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From Prometheus to Antigone - the dream of a poet-photographer

When Mussorgsky wrote the music for his Pictures for an Exhibition, inspired by the drawings of his friend, the architect and artist Hartmann, who had just died, it was still during the Tsarist era and The Great Gate of Kiev perhaps offered him the opportunity to exalt in triumphant tones the ancient glory of Great Russia, of which Kiev, today the tragic heart of Ukraine, was then a part. Now Russian history seems to violently want to retrace its imperial steps, but this is certainly not the sense in which Roberto Mosi - a poet and photographer of the soul as well - recently wanted to reread that image. He certainly re-proposes it to us in a metaphorical key, as he makes us listen again to Ravel's magical version of 1929, which was followed by Kandinsky's delightful "figurines" aimed at representing the synaesthetic conception of the arts. The theme is in fact also dear to our poet, who has nevertheless chosen a courageous path: tracing the movements of the work, he wants to accompany us, with sweet obstinacy, towards the door of hope and trust in human creativity and in the cognitive progress that science definitely brings. In this way we pass through the most unusual images and subliminal messages of a city where, even in the midst of a pandemic crisis and behind masks, art is still alive (starting with the poor and contemporary art of the "murales", counterpointed by the archaeological discovery of the primitive art of graffiti), Roberto-Prometeo thus arrives at the "dream of the great Gateway to the River/Open to the Myth of Science, in a route - imaginatively painted with the colours and music of the street artists - that looks towards the hills of Arcetri to prepare an ideal dialogue with Galileo "on the destiny of the planets and the stars"... Or rather, on the destiny of humanity itself.

 

 


For Taormina, poetry means adventure, giving oneself up, even partially, to the reader and, through verse, wandering "along the roads of the world" in search of that truth which urges within, which gives candour and lightness to the soul and which, as a poet and lover of beauty and truth, he wishes to participate in and give and, above all, to find in the world, where superficiality, lies, indifference, disamour and deception prevail and reign: in short, everything negative that has been established and continues to be practised among men. The "wee hours" are those of creation, or of the "dream", which, even if it remains "entangled / in the branches of dawn", does not abandon the Poet but, on the contrary, strengthens in him the hope that human eyes will be opened to wonder; that the blindness of which the fall of mankind into that emptiness that is the persistent and profound absence of spirituality, and therefore of the divine fullness of being, of the inability to feel part of the Whole, will cease. Comforting, then, is the time taken away from the noisy daily routine and which gathers in the silence of the late hours, in the heart of the night, fecundator of dreams and winged thoughts, when in the peace so much beauty comes to confront and measure itself against the ruined world, to which the Poet does not feel he belongs and therefore his conscience suffers from a lack of poetry and love. Hence the impetus to become a 'pilgrim', a messenger of the loving poetic virtue that can lift men from the 'evil of living', that is, from not knowing how to choose the good to live according to feeling and reason. But words are not enough; they are 'dead language', if they are not dressed in poetry, if they do not sound like 'the notes of a violin', if the music does not correspond to the beauty of nature with which he often identifies the beloved woman, 'naturifying' herself, in turn, thus managing to best express the depth of that feeling, which is 'feeling' part of cosmic harmony. Our poet's poetry is this infinite entertainment with Beauty; it is the possibility of 'communicating', of communing with everything that corresponds to his spiritual 'needs', to the universality of the values and ideals to which he confirms his fidelity and which allow him to make peace with himself and with the world, accepting what remains of it that is good and that it is still possible to preserve, to save: remnants of feelings, fragments of conscience and flashes of light that nourish hope.


Review by Luciano Nanni

Literary n. 8 /2021

 

"Poetry. This is a precious little volume, whose characteristics distinguish it from many cheap publications: printing, layout, cover: an impeccable whole, because the eye also needs its part. Moreover, such a format was necessary because of the refined content, with an articulated formal subdivision, but consistent with the premise taken.

There is a significant relationship between poetry and music, first and foremost Musorgsky, a composer who "creates an extraordinarily bold and effective language" (Calvocoressi). (Calvocoressi), present here with the Pictures of an Exposition: it will be up to the reader to verify the 'ideal' connections between word and sound. The subject of Prometheus, by the way, has been put into notes by a considerable number of composers, including Beethoven, whose Creatures of Prometheus turns out to be a not insignificant work (Bruers)

 


Elegant and archaic are the verses of this new collection by Palermo poet Emilio Paolo Taormina entitled "Ore piccole" (Giuliano Ladolfi Editore, 2021; series "Perle poesia" directed by Roberto Carnero) and characterised by an unmistakable Taormina style. Verses, whose genesis is entrusted to the spontaneity of the senses and nothing else, not obsessed by the order of capital letters and punctuation - almost a counter-current choice in beat sauce of deconstruction of the classic metric form to support a flow of poetic consciousness that does not allow interruptions or unnecessary embellishments - and that propose an interesting Hungarian verticality: the reader is involved in a non-stop dive towards the welcoming but deep sea of memory and beauty experienced.

 


On 9 September 2021 at the Società delle Belle Arti "Casa di Dante", as part of the Settembre Dantesco initiatives, the book of poetry "Promethéus. Il dono del fuoco", author Roberto Mosi, publisher Giuliano Ladolfi. The meeting was held in person and was also broadcast online at the Society's Facebook address (address: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=1043494529727806&ref=notif&notif_id=1631199586507689&notif_t=live_video_explicit ).

The book was commented on by Silvia Ranzi and Nicoletta Manetti; Virginia Bazzechi G. sent a contribution which was read out. The author recalled that the myth of Prometheus is one of the most evocative myths, it concerns the theft of fire as a gift for the salvation of men: starting from the words of Aeschylus in the tragedy of Prometheus in Chains, he recalled that the gift can be interpreted as the gift to men of Art (the intertwined signs) and Science (the calculation).

In the work presented, starting from these assumptions, an articulated path is imagined that is covered with the cadence suggested by the Russian composer Mussorgshij in the composition "Pictures of an Exhibition", referring to a visit to the Moscow Gallery where the paintings of his friend the painter Victor Hartmann are exhibited, with passages from one room to another marked by the well-known motifs of the promenades. In the book 'Promethéus. The gift of fire', the art salon is represented by our cities and the urban landscapes offered today by the streets, houses and walls painted, increasingly, by street artists.


  1. Prometheus, reviews
  2. Vers l'est ou dans l'ornière du temps / Verso l'est o nel solco del tempo - Recensione
  3. Ananke on '900 Letterario
  4. Cristina Campo, review Andrea Temporellli

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