Mariangela Gualtieri, 1951 | Beautiful World | Tutt'Art@ | Pittura * Scultura * Poesia * Musica

At this time of the evening

from this point of the world

I want to give thanks to the divine

labyrinth of causes and effects

for the diversity of creatures that make up this singular universe

thank I wish

Pietro Magni | La leggitrice / The reading girl, 1864 (detail) | GAM - Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano

for love, which makes you see others

as divinity sees them

for the bread and salt

for the mystery of the rose

who lavishes color and does not see it

for the art of friendship

for the last day of Socrates

for language, which can simulate wisdom

I would like to thank

for the courage and happiness of others

for the homeland felt in jasmine

and for the splendor of the fire

that no human can watch

without an ancient amazement

and for the sea

which is the closest and the sweetest

among all the gods

thank I wish

because the fireflies are back

and for us

for when we are burning and light

for when we are happy and grateful

for the beauty of the words

abstract nature of God

for writing and reading

that make us explore ourselves and the world

for the quiet of the house

for children who are our

house deities for the soul, because if it descends from its step

the earth dies

for having a sister

wish to thank for all those

which are small, clear and free

for the ancient art of theater, when

still gathers the living and feeds them

for the intelligence of love

for the wine and its color

for idleness with its waiting for nothing

for beauty so ancient and so new

I wish to thank you for the faces of the world

which are varied and many are adorable

for when the night

we sleep embraced

for when we are attentive and in love

for the attention

which is the spontaneous prayer of the soul

for all libraries in the world

for that to be comfortable among the others who read

for our immense masters

for those who have reasoned in us over the centuries

for the sake of friendship

when silly and dear things are said

for all the kisses of love

for the love that makes you fearless

for the contentment, the enthusiasm, the intoxication

for our dead

that make death an inhabited place.

I wish to thank

because on this earth there is music

for the right hand and left hand

and their intimate agreement

for those who are indifferent to notoriety

for dogs, for cats

fraternal beings full of mystery

for flowers

and the secret victory they celebrate

for the silence and its many gifts

for the silence which is perhaps the greatest lesson

for the sun, our ancestor.

I wish to thank

for Borges

for Whitman and Francis of Assisi

for Hopkins, for Herbert

because they already wrote this poem,

due to the fact that this poem is inexhaustible

and it will never get to the last verse

and changes according to men.

for the minutes before sleep,

for the intimate gifts that I do not enumerate

for sleep and death

those two hidden treasures.

And finally I wish to thank

for the great power of ancient love for the love

that if the sun and the other stars move.

And it moves everything in us.

Mariangela Gualtieri

Poet and playwright, Mariangela Gualtieri is regarded as one of Italy’s most compelling and innovative voices.

Mariangela Gualtieri was born in Cesena, in Romagna. She graduated in architecture at the IUAV in Venice.

Gualtieri begins her writing career in one of the most important Italian contemporary theatre group, the Valdoca Theatre Company, which she founded together with the director Cesare Ronconi in 1983.

She participates in every staging by Ronconi, ready to sense and give voice to the scene's whirl of forces.

Since the beginnings she takes particular care of the oral dimension of poetry - through readings in verses both in Italy and abroad - focusing on the voice amplification system and on the interaction between poetic verse and live music.

Her pedagogical activity runs uninterrupted through her workshops devoted to writing and, more recently, reading verses into a microphone.

Bello Mondo / Beautiful World by Mariangela Gualtieri is a poem featured in "Le giovani parole" (Einaudi, 2015).