Lo spostamento degli oggetti: theoretic

background

Lets start from the title: Objects Moving. This title has many,
m a y b e i n fi n i t e m e a n i n g s
But theres a main idea inside this title
to a poetic and theoretic issue: objects
ordinary use, as language, somehow, is
l e t s s a y w i t h Pa u l Va l r y , i t s t r a n s i t i v e

which takes us directly

are moved out of their
moved by poetry out of,
use.

M o r e s p e c i fi c a l l y , o b j e c t s ( n o t o n l y c o n c r e t e o b j e c t s , b u t a l s o
concepts and events) are moved to their semantic limits and out
of their usual symbolic functions. I dont mean here that I tried
to reconstruct a parallel world through poetry (the Italian poet
Andrea Zanzotto wrote in one of his essays of poetics collected
into the book Prospezioni e consuntivi that poetry never wants to
speak about something else than reality, and Ludwig Wittgenstein
wrote a very important proposition with, somehow, the same
spirit: The limits of my language are the limits of my world):
the real and sometimes also everyday reality
are expressed into Lo spostamento degli oggetti, but theyre
e x p r e s s e d i n a d i ff e r e n t w a y.
The title Lo spostamento degli oggetti refers to a, lets say,
theoretical conception, almost in the sense of a theory of
language: I think that poetry is a cognitive (I mean cognitive
as gnoseological, with no reference to cognitive sciences or
similars) and perceptive approach to language that allows us
to displace (objects moving) our intention about reality and
a b o u t l a n g u a g e i t s e l f. Po e t r y a l l o w s t h e w r i t e r a n d t h e r e a d e r t o
c r e a t e d i ff e r e n t l i n g u i s t i c a n d c o g n i t i v e p a r a d i g m s a b o u t t h e
objectual phenomena we have to deal with, so to give new
possible descriptions of what our senses perceive and our
language elaborates. As Michel Deguy, whose poetry and
t h e o r e t i c a l t h o u g h t d e e p l y i n fl u e n c e d m e , w r o t e : L e p o m e
propose une possibilit. Il tend le possible sur et dans le monde
- e x p a n s i o n d e s c h o s e s i n fi n i e s ( L a r a i s o n p o t i q u e , P a r i s ,
Galile, 2000, p.46).
This view has at least a philosophical and a political
consequence:
Philosophically, the problem is: in which way poetry can help us
to conceive the relationships between language and reality on
the one hand, perception and cognition on the other hand, and, I
would like to say, description and interpretation on a third
hand ?
And what does it mean, from a political perspective, to open
possibilities of linguistic and cognitive paradigms, to give
d i ff e r e n t d e s c r i p t i o n s o f t h e w o r l d w e l i v e i n ?

I would add a third question then: has poetry something to do

with logic? Is poetry an alternative form of logic as it is an
alternative form of language?
These questions may appear kind of abstract and theres no
unique answer to them, but I think theyre concretely ingrained
into the problems that a poet, and maybe an artist in general,
h a s t o d e a l w i t h t o d a y.
Through Lo spostamento degli oggetti and also through the
project Im writing at the moment (I will try to speak about it
tomorrow) I wanted to face up to these questions not making
theory, but making poetry with them, so to give them a certain
concreteness, to recognize them as a part of human life in letting
them interact with the concreteness of the poetical experience.
Before approaching the book, theres a very important side of
this point of view I would like to underline.
As to move objects doesnt mean to create a parallel, virtual
reality out of the world we live in, to open possibilities of
linguistic and cognitive paradigms throughpoetry doesnt mean at
all to give the poem a metaphoric or meta-linguistic power.
The poem, for me (and everything I say comes from my partial
and inexperienced point of view), so my poetry (but not only, I
guess at the same time) doesnt create metaphors and
metalanguages.
Its a very complicated topic that has a lot to do not only with
metaphor and metalanguage, but also with metaphysics. Ludwig
Wi ttgen s tein s phi lo so ph y an d Paul
Va l r y s C a h i e r s a n d Va r i t p l a y h e r e a n i m p o r t a n t r o l e . I
quoted Wittgenstein before: The limits of my language are the
limits of my world. It has no sense to go out because we dont
have elements to conceive a meta-reality that is truer than the
one we live in, as its impossible to think of something out of
language expression, or behind it, or beyond it, something which
is not already itself.
W r i t i n g a b o u t l a n g u a g e a n d n o t s p e c i fi c a l l y a b o u t p o e t r y ,
W i t t g e n s t e i n fi g h t s a g a i n s t w h a t h e c a l l s l o g i c o f t h e d o u b l e ,
t h a t i s b a s i c a l l y a n o t h e r w a y t o d e fi n e t h e m e t a p h y s i c a l r i s k
of metalanguages.
There are two Wittgensteins quotations dealing with this
question that I really like: One has to talk barefoot, at the sea
le v el ( Ver mi sch t e Bem er ku n g en ) an d T he p ro po si ti on pres en t s
t h e s i t u a t i o n o ff i t s o w n b a t ( s o s t e l l t d e r S a t z d e n S a c h v e r h a l t
g l e i c h s a m a u f e i g e n e Fa u s t d a r , N o t e b o o k s 1 9 1 4 - 1 6 ) . I c o u l d
assume them among the mottoes of my work, that deeply
i n fl u e n c e d t h e w a y I c o n c r e t e l y c o n c e i v e m y l a n g u a g e m a t e r i a l
when I write.
As I said, this topic is not directly connected to poetry in
Wittgensteins philosophy, but there are at least three examples
o f p o e t r y ( o r p o e t r y t h e o r y ) t h a t c a n b e s e e n t h i s w a y. L e t m e
l i s t t h e m b r i e fl y :

Pessoa (Judith Balso). One concerns, according to Judith Balso,

the poetics of Alberto Caeiro, one of Fernando Pessoas
heteronyms and, more precisely, the master. As Judith Balso
shows, Caeiro tries to bring poetry out of metaphysics in creating
a sort of homogeneous semantics where thought and vision,
existence and essence coincide. The anti-metaphysical and antimetalinguistic strategy proposed by Caeiro is a paradigm of
the vision that could be expressed as follows: every thing
existing can be seen and we can think only what we can see. At
page 57 of her book Pessoa: Le passeur mtaphysique, Judith B.
compares this perspective to Wittgensteins conception of
philosophy as a therapy against metaphysics, so that we could
say that Caeiro, somehow, assigns to poetry the same task
assigned by Wittgenstein to philosophy of language.
Littralisme (Gleize, Royet- Journoud, etc.). The second example
i s a b o u t a Fr e n c h p o e t r y t h e o r y a n d p r a c t i c e
c a l l e d l i t t r a l i s m e ( l i t e r a l i s m ) . A c c o r d i n g t o t h e Fr e n c h w r i t e r
Jean-Marie Gleize, poetry says what it says in saying it (La
p o s i e d i t c e q u e l l e d i t e n l e d i s a n t , f. e x . i n L e t h t r e d u
po m e , Pari s, Beli n, 1995, p. 11; a bo ok abo u t Ann e Mari eA l b i a c h , a n o t h e r Fr e n c h p o e t t h a t c a n b e c o n n e c t e d
to literalism), which is not that far away from Wittgensteins
q u o t a t i o n : T h e p r o p o s i t i o n p r e s e n t s t h e s i t u a t i o n o ff i t s o w n
b a t . T h e t e r m l i t t r a l i s m e w a s p r o b a b l y c o n c e i v e d f o r t h e fi r s t
t i m e b y a n o t h e r Fre n c h p o e t , C l a u d e Ro y e t - J o u rn o u d , t h e a u t h o r
of a book called, its not accidental, Les objets contiennent
l i n fi n i ( O b j e c t s c o n t a i n t h e i n fi n i t e ) . I h a v e t o s a y t h a t I
discovered literalism and met Jean-Marie G. and Claude R.- J. the
last year, that is after having written Lo spostamento degli
oggetti (!), but it took me a short time to feel their way of
thinking poetry very close to mine, and I started considering
them among my admired masters. By the way, I also discovered
s o m e o f t h e i r i n fl u e n c e s a n d s t a r t e d r e a d i n g t h e w o r k s o f t h e
Objectivists, an American poetry movement that you probably
k n o w ( Z u k o f s k y , R e z n i k o ff , O p p e n , e t c . ) .
Poetic interpretations of Wittgensteins rule
f o l l o w i n g a n d l a n g u a g e g a m e t h e o r i e s . Fo r e x a m p l e , t h e Fr e n c h
linguist and poet H enri Meschonnic wrote in 1978: a poem m akes
the rules of its reading in going on and [] these rules change in
going on. Through the notion of game, Wittgenstein expresses a
creative relationship among philosophy of language, art and
poetry (un pome fait les rgles de sa lecture mesure quon
a v a n c e , e t [ ] e l l e s s e m o d i fi e n t m e s u r e q u o n a v a n c e . P a r l a
notion de jeu, Wittgenstein nonce un rapport de crativit entre
la philosophie du langage, lart et la posie). This quotation
takes us again to the question of creating with
poetry other paradigms, other rules of expression, other
strategies, other ways of conceiving language. These rules, these
paradigms, these linguistic strategies are totally built into the
poems structures. Theres no meta-language or meta-physic of
language telling to poetry what it has to do. Poetry generates its
o w n l a n g u a g e , i t s o w n r u l e f o l l o w i n g w h i l e e x p r e s s i n g i t s e l f. I t i s
also in that sense, perhaps, that we can conceive Jean-Marie
Gleizes proposition: poetry says what it says in saying it.
So if poetry languages rules are generated while making
poetry, while writing it, and if (at least my) poetry, as I
b e l i e v e , a d h e r e s , l e t s s a y , t o i t s o w n e x p r e s s i o n o ff i t s o w n

