GRACE AND ELEGANCE IN THE POETRY OF AIDA ZOPPETTI
The intelligence of the analogies (on which
many of these visual poems of Aida Zoppetti are based), is each time a motive
of wonder, gratitude and cheerfulness for their revealing aspect which gives
us the measure of how the correlation of the parts – the apparently
more extraneous and distant one form the other – can be a nearly invisible
grid which yet is to cross the whole world. The aim of the artist would then
be to individuate and show us such correspondences, releasing within us a
redeeming feeling of re-cognition. Yes, because next to Aida’s heron,
the slender man of Giacometti, thrust forward in the stride of a judicious
robot, assumes an even greater grace and elegance than had he been isolated.
This is even more true because we feel sure that Aida’s heron does not
invade Giacometti’s space, does not render it trivial or vulgar. It
only underlines it with objective pureness, making us more aware of it.
The heron is the poetic mirror of that figure of Giacometti, just as the giraffes
(with their legs apart so as to be able to nibble the grass), are the mirror
of those classic dancers of Degas, working on their difficult and painful
exercises at the bar.
The proof on the wonderful “truth” of these analogies comes with
the certainty that any slight forced effect or incongruity in Aida’s
interventions, would appear immediately as an intolerable and horrible false
note, but this really never happens.
Also combinations – like that of the lizard that moves aside the bar
code as once one would have moved aside those metal curtains at the entrance
of certain bars – make us smile for the pleasure and gratefulness of
finally finding reunited and joined together two symbols that, unbeknown to
us, but in our subconscious, had an appointment with each other since a long
time. But why a lizard and not a dog, a monkey or a horse? I don’t know.
I should ask Aida, but actually now, seeing how the lizard slips through that
iron curtain (who remembers those curtains of bars made with the metal caps
(of bottles) squeezed and strung together?), yes, the lizard is really perfect.
Absolutely right.
Could it be that behind this exhilarating image there is the play on words
of “bar” of “bar code” and “bar” where
one drinks?
Just as there is a play on words between “RANuncoli” and those
frogs, swaying in the wind like prairie flowers?
Actually nearly all the linear poems of Aida are based on “plays on
words” which seem to accomplish, in language and in writing, the same
role that analogies have in her visual poetry. When the poet chooses to interpret
words literally as in «“May time pass!” Had she held it
back / not a single minute would have passed…», five verses are
sufficient for her to pass magically (and with the help of certain rhymes),
from the playful tone of the opening lines (which I have just transcribed),
to a very “high” and lyrical image: «not one instant, a
flash of light; the rodent / lifted his head, smiled happily. / The hours
gnawed away, mute silence, white».
One is delighted by the “rodent” that “gnaws away the hours”
and turnes them into “roses”. While a mute, white silence approved
happily, enveloping everything in a silent, eternal sense of perfection.
In Appen dix, a second lizard, whose name is Light, wriggles and «dances
a pas de deux along the wall» and, even though I do not know how much
Aida loves lizards, nor if she considers them symbolic of her work, I like
to identify the grace, the lightness and the speed of that little green spirit
with the happiest and freshest gifts of her poetry: « – light
as the day comes to an end – / one step in front and the next coming
back».
Giulia Niccolai
Aida M. Zoppetti was born in Bergamo where she lives.
Towards the middle Seventies she founded and directed with Gualtieri and Pitozzi
the poetry magazine of visual experimentation “North”. She writes
on Italian and foreign literary magazines. Works of hers have appeared in
Tracce, Tam Tam. Lettera. Anterem, Aperti in squarci, Salvo imprevisti, Théâtre
du silente, El Bagatt, L’area di Broca, Thesis. Risvolti, Il Verri.
She has published “Una coltivazione di forme” and “Di Lama
e di Luna” for Anterem Editions, “Generation of Vipers”,
Signum Edizioni d’arte, the plaquette “Piume, poesie visive e
volatili”, Dialogo Libri. “Messieurs, mettez du blanc dans l’ombre”
will soon be coming out with the Editions Alla pasticceria del pesce directed
by Claudio Granaroli.