ANNY BALLARDINI
"persona poems",
mirror specific sides of our condition as human
beings
The question is just too wide to be covered by a simple answer. The "I",
as you well know, could be anything or anybody,
since poetry not only allows for this, but almost
requires it. In the same way fiction requires
the Author to speak through different characters.
Poetic fiction is just infinite, there is a poem
I wrote to "Nowhere," for example, by
giving a person to the lack of space, title that
was later on stolen and used by someone else as
the title of her collection; oh, well.
I also think that it is one of the first and fundamental
devices used in poetry. By analyzing the most
intimistic poetic compositions, the "I' stands
out unparalleled. You can easily notice it with
the first lines written by children or adolescents,
to be later on replaced or invested by infinite
other subjects. The fact that the Poet is able
to identify someone else in the "I"
instead of him/herself, is quite interesting and
talks of the refinement art can bring. Remember:
"Being John Malkovich," one of the most
interesting movies I watched in the latest years.
Who is fundamentally the speaking "I"?
The same rhetorical question asked in class is
a simple device to ask ourselves one of the most
fundamental questions. The escamotage religions
portray, especially the Eastern ones that see
humanity as an only body, unveils the urge hidden
behind several "persona poems." Without
wanting to dig too much into the spiritual side
of the question but without wanting to disjoin
poetry from its main spiritual content, I can
state that "persona poems," like all
other poems, mirror specific sides of our condition
as human beings. And welcome are Poets who can
remind us of the complexity of our existence.
Here is my poem to Nowhere, from Opening and Closing
Numbers, Chicago: Moria Books, 2005.
Dear Nowhere,
somewhere is here with its boisterous pretending
the wrong mystical notion made cement
also
maupassant _but well before him_denounced_was
a stirring tendency to possess Earth
greed made to kill beyond frail perilous surviving
attempts
somewhere is tightening its claws on irrational
potential flights
within locked drops of absurdism depicted by few
anxious minds who trespass
the -where to reach a not- cutting out the delimited
some- heavy with surplus
nowhere,
since when you left
our lives are a misery with their inevitable ways
in heaps of dusty traps and the barricades
pulling up
become further somewheres to which I go to keep
my hope of you free from unwanted
psychological trends
caged boxes
reflecting stunned eyes for an absorbing unconsciousness
- hypnotized under the
dictation of mental
postures
please come back soon,
Anny
ANNY BALLARDINI lives in Bolzano, Italy. She grew
up in New York, lived in New Orleans, Buenos Aires,
Florence. A poet, translator and interpreter, she
teaches high school; edits Poets' Corner - Fieralingue,
an online poetry site; and writes a blog: Narcissus
Works. She has translated several contemporary poets
into Italian and English. Publications:
Opening and Closing,
Numbers,Poetry Blogs, Jacques Derrida,Instruments
of change.
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