bat without giving the possibility of formulating a metalanguage beyond or behind it, then (my) poetry doesnt support
hermeneutic processes either: it is impossible to say in another
way what my texts say already. Theres no technique of
interpretation that may be applied to my texts. The best thing to
do, and this is what Ill try to do with you, is to describe the way
they are written and the theoretic, historical, contingent and
technical background that made them exist as they are.
My texts, in moving objects, dont interpret objects, but they try
to give at their turn new descriptions of them, they create their
own perceptive paradigms while moving them. As theres no logic
of the double into my poetry, because (at least, I hope) what I
write aims to adhere on itself (its a sort of mathematical limit,
because it is impossible to completely adhere; as Jean-Marie
Gleize says, theres always an even small metaphoric double), my
texts, as I was saying before, are themselves to be conceived
as objects. Poetry language is for me not a link
between (between language and reality, between the world and
the word), but language and reality at the same time. I refuse
the old metaphysic distinction made between these two faces of
the same thing, that is, lets say, the world-language we live in.
So my poetry wants to adhere to its language as it wants to
adhere to the concrete, objectual reality expressed in it. Theres
no ontologic distinction between these two categories, and the
problem of reality is no more a question of something being, lets
s a y w i t h R i c h a r d Ro r t y , o u t - t h e r e .
A good visual example of that is given by the work of the
A u s t r a l i a n s c u l p t o r R o n M u e c k . H i s w o r k h a s b e e n d e fi n e d
hyperrealistic, but I would say that its not exact. While
creating highly realistic sculptures of human beings, Mueck
p r o d u c e s a t t h e s a m e t i m e a s y m b o l i c a c t i v i t y: t h e l a n g u a g e h e
uses and the world he represents deeply coincide and become
almost the same thing. Like, for example, in the following
sculpture, Man in blankets:

Fi g . 1 : R. M u e c k , M a n i n b l a n k e t s , 2 0 0 0 / 0 1 , Ku n s t g a l e r i e
Dsseldorf
This work is a high expression of what I call a world-language, a
context, a paradigm in which reality cant be disconnected from
its symbolic values. The mans face and body are perfectly
detailed in a hyperrealistic way, it is true, but, at the same time,
the subject is not realistic: a baby with a beard in foetus-like
position inside blankets! Reality is always language, and
viceversa.
Life and death, adults nostalgia of childhood and childrens
desire-fear to become an adult: this work generates a worldlanguage questioning some of the biggest issues of human
existence. I am trying to obtain (and attain) something similar
with my poetry as well.
Theres a last remark I would like to add before approaching
some of my texts, and it is about the way they can be conceived
as a part of a poetry movement: avant-gardistic, experimental,
c l a s s i c a l , l y r i c a l , o b j e c t i v i s t , a n d s o o n . I n Fr a n c e a n d i n t h e U S ,
probably more than in Italy and Germany (I unfortunately dont
know the situation of poetry in other countries enough), theres a
big distinction poets and critics make
between lyrism (i.e. traditional, classical poetry)
a n d e x p e r i m e n t a l i s m ( i . e . , b a s i c a l l y , t h e Av a n t - g a rd e h e r i t a g e ) .
Although my poetry is objectively quite experimental, when I
write I aim to match, more or less, these two writing directions. I
really do think that the opposition between sentimental-classical
poetry and avant-gardistic poetry cannot work anymore. It can be
a nice model to describe poetry maybe even until the 80s, but
n o t c o n t e m p o r a r y p o e t r y.
Its a little bit like in music composition: after serialism, neoclassicism, micro-tonalism, purely synthetised music, we can use
(and have to conceive) multiple techniques and conceptions
c o m i n g f r o m d i ff e r e n t t r a d i t i o n s .
So if theres a point where I need to feel what I write in a direct
way and open the door to a lyrical passage, then I do it. I dont
h a v e i d e o l o g i c a l o r o n t o l o g i c a l o b s t a c l e s f o r s u c h a p r a c t i c e .
But I always pay attention not to fall into merely traditional or
sentimental aesthetics, which is always a big risk, maybe the
biggest risk in our contemporary conservative and reactionary
s o c i e t y.
I am almost not able to accept how a lot of poets, also among
much older and more expert poets than me, dont feel the need
to create a deeper language, a language that is much more
articulated than the simple language of feelings as traditional
literature, movies, religion and media want us to believe.

_Lo spostamento degli oggetti : reading of some

texts, descriptions of the sections
.
Here is a key-poem of the book, nelloscurit fuori [outside in
t h e d a r k ] . Y o u l l fi n d i t i n t h e fi r s t s e c t i o n :
.
[nelloscurit fuori / outside in the dark
see texts]
.
I n r e a d i n g t h i s t e x t a s w e l l a s s e v e r a l o t h e r t e x t s o f t h e fi r s t
section (stop in the underpass, half asleep), it is possible to
translate spostamento with the psychoanalytical term
displacement. In Italian the word spostamento is also used
f o r t h e f re u d i a n d i s p l a c e m e n t ( Ve r s c h i e b u n g i n G e rm a n ) .
Lo spostamento degli oggetti makes a strong use of
p s y c h o a n a l y s i s , b u t i n a v e r y p a r t i c u l a r w a y: t h e p s y c h o a n a l i t i c a l
terms and techniques become interesting to me if I consider them
as language and logic devices. And I mean this in two senses:
I try to conceive my books not as collections of poems but as
units where a non-linear narrative takes place into poetry and
into every poem, where several series of facts are supersposed
and, again, described through new linguistic and perceptive
paradigms. Those paradigms, let me say, edit or re-edit the event
from a pluridimensional perspective. The non-linear logic, timing
and structure of a dream are a perfect example for such a
practice. The poem we read has its origin in a dream that
somebody had and told me. In this text as in many others, I think
of dream as a language. The dream is itself a language and it
helps me in expressing a language that has a lot to do with the
world we live in, because its narrative and its logic are nonl i n e a r a s h u m a n b e i n g s , a s h i s t o r y, a s r e a l i t y, a s i n f o r m a t i o n a n d
media are.
T h e s e c o n d s e n s e i s v e r y c l o s e t o t h e fi r s t o n e a n d fi n d s a
concrete application in this poem. According to several
psychoanalytic theories, not only the dream is a language, but
the unconscious in general is not a place in our head, but a
l a n g u a g e w o r k i n g w i t h n o n - l i n e a r l o g i c s t h a t a r e d i ff e r e n t f r o m
r a t i o n a l a n d A r i s t o t e l i a n l o g i c t h r o u g h w h i c h w e e x p r e s s
ourselves in waking. According, in particular, to the Chilean
psychoanalysis theoretician Ignacio Matte Blanco, there would
be another logic, another language, another way of thinking and
f e e l i n g i n s i d e h u m a n b e i n g s , t h a t Fr e u d c a l l e d u n c o n s c i o u s a n d
he calls symmetrical logic.
Let me explain you this theory for a while and show you how and
why I made use of it in this poem.

A t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f fi r s t s e c t i o n o f O b j e c t s M o v i n g , y o u fi n d t h i s
quotation from Matte Blancos book:
.

Possiamo chiamare questo principio principio di

simmetria.
[]
Quando si applica il principio di simmetria non pu esserci
alcuna successione.
[]
Quando si applica il principio di simmetria la parte
(propria) necessariamente identica al tutto.
I . M A T T E B L A N C O , L i n c o n s c i o c o m e i n s i e m i i n fi n i t i
.
Tr a n s l a t i o n o f t h e s e p r o p o s i t i o n s ( f r o m t h e o r i g i n a l E n g l i s h
e d i t i o n , T h e U n c o n s c i o u s A s I n fi n i t e S e t s ) : W e c a n c a l l t h i s
principle principle of symmetry; When the principle of
s y m m e tr y i s a pp li e d th ere c a nn o t be s uc c e s s io n ; Wh en t h e
principle of symmetry is applied the (proper) part is necessarily
identical to the whole.
According to Matte Blanco, our unconscious works like that (and
in other many ways I wont speak about because it would take too
much time).
1 s t p ro p o s i t i o n : t h i s p r i n c i p l e i s c a l l e d o f s y m m e t r y b e c a u s e i n
our conscious and aristotelic logic of the waking we make
distinctions between things and events that are not made by the
l o g i c o f t h e u n c o n s c i o u s . I f w e s a y A c o m e s a f t e r t h a n B , t h e n
B c o m e s b e f o r e A . I t s a n a - s y m m e t r i c a l r e l a t i o n . I f w e s a y A
is th e b ro th er of B, th is i s a s ymm et ri c al rel a ti on , b e c au se it s
a l s o t r u e t h a t B i s t h e b r o t h e r o f A . A c c o r d i n g t o t h e
symmetrical logic of the unconscious, all relations, also the asymmetrical ones, are conceived as symmetrical.
The 2nd proposition explains this aspect very well: in the
s y m m e t r i c a l l o g i c , i f A c o m e s a f t e r t h a n B , t h e n B c a n a l s o
c o m e a f t e r A , s o t h a t t i m e s u c c e s s i o n , 3 D s p a c e r u l e s a n d o t h e r
s i m i l a r r e l a t i o n s a r e r e n d e r e d i n a n o n - l i n e a r w a y. Yo u r e m e m b e r
for sure dreams you had in which you couldnt say if this or that
event came after this or that other event, and even when it
seems that you can establish a succession in the events of your
drea ms , t ha t s be c au s e yo u re c on st r u ct th em th ro u gh y ou r
conscious a-symmetrical logic. Or dreams in which a person, like
i n n e l l o s c u r i t f u o r i , w a s s e v e r a l d i ff e r e n t b e i n g s s u p e r p o s e d i n
t h e s a m e s p a c e , i n t h e s a m e fi g u r e . M a t t e B l a n c o c a l l s i t a
m u l t i d i m e n s i o n a l s p a c e w h e r e t h e s e fi g u r e s a r e n o t
superposed, but they coexist in more than three dimensions, and
we remember them as superposed because our asymmetrical
conscious logic doesnt allow us to think in more than 3D. This
has a lot to do with non-linear and multilinear narrative devices I
chose to employ in making poetry, and I have to say that Matte
Blanco doesnt use the words non-linear or multilinear , that I

