Composition

 

Mario Fallani , 'Composizione' (1959)

[Composition] 

“viewing mario fallani no. 5”

 

composition was set in school

the topic a choice, the one rule

-         tell me about it

 

silence is golden

poetry more lasting than bronze

-         explain using examples

 

less is more

more or less

-         illustrate with non sequiturs

 

climate deniers exist

warmongers prosper

-         tell me something I don’t know

 

all machines are liars

I am a machine

-         use adverbs sparingly

 

ponder extinction find evidence

organise your argument

-         you’re not alone

 

small is beautiful

beauty is in the eye of the reader

-         keep expression clear

 

all I do all day is edit edit edit

revise revise revise

-         tell me about it

 

always the sun sets

below the ocean behind our city

-         oh really, tell me more

 

 

Letter

 

Mario Fallani, 'Lettere' (1959)

[Letter]

 

“viewing mario fallani no. 4”

 

you might not

be thinking of me

but I am thinking of you

 

all the time -

all the time? as it were

the letters I make take shape

 

the crush of artistry

no less than each moment

spelt out in close chosen form

 

done redone overdone undone

sounds that resound

lines to underline embrace

 

my immediate

and your immediate embrace

here is some script thus done

 

the flurry of synapses

within this mystery mess of music

this belief in transmission

 

and the postal service

this world of paragraphs laughs

and you at reception

 

all the time thinking, respond

in landscape, self-portrait

the breeze in a still life

 

and behind exuberant sign offs

is a timed touch of courtesy

and names ageing well

Scene

 

'Paessagio', Mario Fallani (1995)

[Scene]

 “viewing mario fallani no. 3”

 we are staring

at desolation on

our little pieces of glass

 

films the width of fingernail

slide across our sight

a transmit of catastrophe

 

hide them in our pocket

with phonecall tunes

and plastic money a while

 

to stare instead at what?

but only green the scene

beseeching silently

 

bosky bee busy garden

reserve where timber

grows and flowers and falls

 

beckoning the eye

with lucent tranquillity

resting the mind with quiet

 

insistent canopies

fans and cascades of spread

rainwater remakes in green

 

shadow and sparkle

darker green and light

bending from perpendicular

 

refuge for birds

depending on the hour singing

healing grounded to the earth