My new book of poems was presented on June 15th in the Casa della Musica by Enzo Santese, poet, a historian of literature and art critic, and by Claudia Azzola, poet, writer of refined novels, translator and editor of literary magazine “Traduzionetradizione”.
With the music of Guido Davanzo and my reading of some texts, between emotion and great warmth, in a “place” such as the House of Music of Trieste, it seemed that all together we breathed a single breath.
I thank everyone, I thank Aessandara Mitakidis who took the beautiful photos you will find in the gallery and Hari Bertoja who made the video of which I put the link:
Because they gave me a lot to reflect, I write down some comments from the friends who were present. Listening is the deepest gift of poetry and the pure word is its best vehicle. Thank you. I can only say what I always say: “I don’t deserve so much!” and it is something too big to receive. However, it is nice to meet each other without thinking about what you deserve and simply give what you have and receive what is offered to you.
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“I cried at the presentation, as did S.I will read the whole book carefully. What I feel is the permanence of writing from a place that I would call “the place of Poetry”, or “the place where the poet goes to be able to write”, a metaphysical and intimate place in short, where you don’t go to look for the beauty of words and forms, but to bring back everything that you feel, deeply, in that place, with extreme accuracy, a tragic accuracy, simple and powerful, human to the point of apotheosis. This is the best company that can be in words. It is what I personally look for in poetry, and which I unfortunately find almost never. Perhaps also because I don’t know how to listen well or I don’t find the right empathy with my experience. Yours is a great Poetry because it is felt in every verse, and will keep me company whenever I read it.
It was a beautiful presentation! Above all I was impressed by what you said about memory, about the importance – not only emotional, but also vocal – of every person you met on your journey, in your work and commitment. And that then all these voices echo in you, they enrich you, up to unimaginable dimensions. So much wealth that you feel inside you also makes your poetry very rich and very particular. I would say that poems like yours, which at the same time reflect so many voices you hear inside, and try to speak with a single voice, your own one, so variegated and so refined, are really rare
Your poetry is very, very particular, it expresses your inner world; a very intimate, private poem, not measurable with the values of various poetics of today. M.M ..
Collections of waitings … The poems of Gabriella Valera (yesterday I participated in the presentation of her latest book: “We went down the hill”) remind me of the images of Lorenzo Mattotti. Moments stolen from the passing of time … Fluid forms and in constant evolution, figures of the threshold – like Rilke’s angels -, suspended between here and elsewhere, between the already and the not yet. Able to fly light, despite the weight of inconsolable regrets and incurable nostalgia. Light and shadow. Jacob’s eternal struggle with the angel. Conducted at dance pace … I was really excited. G.Q.
Thanks Gabriella, it was a pleasure to hear you read your beautiful poems, and it was as if time had slowed down so that they could be really understood. O.G
Thanks for the nice evening … you were great .. you and Ottavio. V.Co
My friend, how your soul is like me. Your book is a masterpiece, in every detail, it is very precious to me. This memory, this tenderness with which you challenge images, and your treatment of words with a maternal kindness. I devour them, spoil them, mistreat them: yet I believe this sense of absence and memory makes us so close. My friend, my sister. L.L. R.
Dear Gabriella, it was a splendid evening where the emotion of poetry filled everything. I thank the time I was given to be there and you for having written poems of such high thickness. A hug and thank you. R.R
it was a wonderful evening. The intensity of your reading is very exciting, you gave me strong emotions. And the proof of what I say is that the public was as attentive, silent as rarely happens, everyone was “caught up” …. E.T.A.
I thank you and heaven for having known you! The words filled with your extraordinary energy return to being a powerful instrument of pure energy. Thanks thanks thanks! The evening was wonderful, I’m so happy to be able to read your words every daypure light and pray for you, for me, to be able to evolve and a little to look like you, which means more and more to myself … In my life I have only read about people like you, but it’s the first time I have the blessing of meeting a being of pure light. I don’t know if I am “metarealistic” [with reference to the dedication that defines L.’s poetry as “metarealistic”], but I always feel half of something and I don’t know if one day I will be able to become complete and live fully … Overcoming my fears that limit and block me. I would like it so much. The fact that you exist gives me confidence. You are an example of all how you can win and make even the deepest darkness become light. I always pray that you can win your battle. Even if from how you live you are already an absolute winner! A very big hug, dear Gabriella! And againthank you, thank you, thank you so much …. L.R.D.
Good morning Gabriella. I wanted to thank you for Saturday evening for what you gave to all of us with your splendid presence! You were UNIQUE !! With your great strength and the depth of your poetry you have touched the hearts of everyone present, I am sure of it! Your book is wonderful but it is so full of meanings that the poems must be read and reread many many times to penetrate to the end and slowly slide to the bottom of the soul. C. G.
Good morning dear. For no reason in the world could I have been absent. Do you remember what I told you the first time we met? Gabriella you are the poetry in person. You are poetry in the flesh. Saturday, your evening was the most significant, most beautiful, deepest and most poetic evening of the year. Therefore, thank you dear. L.B.
Wonderful presentation yesterday, very moving and full of grace L.D.
In an age in which everyone makes stories, tells and talks about themselves on social media but above all in the so-called “reality”, a profound reflection on the value of the poetic word becomes an essential prerogative if we want to understand the most hidden meanings of this reality. The book I have in my hand (“We went down the hill” by Gabriella Valera Gruber) is a moving and enlightening guide through the “mystery” of a reality made of “complexity”, of lights and shadows, of words, but also of silences and generating absences. I hope that such a work will get all the appreciation and dissemination it deserves, and above all I hope that it will be recognized as a new benchmark for contemporary Italian poetry. M.V
Thanks for the fantastic evening, it was an enchantment of good poetry, good music and beautiful Italian that I almost never have the chance to hear. Ch.V.
