Massimo Morasso (Genova, 1964) graduated in Modern Languages at the University of Genova with a thesis on Rilke. Morasso is a poet, a writer of prose and also a writer of essays and literary criticism. His important essay Carta per la Terra e per L’uomo (Map for the Earth and the People), a renewing document on ecology and poetry, was signed by some of the most famous poets in the world, including 5 Nobel prize and 6 Pulitzer prize winners.
The poetry of Massimo Morasso is pervaded by philosophical observations on visible and non visible reality. He treats concepts as life and death, writes about Genova, the city where he lives and works, and last but not least he reflects on poetry itself. The title of his most recent collection of poetry Opera in rosso (Work in red) shows already how important the poetic language is. A language written or printed in red as to draw the maximum attention to its expression, its importance, its meaning and its contents. On the other hand this poet describes himself as a medieval amanuensis monk, his eyes fixed on a spiritual spot, one whose writing is rooted in blood, in the depths of the flesh. He is the creator of what he writes and to him writing poetry is above all transcribing, it is hard work.
Everyone who reads the poetry of Morasso feels immediately inclined to read beyond the verses and images presented. And this is also the purpose of Morasso: to make one reflect on abstract and non abstract things with a kind of existential restlessness, a search for knowledge. This restlessness is a questioning, a way to understand important themes such as the emptiness that a deceased beloved one leaves behind. In fact his poems are full of echoes and names of those who have gone to the hereafter, to another place and time, maybe another galaxy, but they still haunt him with their presence and their lives remain a part of him.
In the strongly detailed, compact poems of Opera in rosso the main themes outline themselves clearly. The poet confronts himself with observations and questions about the universe, the hereafter, the presence of his ancestors who look at him while he lives - a fact that he is clearly aware of – and all the dead beloved ones whom appear to him in the night. Feverishly the poet looks for answers in many sleepless nights, sometimes accompanied by the imaginary presence of the admired philosopher Kierkegaard. Yet questions disappear as quickly as they rise to the mind. Sometimes leaving no straight answers but instead the sharp shadow of an insight or knowledge.
Poetry
Le poesie di Vivien Leigh (Marietti, 2005)
Viatico (Raffaelli, 2010)
La caccia spirituale (Jaca book, 2012)
L’opera in rosso (Passigli Poesia, 2016)
Prose
Il mondo senza Benjamin (Moretti e Vitali, 2014)
Essays
Carta per la Terra e per L’uomo (2000)
Interesting links
Massimo Morasso. Il poeta è un anarca. www.altritaliani.net
Massimo Morasso da “L’opera in rosso”. www.atelierpoesia.it
Un’isola in rete. unisolainrete.it
La mia poesia. Essere l’acqua tra il lampo e il tuono www.andrealucani.it
Ossigeno nascente. Atlante dei poeti contemporanei. www.griseldaonline.it