use in order to describe my work (at least, what I try to do with

it !) . We l l s e e th is a s p e ct a s w e go al on g.
3rd proposition: following the same symmetrical logic, if we say
A i s a p a r t o f B , t h e n B i s a p a r t o f A . S o , i n m a t h e m a t i c a l
l a n g u a g e , t h e e l e m e n t i s i d e n t i c a l t o t h e s e t i n w h i c h i t fi n d s
itself and to all other elements belonging to the same set. Its a
symbolic need of the unconscious to behave like that. Lets take
a typical example: Oedipus. Oedipus tears out his eyes as a
symbol of castration. According to the principle of symmetry,
in Oedipuss unconscious eyes and genitals are two elements
of the same set, which may be called parts of human body. For
Oedipuss unconscious eyes and genitals are not connected in a
symbolic way, but they are exactly the same thing, and we say
that its a symbolic relation according to the asymmetrical logic.
That is also why we often say that when we dream to lose a tooth
we represent our fears connected to castration (even if its much
more complicated than that). Its more probable to dream
castration those ways because its less painful and shameful for
our unconscious to represent castration like that, since
unconscious hasanyway to represent it as an emotional need. Its
a v e r y b a n a l a n d s t u p i d b u t c l e a r e x a m p l e . Yo u c a n t h i n k o f m o r e
original and deeper ones!
Theres another principle, very close to this one, saying that in
looking deeper and deeper unconscious behaviors we discover
that these sets, as Matte Blanco calls them, have the tendency to
b e c o m e w i d e r : v e r y d i ff e r e n t e l e m e n t s c a n b e p u t i n s y m b o l i c
r e l a t i o n s b y o u r u n c o n s c i o u s a n d t h a t i s w h y i t i s s o d i ffi c u l t t o
understand our dreams and moreover, for ex., hallucinations,
fantasies, etc (and also why all that is much more complicated
than Oedipuss example!). This principle is called by Matte
Blanco principle of generalisation. According to the principle of
g e n e r a l i s a t i o n , d e e p e r a n d w i d e r s e t s a r e p o t e n t i a l l y i n fi n i t e
(thats why Matte Blancos book has this title) and sets like
parts of human body or, lets say, white shapes or metal
o b j e c t s a r e i n c l u d e d , f o r e x a m p l e , i n a s e t c a l l e d o b j e c t s ( w h y
do I use this example of set?) up to an unique, all-embracing and
c o m p l e t e l y h y p o t h e t i c a l i n fi n i t e s e t t h a t M a t t e B l a n c o c a l l s t h e
whole.
This is a very good way to explain a typical oneiric process,
i.e. condensation: as I already told before, if you dream that a
person is at the same time, for ex., your father, your best friend,
a dog and god, thats because all these elements coexist in the
same, Matte Blanco would say, multidimensional space of an
i n fi n i t e s e t a n d y o u h a v e a n e m o t i o n a l n e e d t o r e p r e s e n t t h e m
into the same set, to give them the same function.
This is basically what this poem, nelloscurit fuori, does:
t h e r e s a n o c t u r n a l e p i p h a n y o f a fi g u r e ( s e c o n d s t a n z a ) w h i c h i s
also a set that contains everyones presence and therefore it
has no eyes and no face. Its an abstraction of all people taking
part to the story of this person who witnesses (or produces?) this
e p i p h a n y . T h i s a b s t r a c t fi g u r e m a y a l s o b e fi l l e d b y t h e r e a d e r
with his/her own faces, his/her own stories, his/her own needs.
Something very simple emerges in this text: a fear, a need of the
others, a desire to look at the unknown. But something new and
unexpected is also there, because these fears, these needs,
these desires are perceived and described through other rules,

other paradigms, other logics: the ones that poetry, conceived as

a c o g n i t i v e p r o c e s s , a l l o w s u s t o d i s c o v e r.
Matte Blancos theory of unconscious logic in this case and
Wittgensteins theory of language in lots of others cases, as
many others theories and practices of language I might talk
about during my topic, gave me some instruments in order to
conceive my own poetic rules, my own language.
Lets just have a look at one text of my new project which is very
similar to nelloscurit fuori:
.
[ancora discendendo / still descending
see texts]
.
Besides other aspects I will talk about tomorrow, here there are
tw o themes we already spoke about: the pocket w hich could
c o n t a i n e v e r y b o d y i s n o t t h a t d i ff e r e n t f r o m t h e fi g u r e o f t h e
previous text (containing everyones presence) and the work
of emergence has to do with this will to face up to memories,
needs, fears and desires through a paradigm, a poetic paradigm
able to (re)describe them
Going back to Lo spostamento degli oggetti and according to
what I said until now, the text nelloscurit fuori gives us the
possibility to locate four main motives of the book we are now
going to explore:
Non-linear logics and narratives;
Abstraction and polysemy;
The question of metaphysics;
Writing barefoot, at the sea level.
A n d a fi f t h o n e w h i c h c a n s o m e h o w i n c o r p o r a t e t h e p r e v i o u s f o u r :
the linguistic search of poetic paradigms of description and
perception.
Before looking at other poems, let me stay a little more outside
in the dark and show you better how these motives take place
into this poem.
I think I talked enough, for now, about non-linear logics in
approaching Matte Blancos model. Concerning nonlinear narratives, I think that its better to examine other texts
w h e r e t h i s m o t i v e i s m o r e u s e d a n d c l e a r e r.
2) Principles of generalisation and symmetry are a good
d e fi n i t i o n o f a b s t r a c t i o n . T h e fi g u r e c o n t a i n i n g e v e r y o n e s
p r e s e n c e i s a n a b s t r a c t i o n o f s e v e r a l i n d i v i d u a l fi g u r e s . A n d
also the fact that the person acting (she) and the person
sleeping (he) dont have a name or a precise function contribute
t o t h i s a b s t r a c t i o n , w h i c h c a n b e fi l l e d b y r e a d e r s i n d i v i d u a l
p e r c e p t i o n o f t h e t e x t . I n m a n y o f m y p o e m s y o u w i l l fi n d t h i s
technique of composition: the beings acting are told at the third
person. The lyrical traditional I often doesnt exist, and there

are only third persons, beyond feelings, inside acts. This works
even better in Italian, because you often dont have to specify
with a noun or a pronoun who or what is making the action, so
that in other poems you even dont know if its a man or a woman
or something else acting. This technique has been used a lot by
an Italian poet which is very important to me, Antonio Porta
(1935-1989), and caused by the way many problems in translating
t h e t e x t s i n t o Fr e n c h , E n g l i s h a n d G e r m a n .
Another point about abstraction is that I often try to switch
inside the same poem between abstract and concrete semantical
fi e l d s , f o l l o w i n g t h i s c o n c e p t i o n ( v e r y c o m m o n , b y t h e w a y ) t h a t
words are objects. Abstract words are also concrete objects
( p e r c e p t i o n s h i f t s a n d u n l o c k s a fi g u r e b e h i n d h e r : a b s t r a c t i o n
c a u s e s a c o n c r e t e e v e n t ) , a n d c o n c r e t e s e m a n t i c a l fi e l d s h a v e a
conceptual power (she folds the pajama for the night). All the
words are for me on the same level. That is also why I only use
small letters, even for the names of places (like pompidou or
t ie rga r te n , a s w e w il l rea d in a no th e r po em ).
Lets say something more about polysemy: in my poetry,
polysemy doesnt have to be conceived as a metaphoric bedding,
b u t a s a f o r m o f g e n e r a l i s a t i o n a n d a b s t r a c t i o n i t s e l f. A s I t o l d , I
t h i n k o f p o e t r y a s a p o s s i b i l i t y . Yo u r e m e m b e r M i c h e l D e g u y s
q u o t a t i o n . M y t e x t s a r e s u p p o s e d t o o p e n i n fi n i t e m e a n i n g
possibilities, a generalisation of meanings, following Matte
Blancos model, a widening of sets until an all-embracing and
i n fi n i t e m u l t i d i m e n s i o n a l s e t o f m e a n i n g s . B u t I t h i n k t h a t ,
d i ff e r e n t l y t o s o m e l i t e r a t u r e t h e o r e t i c i a n s a s f . e x . o n e o f m y
m a s t e r s , Fr a n c e s c o O r l a n d o ( w h i c h I a p p r e c i a t e a l o t , b y t h e
way), Matte Blancos model cant be applied to describe the
essence of literature, cant be used everytime and everywhere
in order to represent an alternative but still metaphoric rhetoric
system. Matte Blancos model is for me a composition device, a
c o g n i t i v e a t t i t u d e , a n d a v e r y p a r t i c u l a r m o d e l o f p o l y s e m y.
I n m y p o e t r y , i f p o l y s e m y i s i n fi n i t e a n d o p e n , a n i n fi n i t e
abstract set, a widening of possibility, then its not a metaphoric
structure. Meta-phor comes from the Greek word metaphero, meta-phorein, which means to bring something somewhere
else, or at the place of something else, making a substitution.
Here everything is inside the poetical expression, theres
no phorein. Polysemy, in my conception (and I hope it works!),
doesnt undermine but coincide somehow with the literalness,
t h e l i t e r a l i s m o f t h e p o e m , w h o s t i l l s p e a k s , 4 ) o ff i t s o w n
b a t , b a r e f o o t , a t t h e s e a l e v e l . T h e fi g u r e w i t h o u t e y e s i n t h i s
p o e m i s a p o l y s e m i c fi g u r e , b u t i t s c l e a r l y p o l y s e m i c , i t s n o t a
m e t a p h o r o f s o m e t h i n g e l s e , i t s j u s t t h e i n fi n i t e p o s s i b i l i t y o f a
fi g u r e .
As quotation opening the third section, I put the following
p r o p o s i t i o n o f W i t t g e n s t e i n s Tr a c t a t u s l o g i c o - p h i l o s o p h i c u s :
Objects contain the possibility of all situations.
3 ) M e t a p h y s i c s . T h e e p i p h a n y o f t h e fi g u r e i n c o r p o r a t i n g
everybody has something metaphysical. In this sense, it is
i m p o r t a n t t o n o t i c e t h a t t h i s fi g u r e n e i t h e r s a y s n o r w a n t s a
thing. As I told before speaking about Wittgenstein, I reject the
conception of a metaphysical power of language, including
p o e t r y , e v e n i f I fi n d n e c e s s a r y t o c o n s i d e r m e t a p h y s i c s a s a

