L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS u n T e r z o M o n d o ( " M y America is becoming Third World "), dedicated to the decline of the United States; t h e F l u x a r e — T h e E u r o p e a n C o n n e x i o n exhibition (2015); his last p o e m , T r u m p ' s T r o j a n Horse (2017); the autobio- graphical, stream of con- s c i o u s n e s s n o v e l L i t t l e Boy, published in 2019; the drawings and sketches made in South America and used for a dedicated monograph by Zyzzyva. All examples of how much Ferlinghetti had to say and do, "In a dif- ferent way, yet again." But every relationship is bilateral, a bee-orchid con- nection. On the other side of the States, on the East Coast, Aprile Zanetti's ingenious, yet self-evident intuitions, got noticed: "It's all there — h e t h o u g h t w i t h s u r p r i s e during a college viewing of La Dolce Vita, when he was i n h i s 2 0 s — w h y h a s n ' t anyone before me noticed it? But it's the key of the movie: the vanity of the vanity fair!" He, unknown to Italian aca- demics and cinephiles, noti- ced the poetic presence of f a m o u s I t a l i a n p a i n t e r Giorgio Morandi's still lifes in Fellini's masterpiece. In 2008, he published an impertinent catalogue-book, L a N a t u r a M o r t a d e L a Dolce Vita - A Mysterious Morandi in the Matrix of Fellini's Vision, which was well received by Jean-Paul Manganaro, contemporary Italian literature and French philosophy's most renowned translator, and by art critic Renato Miracco, curator of the largest Morandi exhi- bition in the US. Thanks to t h e i n t e r e s t o f S a n F r a n c i s c o ' s I I C d i r e c t o r Amelia Antonucci, Aprile Zanetti's work ended up on the shelves at City Lights and in the hands of the most important figure of the San F r a n c i s c o R e n a i s s a n c e , Ferlinghetti himself, then 90. Five years later, they met by chance in North Beach, t h e n F e r l i n g h e t t i ' s b i o - g r a p h e r a n d t r a n s l a t o r , Giada Diano, put them in c o n t a c t a n d a s i m p l e a c q u a i n t a n c e b e c a m e a friendship between two peo- ple and two completely dif- ferent generations of immi- g r a n t s . T h a t s o m e s e v e n decades ran between the two didn't really matter: little by little, a balance developed between the two, just like between any two friends. Today, while loss still feels raw, and the wound of pain is still open, Aprile Zanetti discusses generously about the osmotic, interconnected creative experience he and F e r l i n g h e t t i s h a r e d , b u t remains reserved about his f e e l i n g s . I t ' s b e e n o n l y a w e e k s i n c e L o r e n z o ' s — Ferlinghetti's son— phone call, where he asked him to run to his father's bedside. A p r i l e Z a n e t t i w a s w i t h Ferlinghetti almost until the end, close to that moment, d e s c r i b e d i n A H e a p o f Broken Images, where "A setting sun / Holds off the night / All of this in time suspended / The universe holding its breath / There is a hush in the air / Life pul- ses everywhere / There is no such thing as death." But y o u c a n f e e l h i s e m o t i o n when he cites John Donne: "No man is an island. And when two islands meet, an archipelago is born and you grow close." Pollen now sets on a new flower. Aprile Zanetti won't write about Ferlinghetti, because "I wrote with him, while he w a s a l i v e . " T h e r e a r e n o revelations to make about "the People's Poet — a per- fect definition of him given, a b o u t t w o y e a r s a g o , b y Nancy J. Peters, poet, edi- t o r a n d c o - o w n e r o f C i t y L i g h t s B o o k s — b e c a u s e everyone knew Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who traveled all over the world." Rather, he t e l l s u s , " I ' l l d e d i c a t e t o Lawrence all that he entru- sted me to do, something much wider in scope." With a c l e a r g o a l i n m i n d : "Enlightening readers and, p e r h a p s , h e l p t h e m f i n d their own voice." Fluxare: the verb Ferlinghetti crea- t e d , w i t h t h e d r e a m o f i t becoming part of the Italian l a n g u a g e , w i t h w h i c h h e i n v i t e s u s a l l " t o l i v e l i f e trying to make our dreams c o m e t r u e f u l l y . " I t ' l l b e "Aprile's Ferlinghetti." Above all, Aprile Zanetti stresses how Ferlinghetti "Was an immense poet. His C o n e y I s l a n d o f t h e Mind remains the most sold poetry book in the US since the 1950s, and it was tran- slated in about 15 languages. H e d i d n ' t s i m p l y w r i t e a masterpiece. Whether you like it or not, Ferlinghetti b e c a m e a m a s t e r p i e c e because — let say this for posterity — you can't gene- rate a masterpiece from out- side yourself." While the world looked at Ferlinghetti as an ultra-cen- tenary about to enter his 1 0 3 r d y e a r o f l i f e , A p r i l e Zanetti surprisingly descri- bes him as a child: "We were like two 8 years old, because we'd only known each other for 8 years. Our relationship was in its infancy. We were mates, peers, Pinocchio and L u c i g n o l o . H e w a s ' l i t t l e boy,' I was piccirìddu. And so were my children, a mir- ror reflecting a mirror." When you think about it, he continues, "Even his poe- try was written for children: crystal-clear, simple, tran- sparent. Starting with 1955's Pictures of the Gone World, he stopped using punctua- tion. It was the first publica- t i o n o f t h e P o c k e t P o e t s S e r i e s c r e a t e d b y P e t e r Martin, another Italian, son of anarchist Carlo Tresca. It didn't have the stylistic fea- tures of beat poetry. There w a s n o B u k o w s k i , n o Kerouac, no Ginsberg and definitely no Burroughs — my favorite— in it." He had m a n a g e d t o c r e a t e " t h e fourth person of the singu- lar," as Deluze once rightly wrote: the linguistic ability to express a character's crea- ting forces. "Words bleed, words smile, words act like forces." And it is child-like also the way Ferlinghetti descri- bes Aprile to the Corriere della Sera, when presenting Little Boy, in 2019: "He is my folletto. A folletto with winged feet, all heart and spring. That's why his name is April." So, no: Mauro hasn't been the lucky one because he met Lawrence. Rather it was Lawrence, who had a poets' scout's instinct, to be lucky and "pick" Mauro as the 100th spring of his life. He o f t e n s a i d i t t o M a u r o : "Between the two of us, the luckier one is me." Aprile Zanetti adds that "fortune favors the bold." Nobody, though, knew more about destiny than Machiavelli: Continued from page 4 A portrait of Ferlinghetti in his own home (Photo courtesy of MAZEL BLOOM17 Archive) "We were like two 8 years old, because we'd only known each other for 8 years. Our relationship was in its infancy. We were mates, peers, Pinocchio and Lucignolo" Continued to page 8

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