The Marble Wave

From the casualties in Palestine to the final days in the life of Rimbaud, the elegantly wrought works of poetry in Massimo Mandolini-Pesaresi's elegiac collection trace a path of individual struggle as immutable and inevitable as the story of humankind. Titled "The Marble Wave," the poems together contemplate how what is fluid is also fast, and what is long submerged yet forever with us.

While some of the poems are deeply personal, others play out on the global political stage. Regardless, the delicate thread of collective human experience entwines life and death, past and present, water and stone. That steadfast truth is both unifying and ultimately isolating, as each man or woman must, like a sleeping swan, sink in solitude.

Mandolini-Pesaresi's vision spans use of lyrical fragments, found particularly in the poems of the section Le regard de Thaleia; condensed pathos, as seen in the Lachrymae section; and a regained harmony in the later works. Ardent poetry readers or anyone seeking reflection on the implications of contemporary politics will find a masterful compilation that at once pays tribute to those who have not endured, while offering solace to others who remain.