po e ti c al p ro bl e m a nd s om et im es t o ke ep o pe n a n arro w
m e t a p h y s i c a l p o s s i b i l i t y i n t o p o e t r y.
A v er y w e ll kn ow n Wit t ge ns t ei n s prop os it io n is : Wo vo n m a n
nicht sprechen kann, darber mu man schweigen. (About the
things one cannot talk, one should keep silent). On the other
s i d e , a l s o t h e fi g u r e i n m y p o e m d o e s n t s p e a k a n d d o e s n t h a v e
a will.
Metaphysics, if you want to call it like that, cant be said and it
doesnt speak and doesnt have a will itself, its an abstract
b e i n g , a n d , a l s o i n t h i s s e n s e , a p o l y s e m i c p o s s i b i l i t y.
Matte Blanco, on his side, speaks only a little bit about the
h y p o t h e t i c a l i n fi n i t e s e t t h e w h o l e , b u t h e a d m i t s a t a c e r t a i n
point that this is his conception of God
T h e r e s a n o t h e r s e n t e n c e I fi n d v e r y i m p o r t a n t a b o u t t h i s i s s u e ,
and it comes from Andrea Zanzotto: La poesia per me continua
a d e s s e r e g l o b a l e , t o t a l e , e q u i n d i s i p u d i r e m e t a fi s i c a , i n
quanto urta sempre contro il limite (Poetry for me is still
global, total, and therefore it can be said metaphysical, since it
hits always against the limits).
These limits are of course the limits of language. Poetry goes
against the limits of language because it changes language rules,
it produces its own paradigms going towards the limits of what
can be grammatically, emotionally and gnoseologically said.
I argue with Zanzotto that the question of the limits and the
m e t a p h y s i c a l q u e s t i o n a r e d e e p l y c o n n e c t e d i n p o e t r y. T h a t i s
probably also why everytime I want to represent in poetry a
metaphysical movement of language, I think of something not
r e a l l y d e fi n a b l e , s p e a k a b l e , v i s i b l e c o m i n g f r o m o u t s i d e a n d
being there, as it was this something that bumped into the
limit somehow before we made it, or maybe something we made
bump beyond the limit without knowing we were doing it. So,
probably, the word metaphysics is not the best one to describe
this movement. Again, here, theres no meta! In nelloscurit
f u o r i i t s t h e s h i f t i n g o f p e r c e p t i o n w h i c h a l l o w s t h e fi g u r e t o
produce itself into our world. In another text, opaque, somebody
tells the third person acting in the poem that the obstacle he
sees is false, and then something happens beyond the limit. Lets
read it:
.
[opaco / opaque
see texts]
.
This is the most metaphysical poem of the book, because the
lyrical he (lets say from now at the place of the lyrical I)
makes something that takes him to be blinded before something
t h a t i s i m p o s s i b l e t o s e e a n d t o s a y. T h i s i s s u e i s u n d e r l i n e d b y

t h e q u o t a t i o n o f To m m a s o C a m p a n e l l a a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e
fi r s t s e c t i o n o f m y b o o k :
.

Indebolite luci e moti e forze

delle cose,
del
sentiamo noi,
perch sfarian

che batton la muraglia

carcer che nabbaglia,
non le possenti e dive;
la nostra fragil maglia.

.
I l l t r y a t r a n s l a t i o n : We o n l y f e e l w e a ke n e d l i g h t s , m o v e m e n t s
and forces of things, that bump into the wall of the dazzled jail,
not the powerful and divine; as they would destroy our fragile
mail.
In another text of the third section, it is the simple action of
looking at the branches of a tree that produces an instant of
metaphysical feeling going silent together with the objects that
had accompanied that feeling right before:

[cos le cose della casa / so things at home

see texts]
.
Ci rcum stan ces of th e po em (Par is , Berl in ).
W h e r e a r e t h e s t a i r s a n d t h e l a n d i n g ( Ta c h e l e s )
The branches are of Tiergarten.
Importance of the line: this inexplicable lack of data
continues. It says a lot about the topics were discussing
t o g e t h e r.
The expression without eyes was already in nelloscurit fuori.
T h i s i s a t e c h n i q u e y o u m a y fi n d s e v e r a l t i m e s i n m y p o e t r y. I
love patterns and iterations: as sculptors like Fontana and
Pom odoro o r com po sers as Giya Kan cheli an d Arvo Pr t, I ch oo se
t o r e p e a t s o m e e x p r e s s i o n s o r s i t u a t i o n s t h a t I fi n d s i g n i fi c a n t .
There are several identical or slightly altered expressions and
parts that are repeated inside Lo spostamento degli oggetti and
m u c h m o r e i n R i d e fi n i z i o n e ( m y c u r r e n t p r o j e c t ) , a n d e v e n f r o m
o n e b o o k t o t h e o t h e r.
This aspect has also to do with another oneirical process I
employ sometimes in my poetry, in which there are, for example,

two things or two persons that seem to be the same but are also
s l i g h t l y d i ff e r e n t .
But, more in general, I strongly believe that art has to be made
with a few instruments, a few colours that have been chosen in a
very accurate way, since they have to deeply adhere to what we
are and what we make. I always loved those artists (in every
fi e l d ) f o r w h i c h y o u c a n e a s i l y s a y i t s h i m , i t s h e r ! W h e n
you see a Spatial Concept by Lucio Fontana or a movie by Akira
Ku ro s aw a, y ou re s u re y ou c a n t g o w ro ng i n g u es s i ng w h o s t he
a u t h o r.
Tw o o t h e r s t y l e p a t t e r n s o f m y p o e t r y a r e : s m a l l l e t t e r s
everywhere and everytime (I already spoke about it) and white
spaces at the place of punctuation marks.
White has a relation to the metaphysical topic were discussing. I
have to say that I really dont like those poets who speak today
about the metaphysical silence of the white, or the Origin
deleted under the white silence of the page, and so on, as if we
couldnt go beyond Stphane Mallarm (a poet that I love, by the
way) or Pau l Celan (ano th er po et th at is very i mpor tan t to m e).
White for me is semantically dense, is a part of the text, a sort
of no is e on wh ic h t he p oe m is sa id. Of co ur s e, it c an a ls o
represent, like in opaco, a break in what can be said, something
that cant be said and therefore goes silent (cos le cose della
casa).
Anyway, it is always used like a rest in music scores: the
quantity of white, in my texts, determines the length of the rests
between words. I try to pay a lot of attention to this aspect while
I read.
I think we can stop here, for now, with the question of
metaphysics, and go back to the other three main motives of the
book that I mentioned before. As a reminder, they are:
Non-linear logics and narratives;
Abstraction and polysemy;
Writing barefoot, at the sea level.
We di s c u s s ed a l ot t he q ue s ti on o f a bs tr a c ti on a nd p ol ys e m y
thanks to nelloscurit fuori, but we maybe need to say more
about the question of non-linear narratives and writing barefoot,
at the sea level in reading some other texts.
L e t s s t a r t f r o m t h e fi r s t p o i n t a n d t a k e a n o t h e r t e x t a s a n
e x a m p l e . Yo u w i l l a l s o r e c o g n i z e t h e r e s o m e l a n g u a g e p a r a d i g m s
and techniques I talked about before:
.
[gli sorride immobile / she smiles at him motionless
see texts]
.

This poem was inspired by several superposed dreams and

events.
T h e s e c o n d s t a n z a b e l o n g s t o a d i ff e r e n t c o n d i t i o n , w h i c h s t i l l
has to do with this action of something indeterminate entering
from outside.
T h e fi r s t s t a n z a e x p r e s s e s t h e i d e a o f t h e i m p o s s i b i l i t y t o d e c i d e
if someone its himself or something else.
T h e t h i r d s t a n z a g o e s o n i n t h e n a r r a t i o n o r i g i n a t e d b y t h e fi r s t
s t a n z a , b u t a l l e v e n t s h a p p e n s i m u l t a n e o u s l y i n d i ff e r e n t t i m e s
and spaces (beginning of the third stanza).
Moreover, the empty hotel room belongs to the same set of the
deserted street (lets say, with Matte Blancos model, the set
called empty places). By the cathedral has a non-linear
semantic relation with by the snow covered slide, and the
s n o w c o v e r e d s l i d e h a s a n o n - l i n e a r s e m a n t i c r e l a t i o n w i t h o n
the bed of snow.
Several events, thoughts, needs, desires melt into a
multidimensional and non-linear succession of facts (re)described
into the poem. So the non-linear narratives and logics have a
d e e p r e l a t i o n t o t h e p r o d u c t i o n o f d i ff e r e n t r u l e s a n d p a r a d i g m s
of description of the world-language, because they allow the
emergence, into the semantics of the poem, of hidden and deeper
aspects of events and feelings (do you remember: a work of
emergence in the more recent text I read?).
I n t h i s c a s e , i t s a h i s t o r y o f d i s t a n c e a n d d i ffi c u l t y i n
communicating between a man and a woman that is
completely redescribed through multidimensional and oneiric
narratives, so that the poem goes beyond its own history and
becomes a cognitive approach.
Be d of s no w: t he im ag e com es p ro ba b ly f rom Pa ul C el an ( e ve n if I
didnt think about his Schneebett when I wrote it) more than
Cesare Paves e or oth er poets who us ed thi s expres si on .
G e r m a n - s p e a k i n g p o e t r y h a s a b i g i n fl u e n c e i n w h a t I w r i t e . I
still remember the astonishment when I discovered, for example,
Bertolt Brecht s Psalm en , Rainer Maria Rilkes Gong , Hugo von
Hofmannsthal early poetry, Ernst Jandls sound poetry, and, more
recently, Durs Grnbeins Grauzone morgens or Dieter M.
G r f s Tr e i b e n d e r Ko p f .
About Celan in particular, I could list many reasons why his
poetry is so important to me. I would like here to recall a
t e c h n i q u e t h a t I fi n d t y p i c a l o f h i s w o r k a s w e l l a s o f a n o t h e r
p o e t o f h i s s a m e g e n e r a t i o n , t h a t I a d m i re : t h e Fre n c h p o e t A n d r
Du Bouchet (by the way, Celan and Du Bouchet translated each
other reciprocally). Its about what I call rarefaction. Celans and
Du Bouchets poetry are two masterly examples of sobriety,
synthesis and semantic concentration of the poetical expression.
T h e i r s t y l e s a r e v e r y d i ff e r e n t , b u t , e s p e c i a l l y , o f c o u r s e , i n
their best works, you can perceive the weight, the necessity of
their words inside the space of the page, the synthesis and

deepness of their semantics, the concentration of every single

sentence. That is what I call rarefaction and I often try to bring
t h i s t e c h n i q u e i n t o m y p o e t r y.
Lets read another poem deeply concerned by the same issue:
.
[siamo tutti nel corridoio / we are all in the corridor
see texts]

The corridor is a pattern that appears also in the previous text.

