Nanni Balestrini

Nanni Balestrini Poems

Nanni Balestrini Biography

Nanni Balestrini (born 2 July 1935) is an Italian experimental poet, author and visual artist of the Neoavanguardia movement. Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers movement Neoavanguardia. He wrote for the magazine Il Verri, founded and co-directed now-defunct Alfabeta and was one of the Italian writers published in the anthology I Novissimi (1961). During the 1960s, the group was growing and becoming the Gruppo 63, Balestrini was the editor of their publications. From 1962 to 1972, he was working for Feltrinelli, cooperating with the Marsilio publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori. In 1968, Balestrini was co-founder of the Potere operaio political group and in 1976 was an important supporter of the Autonomia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in the guerilla and fled to Paris and later Germany. Balestrini became known by a larger public thanks to his first novel We Want Everything (Vogliamo tutto, 1971). It describes the struggles and conflicts in the car factory of FIAT. In the following years, the social movements of his time continued to be his subject. With the book The Unseen, he created a literary monument for the "Generation of 1977". It shows the atmosphere of rapid social change during this years, concretising in house occupations, the creation of free radios and more, and also shows the considerable repression by the state of these movements. Other important works are I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor, dealing with Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Especially in his book The Golden Horde, co-written with Primo Moroni, his proximity to operaism is obvious. His most recent novel Sandokan (2004) deals with the Camorra in Casal di Principe. His experimental "novel" Tristano, is conceived to be read by each reader differently, since each sentence is randomly shuffled. Originally conceived in 1966, it had to await publication till the age of print-on-demand, but critic Tim Martin found one of its 109 trillion versions "drifting, impressionistic and oddly compelling.")

The Best Poem Of Nanni Balestrini

Apologo dell'evaso

La massima della mia azione difforme,
infausto al popolo il fiume
che al cinema videro spopolare

il delta, i fertilissimi campi
e i più nocivi insetti (chiara
minaccia ai vizi dei governanti!)

Fra i pampini ovunque liberi testi poetici
galleggiavano, gonfi - e si fa vano
l'ufficio dello storicò. Ma saremo

a lungo preservati dal morso
del tafano azzurro, da iniezioni
di calciobromo, dall'unghie della zarina?

Lucenti strani corpi
violano il cielo; sbanda
il filo di formiche diagonale

nel cortile riemerso; ancora
il sole sorge dietro
la Punta Campanella incustodita

dai finanzieri corrotti e un argine
ultimo crolla. Lode
a un'estate di foco. S'io fossi

la piccola borghesia colata
nelle piazze fiorite e nei dì
di festa che salvi c'ignora

dalla droga e dalla noia per un po'
d'uva lavata in mare
presso la marcia catapulta; rifugiati

al primo tuono nelle gelaterie - chi fuggirei?
Passato il temporalaccio d'agosto
i graspi giungono a riva

fra i remi ai contrabbandieri salpati
nel novilunio e anzitutto conviene
(usciti dal vico cieco chiamammo

e orme erano ovunque
dell'abominevole uomo delle nevi)
fare l'amore intanto

che sui porti la Via Lattea dilata.
Il Po nasce dal Monviso;
nuvole... ma di ciò, altra volta.

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