Secretly give us the idea of God , we can all do it, but often go through things without seeing them , "says Franco Loi , who made his debut in 1975 with the poem Stròlegh published by Einaudi and preface by Franco Fortini .
"Many intellectuals and writers profess to be atheists , and then maybe I'm superstitious , they believe in the evil eye of cats and blacks do not pass under an open staircase , while the humble people is often in contact with God without knowing it, because it goes straight to the essence of things. " - And the poet recalls a distant visit to Father David Maria Turoldo , "I said, " See , I was poor , my house did not even have the chimney , ate on the ground to have a little ' heat . It is the misfortune greater poverty , but wealth , because who wants to have more and more in doing so loses solidarity. while the humble people is full of confidence to the next . '"
Franco Loi worked for a long time for CSR , for which oversaw broadcasts on literature and on the costume and carried out interviews in the studio : " He took me to Lugano Vittorio Sereni , introducing Eros Bellinelli that back then, I think it was 1976 , was head of the culture on the radio. I had frequent contact with the writers Ticino , Giorgio and Giovanni Orelli , with the Grison Grytzko Moscioni , but especially with the dialect poet Fernando Grignola , Agno , author of splendid verses and I wrote a preface .
Then there was a closer contact between the Italian culture and the Ticino , men like Dante Isella and Reno Bianconi they fed the meetings . " Isella It was the first to notice the poet Loi , positively reviewing some poems by Mondadori Stròlegh outputs nell'Almanacco the Mirror : " I owe to him the knowledge of Delio Tessa , talked to me for a long time as an important protagonist of the 900 literature. I was working Mondadori Printing Office , where I met Ungaretti and Hemingway , but the best memory is for Arnold , a man who always maintained a great respect for employees and a passionate love for books , so as to bring myself to new hires Verona plant and show them how they were doing . "
Then he met Vittorio Sereni, that Franco Loi recalled in a text book for a place to vacation - places of a poem in which the photographer Varese Carlo Meazza has documented with beautiful black and white shots the village of Bocca di Magra , where the poet spent long periods luinese summer .
" When I met him , I had read only the classics , Homer, Ariosto and Tasso, and Sereni asked me if I wrote poems. To my no, answered only " better this way " and did not speak again . But he had antennas everywhere, and so a few years later he was informed that the poems in the meantime I had written , so he asked me to read them and some pieces of chicken coops Stròìegh . When I saw him , he hugged me crying and told me, " certain poems of Milan I wanted to write to me " the best compliment I could receive . "
Since then Loi has never failed in its creed, to give voice to the dispossessed , the exploited , through a language sometimes strongly expressionist , others are more lyrical and thoughtful , however, rhythmic and often grotesque. "Poetry is the road to the knowledge of ourselves, our unconscious , in fact, " know " more than we consciously know . Dante said : " I am one myself , when love inspires me , I go ' meaning" , and Leopardi argued that the poet should always listen to the people when he speaks, because you closer to nature and devoid of logic. 's Poem goes transmitted orally , the sounds are very important , as the culture of the writer. Nowadays there are many ways to jot down , but it is always necessary to study and improve, not just the ease of expression . "
Mario Chiodetti
Corriere del Ticino