T h e k e y - l i n e s o f t h e e v e n t s n o n - l i n e a r n a r r a t i v e : t h e fi l m
shot that summer / when we will all be together
at home.
The past (shot) and the future (when we will be) are moved out of
their usual grammatical functions to describe an utopian space of
re-union and salvation. This poem (re)describes (I often say like
that even if I am not completely glad of this expression, I should
fi n d a n o t h e r o n e b u t I w a s n t a b l e t o d o i t f o r n o w ) a c o l l e c t i v e
situation (we is the main pronoun acting) of loss and rejoining.
The reunion can be said, but only in the space of the utopia,
which is given by a non-linear time succession.
The space of utopia has here something to do with media, as a
s o r t o f p a r a l l e l a n d a l t e r n a t i v e s t o r y , a fi c t i o n ( t h e r e s a t v
showing). Media are also the context in which a higher degree of
cognition is darkened: then something
dims the video / at the
threshold.
Again something that has to do with bumping into the limits
(metaphysics).
As I was saying at the beginning, (re)describing through poetic
paradigms doesnt mean to avoid the adherence between the
p o e t i c a l a n d i t s e l f. H e r e w e c o m e a g a i n t o t h e q u e s t i o n o f w r i t i n g
barefoot, at the sea level, of writing following the mathematical
l i m i t o f l i t e r a l i s m , i n w r i t i n g t e x t s t h a t p r e s e n t t h e s i t u a t i o n o ff
their own bat.
This approach really became a sort of method into the third
section which has not accidentally the same title of the book: lo
spostamento degli oggetti.
In the text tre eventi the wish to write in a literal way, to
describe the language-reality as it is, is concretely connected to
a multidimensional narrative procedure:

[tre eventi / three events

see texts]

We co u ld s ay t he s am e f or co s l e co s e de ll a c as a , al re a d y qu ot e d
before, which is also a text of the third section.
I t s v e r y d i ffi c u l t t o c o m m e n t o n t h e t e x t s o f t h e t h i r d s e c t i o n ,
because in their tendence to be litteral theyre completely
evident, I guess. Even when metaphysics as a limit, as an
impossibility said into the poem, come back:

[in questi spazi minimi / in these minimal spaces

see texts]

To c o n c l u d e , I d o t h i n k t h a t i n L o s p o s t a m e n t o d e g l i o g g e t t i t h e r e
are no ontological distinctions between language and reality,
objects and words, polysemy and litteralness, single event and
multiple possibility of the event. Here, somehow, poetry is
tautological, because it includes all possibilities, its a p or ~p
prop os it i on , l i ke in th es e l in es of Fe rna nd o Pe ss o a I al w a ys
loved: Myths the nothingness thats everything. / The very sun
opening the sky / is a silent shining myth./ Gods dead body, /
naked and alive.
I would like to add a last consideration about, almost, the
psychological attitude that I assumed in writing this book, and I
will do it in reading the English translation I tried to make of the
last part of an essay on my work I wrote one year ago for the
A n t e r e m w e b s i t e a n d t h e r e v i e w Te s t o e S e n s o . F l a v i o E r m i n i , t h e
e d i t o r - i n - c h i e f o f A n t e r e m , w a s t h e fi r s t t h a t p r o p o s e d t o m e t o
think over my poetry and write something about it.
I think that poetry is a continuous work on the unknown. The
poet has to look for a balance point between the control of the
language employed and the emergence of obscure parts, that you
cant determine through the creation process adopted
(Hofmannsthal was deeply conscious of this aspectlets think
for example of Ein Brief). This balance point is also a suture
point, almost an identity point. So that in the external creation
process the play among controlled and unknown values begins to
s t r u c t u r e t h e t e x t s s i g n i fi e r s f r o m i n s i d e . P o e t r y , s o t o s p e a k ,
returns and outlines what happened during the moment of writing
and reproduces through language the doubt on the state of
control of the creative process, facing the emergence of external
values that hadnt been searched. I think it is worth trying not to
pretend a complete control of these values and of the poetry
w o r k i t s e l f. O n e c o u l d s a y l i ke t h a t : I t r y t o p l a y w i t h
uncontrolled values, I evoke them, I integrate them into the
c r e a t i v e p r o c e s s a n d t r y t o fi n d a b a l a n c e p o i n t b e t w e e n w h a t
I know of my work (and of myself) and what, on the contrary,
avoids control. Maybe also in this sense it has been said that we
write in order to learn how to die (Ilse Aichinger). And, I would

like to add, one writes poetry in order to learn how to live,

because in writing (and living) we integrate our fear,
philogenetically as ontogenetically, of all we never knew or dont
remember anymore.
For every text I already spoke about as well as for the new text I
will speak about, I never pretend that the theoretical outline or
the technical and linguistic procedures consciously employed
f u l fi l t h e k n o w l e d g e o f t h e t e x t . P o e t r y a l w a y s s a y s m o r e t h a n
what we tell about it.

_Sound installations and electronic readings

Installations: o.m., sosta#1, sosta#3 (these last two with texts

from Lo spostamento degli oggetti)
L o s p o s t a m e n t o d e g l i o g g e t t i a n d R i d e fi n i z i o n e e l e c t r o n i c
readings (video of Berlin Ausland, speak about STEIM,
co ll abo ratio n wi th Paol o, readi n gs at Pr in tem ps des Po tes and
Arezzo Poesia, etc.): from installation to electronic reading.
I call my installations and performances reading environments,
i.e. spaces where my texts, that have not been originally wrote
for such a purpose, can be experienced in dialogue with
electronics and sound art.
I t s a s o r t o f r e s p o n s i b i l i t y: p o e t r y h a s t o g e t i n c o m m u n i c a t i o n
with digital media.
A politic responsibilty, because it is a direct manner through
which poetry can speak out against massive and a-critical uses of
digital media.
Sober and technically advanced treatments of the voice (my
reading voice is the sole sound material that I use in these
contexts) allow to enhance some semantical aspects of the
poem.
F o r t h o s e w h o a r e i n t e r e s t e d , t r e a t m e n t s a r e m a i n l y : fi l t e r i n g
( o n l y a l i t t l e b i t , r e v e r b s a n d r i n g m o d u l a t o r s a s fi r s t c h o i c e s ) ,
voice design and morphing, voice multi-channel live surround.
A reading environment is a space where the public can encounter
my texts in a way determined by the reading voice and the
treatments, as in a normal reading the way the text is perceived
and experienced depends only on the way the text is read. So
terms like installation or performance are only prearranged
concepts that may explain what I do, but they are not really good
t e r m s i n o r d e r t o d e fi n e t h e w a y I c o n c e i v e t h i s a s p e c t o f m y
work.

This means that:

Reading environments are only one possible way of reading my
poetry, that can still be read in a classical way, without any
loss;
According to the attention I pay in order to avoid what
Wittgenstein calls the logic of the double, reading environments
are not conceived as a double of the text, or a meta-text. They
also adhere to the text. Digital treatments applied on spoken
voice are seen as part of the poetry reading, they dont interfere
and dont say more about the text, they just enhance some
semantic sides of it and let poetry and voice interact with the
c o m p u t e r.
Therefore, I am not that sure anymore that I am going to create
new sound installations. I think that the simple reading with
digitally processed spoken voice is more coherent with such a
theoretical and aesthetical perspective.
The objects inside an installation space may have a big risk: to
move the reader/listener away from the poems, which must be
kept as the main point of the work. And they also might interfere
with the adherence I spoke about. I am still thinking over these
problems. Sometimes I think that I should keep the idea of an
installative space, but without objects, only a white or perhaps
e v e n b e t t e r b l a c k r o o m w h e r e p o e m s l i v e r e a d i n g i s d i ff u s e d i n
multi-channel surround and people are supposed to move without
seeing each other, being completely inside, themselves adhering
to the sound of the reading voice, to the texts, to the reading
environment.

