well intended.

 O thou, look and be amazed!

... 

My Short Story "Red-Penning Slips" in Peculiar Mormyrid #3

I am very excited and not a little proud to announce that the third issue of the fantabolous surrealist journal Peculiar Mormyrid is now available both online and as a hard copy.   ssp

It features the literary and visual works of no less than 61 people from 15 different countries, including a specific section dedicated to the bemourned French artist and writer André Breton on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death.

This issue contains my short story Red-Penning Slips and two pieces homaging Breton, a poem simply entitled To Breton and a partly unfaithful visual rendition of his dream-like La femme à la chevelure de feu de bois.

Here is a passage from Red-Penning Slips:

The day after I ask L out again.
“How about going to the cinema tonight?”
“Sorry, I’m busy tonight. I have to clean my ears.”
“Wednesday night?”
“I’ll have to listen to my mobile ringtone.”
I decide to try a different approach.
“What about the new Dupobs album? They’re so beyond.”
“Who the fuck are they supposed to be?”
After work, both because today is my birthday and because I feel particularly depressed, I decide to buy me a gift and purchase a human being steak at the delicatessen. On my way home I eagerly anticipate the moment when I’ll sink my teeth into that dainty flesh and I feel unusually euphoric ...

Read the whole story

Read To Breton

Read Peculiar Mormyrid #3

Dirk van Bastelaere su "Fischi di carta" (Traduzione di Maurizio Brancaleoni)

Esce in questi giorni il #35 della rivista di poesia Fischi di carta. Nella sezione Migrazioni dedicata alla poesia straniera trovate la mia traduzione di due poesie di Dirk van Bastelaere, autore fiammingo. 

Fischi di carta viene distribuito nelle facoltà universitarie di Genova e Bologna, oltre che in molti teatri, locali, cinema, librerie e biblioteche di Genova.
Riporto qui le due poesie insieme a una breve biografia.

 Dirk van Bastelaere, poeta, traduttore e saggista belga di lingua nederlandese, è uno dei più acclamati interpreti del postmoderno. Nato nel 1960 a Sint-Niklaas, nelle Fiandre orientali, studia Filologia Germanica prima a Lovanio e poi ad Anversa, lavorando nel frattempo come bibliotecario, redattore per varie riviste e responsabile stampa al Ministero per la posta e le telecomunicazioni. Con la sua prima raccolta di poesie Vijf jaar (1984) vince il Premio fiammingo per il miglior debutto letterario. Seguono Golden Boys (1985) e Pornschlegel en andere gedichten (1988), dove risalta la natura fuorviante della lingua al servizio di una realtà caotica e frammentata. Nel 1994 esce Diep in Amerika, particolarmente ermetica, e nel 2000 Hartswedervaren, incentrata sul simbolo del cuore, ad oggi la sua opera più riuscita, con cui si assicura il Premio della cultura fiamminga per la poesia. I suoi saggi, raccolti nel volume Wwwwhhoooosssh. Poëzie en haar wereldse inbedding(2001), seguono le orme di figure chiave del post-strutturalismo come Lacan, Barthes e Kristeva. Nel 2005 una selezione delle sue poesie viene tradotta in inglese.

 

Di fronte al precipizio

Che io mi rivolga a te,

cuore muto,

è naturalmente un'assoluta follia, tu sei

un dato generico preso dalla storia della cultura.

Ciò significa: una nebulosa,

girini che galleggiano, un percorso d'incidenti

un sole che si fa nero,

napalm, Ordine, un mondo coordinato

e noi scriviamo entropia.

È una parola,

cuore,

di fronte al mondo. Allo stesso modo di fronte

al precipizio posso mettermi a urlare, un canyon dove

in punti precisi

è stata collocata una cornicetta di legno

con la scritta Take Pictures Here. KODAK

Tegen de afgrond

Dat ik je aanspreek,

stom hart,

is natuurlijk complete waanzin, je bent

een generiek gegeven uit de cultuurgeschiedenis.

Dat betekent: een sterrennevel,

drijvende paddesnoeren, een parcours d'accidents

een zon die in het zwart verkeert,

napalm, Reihung, een nevengeschikte wereld

en we schrijven entropie.

Het is een woord,

hart,

tegen de wereld. Net zo goed kan ik tegen

de afgrond gaan schreeuwen, een canyon waarlangs

op zorgvuldige plaatsen

een houten framepje werd opgesteld

met de vermelding Take Pictures Here. KODAK

La donna dell'incubo

La luna nervosa è la sua infiorescenza

più bella. Lei vaga come un'ombrellifera

sui prati bagnati della notte.

La sua schiena si raffredda e diventa

di carne. Il sogno

le si legge ancora

in faccia, come sudore freddo.

Non posso raccontarle delle cisterne

nella notte, lei stessa ci passava accanto

per restare con me. Lei dava

il suo corpo ronzante all'indifferenza

e viveva un tempo accelerato. 
 

La camera somma il suo tragico destino

a tutta la mia insufficienza

e la rende ovvia.

Allora posso vedere le lesioni,

non spariranno.

Poiché quel che di lei so,

lo so per la prima volta.

