Neither Seen nor Heard, a selection of poems by Rose Romano

Rose Romano's poems deserve a prominent place in the Italian American literary canon. These poems helped shift the focus of Italian American writing from cultural nostalgia and a sense of loss toward the examination of consciousness of those feelings.

The finest poems of this oeuvre respond with ferocious satire to the whitewashing and the distortion of Italian American life not only by other Americans but by Italian Americans themselves.

Rose Romano’s poetry has defined a post-modern approach to both Italian American poetry and Italian American consciousness.

--George Guida, The Return of Rose Romano, July 2019, Ygdrasil, Journal of the Poetic Arts, the first literary journal to be published on the internet

Neither Seen nor Heard, Rose Romano's third book of poetry, includes all the poems from Vendetta and The Wop Factor (both published by malafemmina press) plus many poems published in various literary journals and a few published here for the first time.

 

Neither Seen nor Heard is available from

iambooksboston.com

ISBN 9791220010610

 

Below is one of the poems included.

Look for other poems from the book on

malafemminapress.blogspot.com

Leave it to the Italians

She told me she had been wearing

a t-shirt with the words--

I'm terrific--

over her left breast.

An Italian asked--

What's wrong with the other one?

Leave it to the Italians--

she said.

Was I just called a sex maniac

again?

Not at all!

She loves Italians!

I love bright yellow canaries

that sing in the morning.

I love soft fat puppies

with cold wet noses

and little round kittens

tangled in yarn.

Essential Poets Series 281

Antonio D'Alfonso

The Two Headed Man

Collected Poems 1970-2020

Guernica Editions Inc.

ISBN 9781771835497 (softcover)

Available from: www.guernicaeditions.com

Poetry isn't always given the attention it deserves. Too many people think that reading poetry is hard work and not worth it, that poets aren't in touch with reality and have nothing relevant to say regarding an ordinary person's daily life.

They forget that nobody's ordinary. They forget that poets know reality far too well. They don't seem to be aware that reading poetry, the words of a poem, isn't hard work and that it's worth it to take the words in and see what was done with them.

This is a poem from the book:

To the Reader

Frightfully foolish having to be reminded

Not to step too quickly over those who

Cross your busy path, a crucifixion.

Taken by surprise, unforeseen.

Must we be deliberately overlooked

As though we were forgotten garbage bins,

Sticky, stinky? As if rotting

In the confinement of self-talk and

Evaluation down the addict's alley

Was our ultimate ideal.

We come alive with your listening.

We come alive with your reading.

We live for your heinous eyes,

For your montrous strictures.

Because of you we consider ourselves free.

Because of you, dear reader, are we totally free.

If you recognize us by the street-light

Of your readings, wave your hand,

Your fingers have a way

Of changing pain somehow

Somewhere into tenderness.

It just struck me, along with many of the other poems in different ways, because if readers allow the critics to tell them what a work is and what its value is, instead of reading the work themselves, the readers, and even those who don't read, will be cheated out of a good part of their lives.

In the title poem, the two-headed man reads night and day and multiplies himself. If  you want to be multiplied, read this book. You'll never be alone.