_ O n R i d e fi n i z i o n e

R i d e fi n i z i o n e [ R e d e fi n i t i o n ] i s t h e t i t l e o f m y c u r r e n t p r o j e c t . I t
is conceived, even more than Lo spostamento degli oggetti, as a
sort of unique book where several events and themes are weaved
together as to form a non-linear plot.
E v e n i f R i d e fi n i z i o n e h a s a t h e o r e t i c a l b a c k g r o u n d t h a t i s q u i t e
similar to Lo spostamento degli oggetti, other aspects of this
background are more enhanced here.
A fi r s t , e v i d e n t d i ff e r e n c e i s t h e f o r m o f t h e t e x t s : t h e t e x t s
o f R i d e fi n i z i o n e a r e s q u a r e s . I k e p t t h e s m a l l l e t t e r s a s w e l l a s
the white spaces between words.
Sometimes the form of the square explodes. They are often
s i tu at i on s in w hi c h a p os s i bi li t y of s a lv at io n is e nv is ag e d. We
will see it as we go along.
Fi r s t , l e t m e d e s c r i b e t h e b o o k w i t h m o r e d e t a i l s .
Until a short time ago, there were four sections, but they became
three, because I will scatter the fourth one into the other three.
T h e fi r s t s e c t i o n , f o r m e d e l b u i o [ f o r m s o f t h e d a r k ] c o n s i s t s i n a

series of events and theoretical remarks functioning as a sort of

antecedent fact (the title before was aderente
non
lineare [adhering
non linear]).
In the following text, for example, I express one of the main
themes of the book: the change of paradigm is often enunciated
at the conditional tense, as a possibility, a hypothesis that has
to be formulated beside two impediments, two obstacles:
A cognitive obstacle: in this book, language tries often to
i m a g i n e t h e r e a l a s o u r s e n s e s h a d a d i ff e r e n t b i o l o g i c a l
c o n fi g u r a t i o n , w h i c h i s a p a r a d o x ;
A p o l i t i c a l o b s t a c l e : e v e n w h e n a c o n c r e t e l y p o s s i b l e d i ff e r e n t
p a r a d i g m i s e n u n c i a t e d , i t i s d i ffi c u l t t o c a r r y i t i n t o e ff e c t
because the mediatic and political situation has an interest in
m a i n t a i n i n g k n o w l e d g e a n d a c t i o n p a r a d i g m s w e h a v e a l r e a d y. S o
the cognitive problem becomes a political problem.
.
[se non fosse per le cose di una vita / if it wasnt for those
objects in a life
see texts]
.
T h e fi r s t a n d t h e l a s t s e n t e n c e ( i f i t w a s n t ) d e n o t e t h e
obstacles I spoke about before. The rest of the poem speaks
about how to conceive a possible paradigm beyond these
obstacles.
Sort of external perspective of this text (and of the whole
section): remarks, thoughts before a very particular sort of
fi c t i o n t a k e s p l a c e i n t h e b o o k .
A f t e r t h e fi r s t s e c t i o n a d e r e n t e
non lineare there are two
longer sections, emette brusii [it buzzes] and lavoro di
emersione [work of emergence] (we already read a text of this
section, as you remember).
T h e s e c t i o n e m e t t e b r u s i i [ i t b u z z e s ] i s s p e c i fi c a l l y p o l i t i c a l a n d
a part of its texts, as its written in the book itself, are
g e n e r a t e d b y n e w s f o u n d o n t h e w e b a b o u t c o n fl i c t s a n d
vi ol en ces in Mi ddle E as t areas, es peci al l y Isr ael -Pales ti ne,
Afghanistan and Iraq.
The reasons why I chose news talking about these areas will be
clearer as we go along. I can say for now that four aspects
always interested me:
T h e d a i l y i t e r a t i o n o f n e w s c o n c e r n i n g t h e M i d d l e E a s t c o n fl i c t s ;
The historical and political importance of Middle East events
today (I believe that poetry still has to talk about main aspects
and questions of human life);
T h e w a y w e b i n f o r m a t i o n s p e a k s a b o u t t h o s e c o n fl i c t s : o n e c a n
o f t e n fi n d d e s c r i p t i o n s o f h o r r i b l e e v e n t s t h a t , b e c a u s e o f t h e
frenquency in which such events occur (point 1), become shorter
and shorter (just the number of deaths, the place of the event,
the source of the information);

T h e w a y s u c h e v e n t s a p p e a r v e r y o p a q u e t h ro u g h m e d i a
information: even if there are still detailed articles about Middle
E a s t c o n fl i c t s , i t s e e m s o f t e n t h a t s o m e b o d y w a n t s t o h i d e a
more precise information, or even that the real situation is so
complicated that it is impossible to describe it.
It is a question of iteration and non-linearity between events and
information: either the event itself isnt linear, or it is the
mediatic information that is not directly connected to the event
as it occurred.
Poetry, through iteration techniques and non-linear narratives,
can function here as a sort of critical instrument.
In order to produce a critical dialogue between poetry and these
i s s u e s , I p r o c e e d e d i n t h e f o l l o w i n g w a y : fi r s t , I m a d e a d a t a b a s e
w i t h a s e r i e s o f w e b n e w s o n s i g n i fi c a n t e v e n t s . T h e n I c o p i e d
and pasted some parts of them into my squares and wrote my
own text somehow inside them, splitting articles in several
parts and entering my text between these parts. At the end, I
erased the news and left my text, recomposing and readjusting
it.
In such a procedure, itself non-linear, the event and the way it is
told are not there anymore in the text, which is conceived
somehow after the information, as to testify a deeper layer of
its emotional result: a sort of undetermined and forgotten
n u c l e u s o f p a i n c o m i n g f ro m u n k n o w n e v e n t s o c c u rr i n g o u t t h e r e ( t h e M i d d l e E a s t c o n fl i c t s p a c e s ) t h a t a r e t r a n s p o s e d
through media into western bourgeois spaces:
.
[la ventola deriva / the fan drifts
see texts]
.
The undetermined element of the plastic bag containing a
s u ff e r i n g b e i n g h a s , b e s i d e s i t s p o l i t i c a l f u n c t i o n , a r e l a t i o n t o
some themes we met talking about Lo spostamento degli oggetti,
an d it s m ai nl y ab ou t t he ep ip h an y of th e u nk no w n .
An image that is quite similar to this one, as you might
remember, occurs at the end of the third section of Lo
spostamento degli oggetti: the certainty we cant return / to the
place where something was breathing / and bleeding in the
grass.
The theme of the unknown and the undetermined has, as
m a n y o t h e r t h e m e s i n s i d e R i d e fi n i z i o n e , t w o o r m o r e f a c e s ,
sometimes a positive, other times a negative or a neutral face.
In the previous text the unknown hides and shows at the same
time something terrible. In the following text belonging to the
fi r s t s e c t i o n ( f o r m s o f t h e d a r k ) , f o r e x a m p l e , t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f

the epiphany of the unknown reminds somehow of the atmosphere

we found in opaco, therefore it is completely neutral, though
emotionally deep:
.
[siamo entrati nel giardino di notte / we entered the garden at
night
see texts]
.
The end of this text, that echoes a line of an unfortunately quite
un kn ow n pos th u mo us po em by Paul C el an ( al s w r e der Weg scho n
durchmessen), talks about a cognitive examination of the real,
and has to do with metaphysics as with the world-language we
live in: theres something we dont know and we wont probably
never know, but we can try, through poetry, to describe an
epiphany of the unknown as we could experience it. This is
what I would like to call, referring to the conditional mood,
a conditional (cognitive) attitude.
This attitude can allow us to imagine through poetry at least how
we could cross the cognitive and the political obstacle I was
talking about.
The conditional mood opens a space of possibility, but, at the
same time, it makes the poem able to say something not
belonging, or not belonging anymore, to the space of possibility,
because if this something could be conceived, then it would be
expressed through the indicative mood. Several apparently
contradictory aspects coexist here.
What I call conditional attitude must be seen beyond the simply
grammatical conditional mood. A conditional attitude consists in
saying a possibility that didnt belong to reality before.
T h i s a s p e c t c a n b e e x p l a i n e d v e r y w e l l t h r o u g h c i n e m a . . Tw o
beautiful cinematographic examples of the conditional attitude
are:
The end of Spike Lees movie The 25th hour, when the father
tells the protagonist how his life would be if they didnt take the
road to the prison where the protagonist has to spend 7 years of
his life.
D a v i d L y n c h s M u l h o l l a n d D r i v e : a l m o s t a l l t h e fi l m i s , a g a i n ,
a n o n - l i n e a r s t o r y t e l l i n g ( t h e n a r r a t i v e s t r u c t u r e s o f Ly n c h s
m o v i e s d e e p l y i n fl u e n c e d m y w o r k ) o f h o w t h e p r o t a g o n i s t w o u l d
have liked her life to be. In this case, the conditional mood is
a negative device, because it is the product of the
hallucinatory activity of the protagonist.
Fr o m a p o l i t i c a l p o i n t o f v i e w , t h i s m e t h o d , w h i c h i s b a s i c a l l y
a fi c t i o n m e t h o d , a p a r a d i g m o f fi c t i o n , c a n a l l o w u s t o i m a g i n e
the margins of a story, a story that is a part of our non-linear
and itself partial history and is obtained in rendering poetry an
emission device and a critical procedure, like in this text of
the second section, emette brusii [it buzzes]:

.
[la notizia udita in tutti i luoghi dotati di un dispositivo di
d i ff u s i o n e / y o u c a n h e a r t h e n e w s w h e r e v e r t h e r e i s a n e m i s s i o n
device
see texts]
.
The dizziness is the product of the blinding distance through
which information comes to us. Here we know that theres
an invasion, that someone gets in somewhere with violence, in a
place where a television is turned on. Noise covers something
v i o l e n t h a p p e n i n g . I t s m a y b e t h e n o i s e o f t h e t e l e v i s i o n i t s e l f.
But theres a contradiction: we forced the door and we had the
keys. Wheres the truth?
Its a little bit like, so to make another cinematographic
example, in Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, where the same story
i s t o l d i n f o u r d i ff e r e n t w a y s , w i t h a l o t o f c o n t r a d i c t i o n s , a n d
these ways seem all to be the truth.
Here poetry is a multidimensional storytelling, a multiple
truth rendering the non-linearity of the real and the further layer
of non-linearity added by media and information.
The plastic bag, one of the many patterns inside this book (Ill
talk about it later), is also abandoned and forgotten, but
somewhere else.
In the last text of this second section, the being inside the
plastic bag, bleeding and moaning, manages to go out. Here
theres a possibility of salvation, a possibility of (re)describing,
of changing the real, and therefore the square of the text, a
sort of prison or theatre stage or television with words inside,
explodes:

[sanguinante nel sacchetto / bleeding in the plastic bag

see texts]
.
Here, as in many other texts, the impossibility to establish
everywhere the grammar and the syntax of the sentences has a
deep relation to this need poetry has for me to render the
complexity and non-linearity of the world-language. I use a lot
r h e t o r i c fi g u r e s l i k e a n a c o l u t h o n a n d a p o k o i n o u ( s h o w t h e m
inside the text).

