Selected lyrics, the collection of poems by Giuseppe Arrigucci

Selected lyrics, the collection of poems by Giuseppe Arrigucci that we are considering here, is divided into three chapters which all three have titles and prefaces and are preceded by a premise by Guido Miano.

Chap.1: Spirituality in Giuseppe Arrigucci’s poetry: contemplation of the face of God (Preface by E. Concardi); Chap.2: The faces of love (Preface by F. Romboli); Chapter 3: The sense of time and the problems of being in the lyrics of Giuseppe Arrigucci (Preface by G. Veschi). The text is also accompanied by an essential anthology of criticism and by the bio-bibliographies of the author and prefators. The Author (Arezzo, 1935 – ivi, 2020) has published the collections of poems: Volo libero (2000); Amen, songs of the spirit and of faith (2003); Desire for a full life (2015); …me you? Maybe… (2017).

Enzo Concardi writes that spirituality in Giuseppe Arrigucci’s poetry lives in vertical dimensions and asceticism: it is mystical and ecstatic, it asks to live the sanctifying grace of the Lord; it is praise, prayer and invocation to God on the path of salvation; it is an imitation of the life of Christ and visits figures of Christianity who have witnessed the faith, becoming models of holiness and there is an incessant dialogue with the Absolute.

The volume contains an anthological selection of our poems, taken from various collections, and already from an empathic relationship with the titles we can realize the absolutely mystical, spiritual and religious vein of Arrigucci’s poems, who while practicing a similar poetics, in his life was not a priest. In the optimistic joining of the sacred and the profane, the transcendent and the immanent, we find the title of the collection Desire for a full life, confirming that in addition to the transcendental flights of the soul, the poet is fully aware that earthly life can be full. and therefore happy even if lived in function of the infinite one, in short, one can poetically inhabit the earth despite the force of evil because the good also historically and not only in the private life of the believer always ends up prevailing with the help of God the Supreme Good.

And the act of pointing out of joining God in a mystical fusion comes to mind as the medieval mystics wrote, listening to the Voice of God that manifests itself in the folds of the believer’s mind.

Fascinating, composite, clear, luminous, fast, light and icastic linguistic fabrics those staged by Giuseppe Arrigucci in this collection which is a truly original product and seems to find as a model the poetics of David Maria Turoldo who was a poet and author of essays as The drama is God. The divine, faith and poetry (1992), categories between which there is a strong concatenation, an intrinsic osmosis that underlies the saving power of divine, faith and poetry in our liquid and dramatic period historian between pandemic and war to “cross the threshold of hope” as Pope John Paul II wrote.

In the lyric Lacerazioni the poet writes: «Tonight I drank the melancholy / to the point of getting drunk! / After the hangover / I have reconciled with life / even if it is often full of pain! / Only rarely a flash of joy / illuminates the soul / and immediately sinks into silence! / May at least the last day be peaceful / in a confident abandonment / without nostalgia for the past / without disturbance for things not done! ». The salient values ​​of Catholicism emerge, which is strong in the name of the words of Saint Paul: «Rejoice always in the Lord, I repeat to you: rejoice. Your kindness is known to all. The Lord is near! ».
Raffaele Piazza

Giuseppe Arrigucci, Selected lyrics, prefaces by Enzo Concardi, Floriano Romboli, Gabriella Veschi; Guido Miano Editore, Milan 2022, pp. 96, isbn 978-88-31497-86-2, mianoposta@gmail.com.