Drops of stones

Descrizione

I had the occasion to read Luigi Pullia’s poetry a short time ago at a convention of the Universum Academy which he is an ambassador of. Only later did he express to me his wish to see his lyrics published. All it took was a brief reading and I immediately realised that I had pleasantly ‘stumbled upon’ an animus poeticus that was particular for its spontaneity and singularity. It was not at all difficult to notice the originality of his verses and so, little by little, a beautiful friendship and mutual esteem was born, made up of daily comparisons and reflections, which mutually enriched us. Today, I am here with the task of illustrating, or rather, describing his poetics to you. I must say that this is never an easy thing to do, in general, and in the case of Drops of Stone, precisely because of the profound poetic reflections that are symbiotically intersected with the most current philosophical and psychological studies (which is quite natural and spontaneous, given the author’s professional qualification, which is precisely that of psychoanalyst), as a critical observer and free of any external influence or contamination, it is an original poetic project that, almost by an alchemic descriptive empathy, succeeds in bringing the reader closer to it. The poet’s introspective enquiry is evident, aimed at constructing a sort of lyrical dimension that is atypical but powerful enough to feel the chimes of his poetic-narrating reflection reverberate in the soul, in which the poet himself, without searching for licences or precious proselytising, well describes the entire universe, as he perceives it, sees it… lives it. The semantics of the words is subdued, almost familiar, harmonious, never heavy or captious. Luigi writes with an almost Petronian simplicitas. Hence a sort of ‘odi et amo’ of Catullian memory towards life, the world around him, his family and the universe of his passions, always intimately connected, with real Pindaric projections that ‘dance’ on a multi-disciplinary level. The more oneiric part of his poetising is authoritatively articulated starting from a sort of new ‘recherche du temps perdu’ and then reaching what, for many, can be considered a true ‘mal du vivre’. The intermediate stages between these two moments are not futile, irrelevant and extemporaneous trifles; on the contrary, they represent the vital fabric, the emotional substratum, or, to put it better, the poetic structure of a sylloge that I am sure will open you up to new reflections. This is a paradigm very close to what is precisely the thinking of one of the greats of psychoanalysis with regard to poetry and the arts in general. I am talking about Sigmund Freud, who recognised in poets in particular – and artists in general – a natural inclination to unconscious knowledge of the complexity of the human psyche. Indeed, he himself wrote: “… poets are valuable allies and their testimony must always be taken into careful consideration, since they generally know a lot of things, between heaven and earth, that our academic knowledge does not even suspect”. (Essays on art, literature and language: Gradiva. Delirium and dreams in Wilhelm Jensen’s Gradiva, 1906, translated by Cesare L. Musatti, Bollati Boringhieri, reprinted 1997, p.460).

What matters most in poetry is therefore to transfer a quid, using the right words, and to this end, dear Luigi, I humbly believe that you have marvellously succeeded in achieving this end.

Antonello Di Carlo