Welcome to Italian poetry - March 2006

Contemporary Italian Poetry March 1, 2006 A most heated debate, both in terms of criticism and poetic practice, is one which opposes two different ways of conceiving poetry. On the one hand there is poetry which protests against our linguistic conditioning and thus follows the path of transgression and experimentation. On the other hand there is poetry which makes use of the evocative capacity of words and whose strong points are lyricism and intensity of expression. If the Italian poets previously presented on these pages belong to the first group, the new Italian poet of the first quarter, Paolo Ruffilli, is a poet whom critics usually characterize as neo-lyricist. He is a poet who makes admirable use of words which are dense and meaningful and whose rigorous style encapsulates ellipsis and brevity.