Ciò mi si rivolta contro

e non cambia niente,

né rende liberi.

Alptraumvrouw

De nerveuze maan is haar mooiste

Bloeiwijze. Ze wandelt als een schermbloem

Op de natte weiden van de nacht.

Haar rug koelt af en wordt

Van vlees. De droom

Staat nog op haar gezicht

Te lezen, als koud zweet.

Ik kan haar niet vertellen van de regenputten

In de nacht, ze liep er zelf langs

Om mij bij te blijven. Ze gaf

Haar gonzend lichaam aan de onverschilligheid

En leefde een versnelde tijd.

De kamer telt haar noodlot op

Bij al mijn ontoereikendheid

En legt haar voor de hand.

Dan kan ik de kwetsuren zien,

Ze zullen niet verdwijnen.

Want wat ik over haar weet,

Weet ik voor het eerst.

Dat keert zich tegen mij

En dat maakt niets uit,

En niets vrij.

 

***

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Interview with Casi Cline

Hi Casi,

thanks for agreeing to be interviewed!

I'd like to start by asking you about yourself and your activity as an artist. Who is Casi Cline and what does Ephemerality Art represent for her?

Well, I am a human like any other with complex thoughts and emotions, though perhaps a little more anxious than most. If I were an animal, I would be a frightened doe rabbit running from the beast of time, grateful for my safe and glowing burrow with my warm buck inside where I can forget for a time until I have to dip back into the dark. Ok, goofy animal metaphors aside, I am a graphic designer during the day and create art whenever I can. I am married to Steven Cline, my favorite artist. I see myself as darkly enlightened, but have been told I am innocent. Just another aspect of the infinite list of opposites that I am, I suppose.

Ephemerality Art is an external transcript of the ideas and thoughts swarming through my subconscious. I think it is important to experience the subconscious minds of others. It lets you see from other perspectives and helps you get a little closer to that indefinable something at the center. So, Ephemerality Art is my contribution. My tiny little piece of the equation. Even if I don’t get there, maybe I can help someone else. The perfect metaphor would be from the novel Mount Analogue by René Daumal. Each traveler prepares the way for those who come behind. 

 

However complex and intricate, your pieces possess a striking elegance and show a perfect balance among elements as different as harmonically integrated. Diverse entities coexist in a mysterious universe whose depths are unfathomable. Encyclopedic illustrations of pterodactyls soar over arcane messages about unexplained omens. Geometries both of the flesh and of the mind are visited by moths and rifles. Legions of circular shapes and decorative elements reminiscent of the Victorian era meet and interweave to create majestic systems. What are your favourite image sources?

My favorite kinds of materials are old books with interesting patterns or diagrams. These can be scientific textbooks, manuals, medical encyclopedias, etc. I look for books from the time period before photography became the norm and hand drawings were mostly used. I love shapes and lines, which is why old sheet music is also one of my favorite sources. There is something especially magical about searching through a pile of ephemera or a box of books at a yard sale and finding images that resonate with you. I especially love taking the kinds of drawings and diagrams that are solely utilitarian in purpose, such as a machine blueprints and giving them a violent rebirth as art.

When did you begin making collages and drawings with a view to a more or less coherent project? 

I started making collages late in 2013. However, to this day, I don’t purposely create a certain style. I go into each piece with no intention. Each piece is a reflection of my thoughts and state of being when I am in the act of creating it. As I go through mental epochs, the pieces evolve. For instance, I have increased my use of color over time, and the types of patterns I draw go through stages. However, my preference for certain materials lends a degree of unintended coherence to my pieces.

To what extent is a collage the result of a predetermined sketch? Is it more a matter of conscious spontaneity or of a well-defined plan?

When I start a piece, I usually have no idea about how I want the finished piece to look. Exceptions would be if I were doing a custom commission with specifications, which is very hard for me considering I don’t usually plan, or if I found a special image while out collecting materials. Normally, I try to keep the flow of work as effortless as possible. I will start by picking my background: old paper, music notes, book pages, or whatever I am feeling like. I make sure to leave a blank area to draw in. Then I will go through my materials and cut out whatever strikes me. Sometimes it is just images I find and sometimes I also find bits of text I like. After I have applied all of the paper pieces, I start to draw. This usually takes me the longest. I don’t usually plan the drawing, either. I have plenty of shapes I like to draw and sometimes I see something new I like and draw my interpretation of it. For instance, I have lately taken to the patterns in insect wings. Once I have a style going, I just keep drawing until I have filled in as much of the blank spot as feels right, usually all of it. I have a hard time leaving empty space.

What were your earliest experiences with art?

As far as my personal art goes, though I did not know it at the time, I have been practicing for my current pieces since I was a child. I kept a journal, which, in addition to containing terrible poetry, was also filled in every margin and available space with small drawings and wild patterns. Even up through college, every notebook I owned, instead of being filled with class notes, was filled, inside and out, with shapes and patterns. I was discovering favorite motifs then, which I still use now. My experience of the art of others was mainly from art books. We didn’t go to museums very often when I was growing up, but we did go to the library every week and check out the maximum allowance. That was back when we still had library cards. I also remember a large set of art books, which my uncle gave to me. I would pore over beautiful and sometimes dark and frightening pictures in the book. It was the terrible pictures that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from. I remember a painting of hell I would go back to again and again, and a picture of a tiger with its claws in a man’s skin. The agony displayed in these images expressed feelings I could neither identify or explain. My uncle was an artist, and I often regret that he died before I could share my art with him. 

