Someone called looking for me
Someone called looking for me
in the night, but I didn’t make it on time
and in the receiver, between the tu-tu tones,
it seemed to me there was a rustle
or rather a frenzied spinning
like insect wings against a glass.
Suddenly I thought of the house on the port,
of the bee swarm besieging the terrace
and of you not calling for too long a time.
Then I picked up the phone again
to ask you if just now,
while I was sleeping …
In all these years, which I could sum up
with dozens of dreams about the two of us embraced
and with solitary, shaking awakenings, I felt you
so close and alive in every moment
that many times I forget:
you’re not reachable anymore
and you can’t call from any telephone booth,
or, at least, that’s what many believe.
(postcard from Acquarola, no date / from Prove del diluvio, 2017 – section Cartoline al tuo silenzio)
* * * * *
It would be nice to see each other again
It would be nice to see each other again
off and on
to tell stories,
odd and out of the time,
like, for example, that I’ve built a balloon
with ropes, a basket, and the terrace’s sunshades
to save ourselves
with our dogs and a tiny suitcase
from when it rains – it’s not known how soon,
but they passed on that it will –
and cities won’t be seen anymore,
they’ll disappear: the squares
will turn to lakes,
streets to swollen rivers
and platforms on top of skyscrapers
to concrete islands that will crop out
and where we can land
if we’re up to it
and if the wind won’t be too strong.
(From Residence Cielo, 2018 – section VIII Sarà un posto quello)
* * * * *
Born in 1950 in Cesenatico, Stefano Simoncelli founded the magazine Sul porto in the 1970s, which gained the attention (and collaboration) of poets such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Attilio Bertolucci, Giorgio Caproni, Vittorio Sereni, Franco Fortini, Giorgio Orelli, Roberto Roversi, Giovanni Raboni and Giovanni Giudici. In 1981, he won the Premio Internazionale Mondello Opera Prima with the poetry collection Via dei Platani (published by Guanda, presented by Raboni and Fortini). In 1989, the book Poesie d’avventura came out with Gremese Editore in the series Gli Spilli, directed by Enzo Siciliano. Simoncelli has published the following poetry collections with PeQuod, a publishing house in Ancona, Italy: Giocavo all’ala (2004; awarded the Premio Gozzano); La rissa degli angeli (2006); Terza copia del gelo (2012; awarded the Premio biennale Diego Valeri); Hotel degli introvabili (2014); Prove del diluvio (2017); Residence Cielo (2018); La paura dei tuoni (2019); A beneficio degli assenti (2020; awarded the Premio Nazionale Frascati Poesia); Un barelliere del turno di notte (2021). In 2020 he received the Orelli-Bellinzona award.