The section emette brusii ends with this text, so that its
impossible to know how this story goes on, if theres somebody
in the straw, able to rescue the dying being.
We c an n ow te m p or ar il y i de nt ify s om e re cu rri ng th em es a nd
t e c h n i q u e s i n s i d e R i d e fi n i z i o n e :
Non-linear narratives and logics, as in Lo spostamento degli
oggetti, but with a more radical approach on the whole text; I
will call this approach multidimensional narrative editing of the
macro-text: several stories and several meaning levels inside the
same story are put in dialogue and superposed through the whole
book. This aspect will be clearer as we will speak about the third
and the fourth sections.
The theme of the undetermined, of what can or cant be
said/known.
The conditional attitude: a possibility of (re)describing the real
i n o r d e r t o i m a g i n e h o w i t w o u l d b e m o d i fi e d i f i t w a s p o s s i b l e t o
modify it, if it would be possible to cross the cognitive and
the political obstacle.
As well notice even better as we go along, theres no more
distinction between form and content. Formal techniques are also
themes, and vice versa. Exactly like in the square of text,
which is not only a form.
The third section, called lavoro di emersione [work of emergence]
enhances and expands these themes in adding other narrative
dimensions interacting with the two other sections.
I n p a r t i c u l a r , t h e re s a t h i rd o b s t a c l e a d d e d t o t h e c o g n i t i v e
and political ones. I will call it emotional obstacle.
The emotional obstacle is mainly represented by two
themes: childhood and communication between human
b e i n g s . R i d e fi n i z i o n e c r o s s e s s e v e r a l n o n - l i n e a r p l o t s o f
memories, experiences and feelings that have
been normalized (i.e. they lost their centralness as emotions, the
became daily non-verbal parts of the self).
The conditional attitude is applied to these themes as well, so
that the poem often proceeds with paradigms and logics that
open a space of possibility to conceive an event of the past or of
the present as it might have happened or should have happened
or c ou ld h ap p en , in ord er t o ca ll u po n n orma li z ed an d
repressed memories, experiences and desires to speak.
This procedure allows sometimes the composition of texts that
may appear as a sort of contemporary elegy. The conditional
mood is used itself as a sort of elegiac technique through which
the loss, typical of the elegiac form, reaches our present, and
completely disgregates the elegiac form itself:
.
[eri nel sottoscala / you were under the stairs
see texts]

.
you were suddenly becomes the present: i feed you. Then
turns back in the past tense in the middle of the second stanza:
you knew we had to go. At the end, the conditional mood: i
would have liked to tell you where i was. The present tense
comes back in the whole last stanza.
B a s i c a l l y a s i n L o s p o s t a m e n t o d e g l i o g g e t t i , a d i ffi c u l t y o f
communication between a man and a woman is (re)described here
in order to make hidden or repressed dimensions appear and
emerge: work of emergence. The elegy is not more an elegy, but,
again, a cognitive approach.
In another text, the plot technique that I called multidimensional
narrative editing of the macro-text becomes itself a theme, in
dialogue with the childhood-theme, the unknown-theme and
the conditional attitude:
.
[in quel movimento di correre / in that movement of running
see texts]

Multiple perspectives: running in a body, running up to a body,

r u n n i n g u p a b o d y. I u s e p a r e n t h e s e s a l s o i n o t h e r t e x t s i n o r d e r
to give a polysemic approach to the sentence.
Fe el in g a no th e r bo dy la rg e r th an o ur s is for m e t he ex p re ss io n
of childhood. Childhood is mentioned, by the way, in the second
s t an z a, as w e ll as t he c o nd it i on al m oo d: i t w ou ld m ea n .
T h e fi r s t s t a n z a , a s i n s e v e r a l o t h e r c a s e s i n s i d e t h i s b o o k ,
is interrupted: perhaps
a story. The non-linear narrative of
the story/ies and what I called in cos le cose nella casa (in Lo
spostamento degli oggetti) the inexplicable lack of data cause
often the incompleteness of the text.
Non-linearity and the lack of data on everything are two
fundamental properties of reality as we, the human beings,
e x p e r i e n c e i t . M y p o e t r y, s i n c e I c o n s i d e r i t a s a p a r t o f t h e r e a l
(do you remember: no distinction, no solution of continuity
between reality and language, we all live in a world-language) is
t h e r e f o r e i t s e l f n o n - l i n e a r . I m i g h t s a y , t o u s e a n o t h e r s c i e n t i fi c
d e fi n i t i o n , t h a t w o r l d a n d l a n g u a g e i s a c o m p l e x s y s t e m . B u t I
dont like the term system, as you can easily understand.
Th ere s no s y s t e m . I d ra th er pref er t o ca ll i t m o de l . We
produce models and we are now able to produce complex,
multidimensional and non-linear models.
The lack of data is another main cause of the conditional
attitude: we dont have enough information, so that we need to
fi n d o t h e r p a r a d i g m s i n o r d e r t o d e s c r i b e t h e w o r l d a s w e k n e w

more about it. This is basically another way to call what I called
before the cognitive obstacle.
The same thing may be said relating to the emotional obstacle,
so that the work of emergence consists in going beyond the lack
of data generated by the emotional obstacle and tell our story
i n a n o t h e r w a y.
But this aspect has also to do with the political issue: politics,
more and more, dont use media in order to inform, to testify the
complexity of history (and stories happening inside it), but as
a bad conditional attitude, as a bad change of paradigm. Its
very simple, even banal, I would say, and its incredible that
there are people who dont realize it: media (several sorts of
fi c t i o n s , m o t i o n p i c t u r e s , n e w s , v i d e o g a m e s , e t c . ) ( r e ) d e s c r i b e
how they would like the events to be in order to determine the
way people have to think and believe.
Poetry can (and has to, I think) conceive strategies against such
a practice. The following text of work of emergence continues
s o m e h o w t h e fi c t i o n o f t h e t e x t y o u c a n h e a r t h e n e w s , c o n t a i n e d
in the previous section, and says something more about the same
event:
.
[quando abbiamo forzato la porta / when we forced the door
see texts]
.
H e re w e d is co v er th at t h ere are p eo pl e i n t h e ap ar tm en t . We
dont know if theyre scared because the event of violence
already happened or is going to happen. Then information stops:
lack of data, political obstacle: we say we forgot what
happened.
T h ere s of c o ur s e a s cre e n an d it s on th e s cre en t ha t t he p lo t
interrupts again. In the whole book, when the last line of a
stanza doesnt close the square and is after a white space (so
that its not the continuation of the sentence from the previous
line), it means that the sentence is interrupted, interrupted
because its impossible to go on.
Theres something we dont know or we cant say for a cognitive
reason (like Wittgensteins Schweigen), for an emotional reason
or, like here, because theres a more powerful instance that
prevents the text from going on.
A last particular: the child is (of course) a connecting point
between this story coming from the previous section, it buzzes,
and the current section, work of emergence (childhood-theme
and political-theme cross each other).
I am speaking about a very complicated situation: as I was
already arguing talking about emette brusii, on the one hand

t h e r e a r e e v e n t s w h i c h h a v e a fi r s t , s i m p l e l a y e r o f t r u t h t h a t
media sometimes try to partially or completely hide (for example,
an event of violence can happen or not: here media are nonlinear and the event is linear: non-linear on linear, so to say).
On the other hand, theres a non-linear reality in which truth is
much more multiple and complex than how media want people to
believe (for example, the political and ethical responsibilities
connecting September 11th to the war in Iraq: here media
r e c o n s t r u c t a n o r m a l i z i n g l i n e a r fi c t i o n o n a n o n - l i n e a r
succession of events: linear on non-linear).
It s like m edia hid the truth when its possible to identify it and
showed one single truth when there are many complex ones. So,
theres a high probability that media make the wrong thing!
Let me read for you, without any comment, this news I read on
w w w. r e u t e r s . i t ( I w i l l p r o b a b l y p u t i t i n m y b o o k ) :
The Minister of the Interior Jawad Al-Bolani said that Iraq AlQ a e d a h e a d A b u Ay y u b A l - M a s r i w o u l d h a v e b e e n k i l l e d t o d a y i n a
fi g h t a g a i n s t t h e m i l i t a n t s i n t h e n o r t h e r n p a r t o f B a g h d a d .
Bolani and the Minister of Defence General Abdel Kader Jassim
said that this information has a high reliability . After another
question about al-Masris death Bolani added: If he hasnt been
killed today, he will be killed tomorrow.
I would now like to attract your attention on the use of the
pattern technique inside this book. There are many patterns and
repetitions and sometimes they even may appear really obsessing
.
Patterns and repetitio ns are, as I al ready to ld abo ut Lo
spostamento degli oggetti in making some comparisons with
visual arts and music, an important part of my work.
I n R i d e fi n i z i o n e t h i s t e c h n i q u e i s e v e n m o r e r e g u l a r l y u s e d t h a n
in Lo spostamento degli oggetti : it takes part to the
multidimensional narrative editing of the macro-text and gives
coherence to the whole project.
Lets take, for example, the plastic bag pattern we met in the
second section. In the third section, theres a white, thick and
t r a n s p a r e n t p o c k e t , a s o r t o f l i v i n g a n d s o m e t i m e s a r t i fi c i a l
membrane (we already found the membrane in another text, by
t h e w a y , a n d w e a l r e a d y r e a d a t e x t o f R i d e fi n i z i o n e m a k i n g u s e
of this pattern (still descending)).
In the following text of lavoro di emersione we discover a
possible content of the pocket (its the only case; in lots of
cases the pocket is just there and breathes, in other cases its a
sort of stomach or in general an organ containing something
unknown):
.
[forse la sacca bianca e trasparente / perhaps the white and
transparent pocket
see texts]

.
Wax: Ren Descartess Metaphysical Meditations . An
instrument, a paradigm in order to approach the real, the
world-language we live in.
This text describes a failure: the communication is not
possible, somebody is not there and cant unfortunately
discover the breathing pocket, that could maybe tell
him/her/them something more about the cognitive and
e m o t i o n a l l a c k o f d a t a h e / s h e / t h e y e x p e r i e n c e d p r e v i o u s l y.
Here, as
another
oggetti:
at home

in several other texts we wont read, theres

pattern we already found in Lo spostamento degli
how objects appear and behave when nobody is
(cos le cose nella casa).

