L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 L'Italo-Americano S o m e y e a r s a g o , p o e t M a r i a M a z z i o t t i Gillan returned to her other artis- tic passion, painting. She confided in her friend and poet, Diane Di Prima, that she was unsure of herself in her renewed efforts to paint. Di Prima offered her some sagacious advice. Do what you do when you write poet- ry: just paint what you feel. T h a t w a s n o t o n l y good advice but obvious to Maria. One of her colorful paintings adorns the cover of her latest book of poems. Inside, are those character- istic poems that Maria has been writing for more than five decades and in nearly t w e n t y - f i v e b o o k s . F o r years, she has maintained a break-neck schedule: writ- ing, publishing, directing the poetry center at Passaic C o l l e g e , e d i t i n g t h e Paterson Review, as well as running the writing pro- g r a m a t B i n g h a m t o n , SUNY. She travels to Italy, where she gives readings, often at her maternal ances- tral village. Each year she conducts poetry workshops a t t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f Calabria. T h e g r e a t v a l u e o f h e r poetry is that she has chron- icled the pre-and post-war lives of Italian Americans in the US, our struggle up from the working class at a time when it was not popular to b e a n i m m i g r a n t o r a n American of Italian descent. M o r e i m p o r t a n t y e t , h e r poems often focus on the lives of immigrant and first-generation Italian women, whose lives were circumscribed on the one hand by those ancient cus- toms that continued to sur- vive in the New World, and on the other by the alien cul- ture that surrounded them and their families in urban, industrial America. Born and raised in New J e r s e y , G i l l a n c h r o n i c l e s more effectively than any Italian American poet that c o n f l i c t b e t w e e n t h e O l d World values in her Italian h o m e l i f e , a n d t h e n e w styles, values, and images of women that surrounded her growing up while attending public schools at mid-centu- ry. T h o u g h s e n t i m e n t i s a close companion when read- i n g G i l l a n ' s p o e m s , s h e always brings to her subject a careful and critical eye for detail. She opens the collec- tion with her book's title p o e m , i n w h i c h s h e recollects a moment when she sat on the b a c k s t e p s o f h e r family's apartment in a six-family tenement o n F i f t h A v e n u e , i n P a t e r s o n . T h e p o e t ' s voice connects various recollections: "Strange how memory is like the f r a g m e n t s o f a p u z z l e . " Randomly, following the emotions of the moment, she recalls images of her d a u g h t e r , t h e b l a c k o u t s h a d e s t h e g o v e r n m e n t required in 1944 during the war, her blue-collar father, a n u n c l e , t h e s m e l l o f marigolds, the local candy store, and a Mrs. Gianelli "who always fainted when she got upset." But knitting all these seemingly random images together is the feel- i n g f o r a t i m e " w h e n t h e stars were still visible in the sky." Gillan's poems chronicle a life that has all but disap- peared, invaluable stories and narratives that form the basis of many late-genera- tion Americans' lives. In The Children of Immigrants, she writes that "children don't know their ancestors/except through blue airmail let- ters." She reveals a family s e c r e t : h e r g r a n d f a t h e r deserted her grandmother, left for Argentina and never c a m e b a c k . I t w a s w e l l - known among Italian fami- lies at the time that many Italian men who immigrated to Argentina disappeared and never returned to their wives and families in Italy. Gillian's breadth of vision in recounting the immigrant experience is matched by her eye for detail. In Moll Flanders, Zia Louisa, and Me, she tells us how much she admires the indepen- dence of the eighteen-centu- ry fictional character Moll Flanders and compares her to Zia Louisa. In her public persona, she projected the image of a strong, inde- p e n d e n t w o m a n , b u t a t n i g h t , w h e n alone in her room, she could be overheard crying. Then in the morning, Gillan writes, zia Louisa would emerge, e l e g a n t l y d r e s s e d , a n d would always "tuck a lace handkerchief in her sleeve." In the poem, the image of that handkerchief becomes a "sorrow she carried hidden" within, one she would never allow herself to reveal. In The Day the Sky Fell, she recounts her own per- sonal sadness over her hus- band's illness, that she rep- resents in bleak images: the sky falling, the stark, flat Kansas roads, a flimsy VW bus, and "my white hands . . . clutching the door arm- rest," her angst of impend- i n g d o o m . I n W h a t d o I K n o w o f G r i e f , she writes about two friends who were "as close as two s p o o n s " a n d a b o u t h o w , after her husband's death, the "months [were] water- logged with tears." Months when she c o u l d f e e l " h i s g h o s t h a n d o n my cheek." G i l l a n ' s images give c o n c r e t e - n e s s t o her feel- i n g s . B u t togeth- e r w i t h h e r imagery is also a strong, s e l f - c o n f i d e n t n a r r a t i v e v o i c e t h a t d o m i n a t e s a l l poems. Her voice narrates the exhilaration and the sad- ness that come with the pas- sage of time. In Last May in San Mauro, Cilento 2017, s h e d e s c r - i b e s t h e j o y o f being able to return to her m o t h e r ' s v i l l a g e i n I t a l y w h e r e s h e h a s b e c o m e s o m e t h i n g o f a c e l e b r i t y a m o n g t h e t o w n s p e o p l e . Locals, some of whom recall her mother, attend her read- i n g s , a n d h e r p o e m s a r e translated into Italian. Later at home, she writes, "I take o u t m y m e m o r i e s o f S a n Mauro to hold in my hand / like a favorite jewel, see how it reflects the light, see how beautiful it is." These memo- ries are her comfort. The titles of some poems recount the content of many o t h e r s i n h e r c o l l e c t i o n : Growing Up in My Mother's House, Ode to the Movie Theaters of my Childhood, A t T h i r t e e n , T h e y S t i l l Called us Girls, My Father's Red Car, The Houses I lived i n , a n d W h a t m y F a t h e r T a u g h t m e . I n a l l t h e s e poems Gillan documents a radical shift in American values, and how growing up as an Italian American girl and young woman, she was caught between two worlds: her parents' immigrant val- ues and modern America. But there is yet a subtext visible to the careful reader in all that Gillan has written over the years. Obviously, h e r p o e m s c h r o n i c l e t h e Italian immigrant experi- e n c e , h o w e v e r , t h o u g h i t may seem otherwise to the s u p e r f i c i a l r e a d e r , h e r poems cannot be reduced o n l y t o s e n t i m e n t a l expressions about the Italian experience in America. Rather, they are statements about the immigrant experi- ence in general, and, above all, about the s t r u g g l e s o f a l l women who grew up -- and are growing up today -- in tradi- tional households but who have had to overcome emo- t i o n a l a n d p s y c h o l o g i c a l barriers to create a life for t h e m s e l v e s s e p a r a t e a n d distinct from their tradition- bound female forebears. As a result, Gillan has created an indelible record for the clever historian who, one day, can read her work and add a significant chapter in the social history of not just Italian immigration, but of all immigrant groups. Gillan's poetry and her remarkable life's journey out of her immigrant parents' h o m e , a n d h e r P a t e r s o n neighborhood is a testimony to the struggle and success of so many women's jour- neys, of all ethnicities, in America. K e n S c a m b r a y ' s m o s t r e c e n t b o o k i s I t a l i a n I m m i g r a t i o n i n t h e American West: 1870-1940. Univ. of Nevada Press KENNETH SCAMBRAY W h e n t h e S t a r s W e r e S t i l l V i s i b l e b y Maria Mazziotti Gillan LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS

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