What were your major inspirations along the path to developing your own signature style?

My husband, Steven Cline, has inspired me through his encouragement and the vast knowledge he has shared with me. I love patterns, and whenever I see something that resonates with me, it finds its way into my drawings. The Surrealists have inspired me, not in a visual way, but in an ideological way. My greatest inspiration is simply the world of books and paper I have always lived in. My art is an expression of my subconscious and the things that fill it.

 

As a math teacher, do you feel your art and mathematics are in some way connected?

I love math. It is an abstraction of patterns in the world around us. As something I feel a connection with, it finds its way into my art, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly. I am no longer a math teacher, but the math is still there, influencing me. In addition, I do believe that there is a philosophical place of deep understanding where all arts and sciences become on knowledge. Things are not so separate and sharply delineated as they would seem. I see no disconnect between science and art. 

This is how you introduce your first novellette, Chimaera Obscura: in this book "[...]we journey through a mysterious forest to reach the top of a tall mountain, meeting others along the way who are flighty, wise, beautiful, sinister, and cranky. But above all else, Chimaera Obscura is a journey to find what one is." Where did the idea of Chimaera Obscura come from?

Like most of what I do, Chimaera Obscura comes from the place of deep uncertainty, constant questioning, dark anxiety, and hopeful idealism that is my mind. We can never know what is true, and my mind refuses to resolve on an arbitrary choice. Because of this, I am a perfect split of opposite answers in stalemate. Chimaera Obscura is an expression of the inner voice looking for truth. In the end of the story, a solution of sorts is given, but it is just one possibility of infinitely many.

Some of your artworks and poems have appeared on the surrealist journal Peculiar Mormyrid. What is your personal notion of "surrealism"? Why is surrealism important to you, whatever form it takes?

Surrealism has been for me a refuge and a release. Surrealism has helped me brush away the doubts that had kept me from doing art for so long. Art to me now is a distillation of human thought rather than an obscure talent guarded by a select few, and as such exists in every human subconscious waiting to be tapped. In the words of Lautreamont, “poetry should be made by all, not by one.” It has always struck me how vast the universe is when each mind contains an infinity of possibilities. Because of the philosophy of the movement, I have discovered a world in which I can be myself ever more freely. Before I found Surrealism, any odd idea would usually be dismissed or find no hold. I had always been yearning for something, and, while the yearning is still there, I now have a compass with which to search. With a little practice the mind can see many marvelous things in our very ordinary world.

Your recent experiments with sound poetry are particularly fascinating in that they seem to evoke a primordial world where an ancestral and almost magic language was spoken. These lulling albeit slightly unsettling pieces reverberate with semantic units of primal significance which take us back to the dawn of civilization. Are these tracks part of a wider project?

I have no big plans at this point. I am excited to find a new channel for artistic experimentation. But it all started the fateful day that my encyclopedic husband introduced me to Kurt Schwitters! “Rakete rinnzekete!” When I heard sound poetry, of which I was embarrassingly ignorant, I was instantly inspired. I went around for a couple of days just repeating Kurt Schwitters and then started making my own sounds. I have always loved playing with the sounds of words, but now I don’t have to be distracted by the meaning. I had also been listening to industrial, gamelan, and experimental music, so the sound poetry just fell in well with it to me. I find it amazing how much you can do with household items, free audio software, and an affordable microphone. As you can tell, I really am a little excited. 

Thanks again for your time!

Related links:

Ephemerality Art   

Chimaera Obscura 

Ephemerality on Soundcloud (Casi's sound poetry) 

Peculiar Mormyrid 

Steven Cline's Art 

***

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"Notturno & altre poesie" di Ab Visser - Traduzione di Maurizio Brancaleoni

Oggi su "Rivista!Unaspecie" trovate la mia traduzione di tre poesie dello scrittore olandese Ab Visser.

Ab Visser (1913-1982), poeta, romanziere, critico e giornalista, nasce a Groningen, nei Paesi Bassi. Il suo esordio ufficiale nel mondo letterario viene considerato il romanzo De mens wikt (1936). Seguono De buurt (1953), De vlag halfstok (1955), God in Frankrijk (1957), De valstrik (1959) e De hel met negen deuren (1962. Con Kaïn sloeg Abel (1963), spinto sia dalla necessità che da un interesse particolare per i lati oscuri dell’essere umano, Visser inaugura un filone dedicato alla narrativa gialla anche con l’intento di promuovere e nobilitare il genere.

Notturno

La sera non ha nulla di amabile in questo Paese;

la luce si affievolisce come in occhi infiammati,

l’aria pesa grigia e acre come sabbia bagnata…

..Continua a leggere le poesie su "Rivista!Unaspecie"..