Salvatore Toma (11 May 1951 – 17 March 1987) was an Italian poet, born in the Southern Italian region of Apulia. A visionary and passionate poet, he delved deeply into the meaning of love and death, while searching within man and nature the connection with universal consciousness. A restless soul, part of the so-called wave of the Italian accursed poets, he committed suicide in 1987 aged 35.[1]
Salvatore Toma | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 May 1951 Maglie, Apulia, Italy |
| Died | 17 March 1987 (aged 35) Maglie, Apulia |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Genre | free verse |
| Literary movement | Poète maudit |
Born in Maglie, province of Lecce, into a family of florists, Toma attended high school, but he would not continue his studies, even though he kept researching intensely the poets he loved.[2] During his lifetime he published six collections of poems, from 1970 to 1983.[3]
His fame was enhanced nationally by the publication of a collection of his poems, Canzoniere della morte ("Canzoniere of Death") (Einaudi, 1999).[4]
In 2005, Italian film director Elio Scarciglia made a documentary movie on Salvatore Toma, inclusive of testimonies and titled The Forest of Words.[5]
Bibliography
edit- Poesie (Prime rondini) (Poems (First Swallows)), Rome (1970)
- Ad esempio una vacanza (For instance, a vacation), Rome (1972)
- Poesie scelte (Selected Poems), Catanzaro (1977)
- Un anno in sospeso (A Year in Suspension), Poggibonsi (1979)
- Ancora un anno (Another Year, Yet), Cavallino di Lecce (1981)
- Forse ci siamo, Lecce (1983)
- Per Salvatore Toma, poeta in esilio (For Salvatore Toma, Poet in Exile), Maglie (1997)
- Canzoniere della morte (Canzoniere of Death), Milan (1999)
Notes
edit- ^ Maria Corti, Canzoniere della morte, Milan: Einaudi (1999), Introd., pp. vi-vi. See also Biography, on Vialetrastevere. Accessed 18 February 2012
- ^ Cf. Biography, on Vialetrastevere. Accessed 18 February 2012
- ^ Maria Corti, Ibid., pp.vii-xi.
- ^ S. Toma, Canzoniere della morte, Milan:Einaudi (1999).
- ^ Cf. "Il bosco della parole". Accessed 18 February 2012
External links
edit- Article on Salvatore Toma (in Italian)
- Bio and poems (in Italian)
- The minstrel of death (in Italian)
- Salvatore Toma, on Scarciglia's Website. (in Italian)
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