I n t h e f o l l o w i n g o t h e r t e x t , d e s c r i b i n g a l s o , s o m e h o w, a
failure, the pocket is a sort of possibility of a wider and
deeper perception of reality:
.
[viene aperto larmadio nella penombra / the wardrobe
comes open in semi-darkness
see texts]
.
The pocket belongs, if you remember Matte Blancos model,
to the same set of the suitcase (we might call it objects
containing something). The hypothesis is that the suitcase
c o n t a i n e d r e a l i t y, a n d t h a t , t h r o u g h t h e p o c ke t , a w i d e r
perception of reality could be obtained if we were not
too busy searching. Even if theres no conditional mood,
its clearly still a conditional (cognitive) attitude.
T h e fi g u r e o f t h e D u t c h 1 7 t h c e n t u r y p a i n t e r J a n V e r m e e r i s
very important here: I always thought that his paintings
r e p r e s e n t a s o r t o f e n h a n c e d a n d w i d e n e d r e a l i t y. T h e f o r m s
and colours in his paintings are so three-dimensional that
they might seem multidimensional and might represent a
surplus of reality.
He re w e se e Ve rm ee r in to a mug sh ot , a p ol ic e p ho to : w he n I
was in Amsterdam, I saw once an advertising poster of the
Rijksmuseum consisting in a self-portrait of another Dutch
p a i n t e r, R e m b r a n d t , w i t h a w o r d b e l o w : g e z o c h t , w h i c h i n
D u t c h m e a n s w a n t e d . I c h a n g e d w i t h V e r m e e r, b e c a u s e
Verme e r w as m uc h mo re us ef ul fo r my pu rp ose s. I l iked t he
political approach of this poster: art is socially dangerous.
I t h i n k g o o d a r t d e fi n i t e l y i s !
A n o t h e r p a t t e r n w e fi n d i n t h i s t e x t i s t h e p a r k . W e c o u l d
argue that it can also be the public garden of the second

section, emette brusii, where the plastic bag with the

s u ff e r i n g b e i n g i n s i d e w a s m i s l a i d .
The fourth section of the book was called da 1000m [from
1000m]. I spread its texts during these last days into the
t h r e e o t h e r s e c t i o n s ( m a i n l y t h e fi r s t o n e ) , b u t I w i l l s t i l l
talk about them as they were part of a fourth section, since
t h e y a r e c o n c e i v e d a n d w r i t t e n u s i n g a s p e c i fi c t e c h n i q u e :
I n e m e t t e b r u s i i , a s y o u r e m e m b e r, I p r o d u c e d m y t e x t
between a foreign text (the news about the Middle East
c o n fl i c t ) t h a t I c o p i e d , p a s t e d a n d fi n a l l y e r a s e d . I n d a
1000m I copied parts of articles about creatures living in
the deep sea that I found on books and in the web
(creatures living under 1000 meters, that is why the title
was from 1000m: from 1000 meters of depth, not of height),
p a s t e d t h e m i n t o s q u a r e s a n d , a t t h e e n d , m o d i fi e d t h e m
if necessary and above all erased the names of the creature
each article was talking about.
The result can be something like that, and its not without
humour:

le sue ventose sono anche lanterne / its suckers are also

lanterns
see texts]

Or like that:

[il lento battito delle membrane increspate / the slow beat

o f i t s r u ffl e d m e m b r a n e s
see texts]

As you might notice, I found that the peculiarities of these

c r e a t u r e s fi t v e r y w e l l i n w h a t w e c a n n o w c a l l
the membrane pocket digestive system pattern we
already met several times talking about the other sections,
but there are also other reasons why I chose this subject:
As the membrane pocket digestive system pattern
denotes something unknown emerging besides the
three cognitive, political and emotional obstacles, these
a n i m a l s r e p r e s e n t f o r m e a n o t h e r p a r a d i g m , a d i ff e r e n t a n d
m o s t l y u n k n o w n r e a l i t y t h a t i s s t i l l r e a l i t y, b e c a u s e t h e s e
creatures exist, even if they seem so unusual to us. But its
this strangeness (in the sense of the Italian strano
e s t r a n e o s t r a n i e r o o r t h e Fr e n c h t r a n g e

tranger: strange also in the sense of foreign, alien) that

allows the change of the perception paradigm.
M o r e o v e r, t h e s e a n i m a l s l i v e i n t h e d e e p s e a , s o t h a t i t
works very well with my conception
of emergence and deepness of repressed meanings.
The way I created these texts also has an exact relation to
my conception of adherence, of writing barefoot at the sea
level (in this case I should say in the deep sea!): the text is
perfectly integrated into the real, it says the peculiarities
of a part of the real. The text aims to be the animal.
I chose not to write down the names of the deep sea animals
because I wanted this issue to become more general,
polysemic and better integrated in the context of the book.
M o r e o v e r, I f o l l o w e d a l s o h e r e t h e c o n c e p t i o n o f
depersonalization of the lyrical I into an undetermined
b e i n g a c t i n g a t t h e t h i r d p e r s o n . A s y o u m i g h t r e m e m b e r, I
already spoke about it concerning Lo spostamento degli
oggetti.
These aspects take us to the choice of the title of the whole
b o o k , R i d e fi n i z i o n e [ R e d e fi n i t i o n ] :
r e d e fi n i t i o n o f t h e w o r l d - l a n g u a g e t h r o u g h m u l t i d i m e n s i o n a l
paradigms of (re)description provided by poetry;
r e d e fi n i t i o n i n t h e s e n s e o f t e l l i n g s o m e t h i n g ( o u r i n t i m a t e
s t o r y, o u r c h i l d h o o d , o r a s o c i a l , a p o l i t i c a l s t o r y, a s t o r y
t h a t i s h i s t o r y ) i n a n o t h e r w ay, i . e . b e y o n d i t s c o g n i t i v e ,
political and emotional obstacles (the conditional attitude I
spoke about belongs also to this aspect);
r e d e fi n i t i o n i n t h e t e c h n i c a l s e n s e o f d e fi n i t i o n : p o e t r y
as a f oc us in g d ev ic e of th e rea l, as Verme e r s pa in ti ng .
I would like to conclude with a consideration about literary
g e n r e s . C a n t h e s q u a r e s o f R i d e fi n i z i o n e b e
considered poetry?
Of course we know that prose poetry exists at least since
t h e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y . B u t I d o n t t h i n k R i d e fi n i z i o n e i s p r o s e
p o e t r y. T h e b o o k i s c o n s i d e r e d a s a w h o l e , t h e r e s a v e r y
particular form of narration, theres a conceptual and
theoretical approach, texts arent conceived in a rhetoric metaphoric way (exactly as in Lo spostamento degli
oggetti).
R i d e fi n i z i o n e i s n o t a f o r m o f p r o s e e i t h e r, b e c a u s e t h e
squares have a precise form, they dont take the whole page
up (like normal prose does), they have a very precise,
t h o u g h i r r e g u l a r a n d d e c o n s t r u c t e d , r h y t h m o r, b e s i d e s
rhythm (another very complicated question) there are
a n y w a y s m a l l l e t t e r s a n d w h i t e s p a c e s , t w o d e fi n i t e
experimental poetry devices.
We could give two possible answers, then:
We dont care. 20th century taught us that literary genres
are merely conventional. The Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi

a l r e a d y w r o t e i t a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y, b y
t h e w a y. W e b a s i c a l l y j u s t n e e d t o k n o w
t h a t R i d e fi n i z i o n e i s e x p e r i m e n t a l w r i t i n g w i t h a n
aesthetical, ethical, emotional and above all gnoseological
approach. Exactly as we dont need to know if my poetry is
a v a n t - g a r d e o r n e o - a v a n t - g a r d e p o e t r y, o r l y r i c a l p o e t r y, o r
p h i l o s o p h i c a l p o e t r y, o r m o d e r n i s t , p o s t - m o d e r n i s t , n e o m o d e r n i s t o r w h a t e v e r p o e t r y. I j u s t w o u l d l i k e t o u n d e r l i n e
that its experimental in a wider sense. That is very
important to me. Again, as a cognitive approach.
If we really do want to discuss the genre, then I would
s i m p l y s ay t h a t i t s p o e t r y, k n o w i n g t h a t I m u s i n g a
conventional term. Jean-Marie Gleize uses the neologism
p o s t - p o e t r y t o d e fi n e t h e w o r k o f s e v e r a l a u t h o r s a s w e l l
as for his own writing. Post-poetry [post-posie] is poetry
considered beyond literary genres. I think in general that
w e a l w a y s u s e c o n v e n t i o n a l n a m e s i n o r d e r t o d e fi n e a v e r y
particular concentration, synthesis and critical conception
of language and world, of the world-language. Poetry can
employ narrative paradigms, can be written in squares
i n s t e a d o f l i n e s o r m e t r i c a n d s t i l l b e d e fi n i t e l y 1 0 0 %
p o e t r y, b e c a u s e t h e f a c t t h a t i t s p o e t r y i s d e c i d e d b e y o n d
the form, at the deepest semantical, syntactical,
conceptual, emotional, cognitive layers of linguistic
expression. And its not a question of formalism either
(formalism is a very obsolete approach of all the questions
concerning poetry in a deeper sense).