Small Press Verse
& Poeticonjectures
Alessio Zanelli

By Alyce Wilson

The poems collected in Small Press Verse & Poeticonjectures by Alessio Zanelli appeared in paper or web magazines or anthologies from 2000-2002, plus a batch of selected, previously unpublished works.

As can be glimpsed in the title, Zanelli loves multisyllabic words. This sort of language, unless skillfully handled, can lead to obscurity, as in "Dedi", where the speaker describes an unrequited love: "Inscrutable, your glance / Does plunge its blade / Deep into my innuendo." And later in the poem, "Still my pupils / Have you reside / In my witless head / And evermore my words / Fail to lay hold on you."

Well, no wonder. Such abstract musings would hardly win a lover's heart.

Equally obscure, "Martino" begins: "He now just regards the sublime / Fields of heaven, observes and / Attends them blessedly — no longer / Addicted to daily toil." That's a lot of words to say what, exactly? That he's retired? That he's injured and can't work? Or perhaps that he's dead?

The next verse offers an encomium, talking about how Martino was "the funniest / Chap of all", and that he was "Always / Ready to cast a smile and buy a beer." Then finally, 20 lines into the poem, we get the first inkling that Martino is dead: "It is held that smoking kills, and he'd / Promptly given up once told he would / Die soon for it."

Zanelli's instincts in this poem are better than his execution. While the metaphor of farming lent itself well to talking about Martino's life, the poem takes too long to get to the point, and thus, mutes the impact.

In sharp contrast, in "Mom's Dad Bigio", Zanelli writes about his grandfather, a pianist who, during World War II, traveled around Germany, "playing here / And there at balls and parties for / The Third Reich's officers and ladies", from which he brought home "amazing German toy(s)".

He depicts his grandfather as a flawed man, given to drunken fits of anger but also artistic and warmhearted. He compares himself to his grandfather, attributing the older man's flaws to excessive drinking and stressful circumstances. Through concrete detail, this poem provides a portrait of the grandfather and conveys the poet's ambiguity about his heritage.

Zanelli's biography may contain the secret to his writing style. His native tongue is Italian and, within a few years of learning English, he began to compose poetry in this foreign language. Perhaps that is why he enjoys such high-minded diction, taking pride in his skillful turning of a language not his own. Yet, sometimes, less is more.

Rating: ** (Fair)

Xlibris, 2005 (Revised edition of 2002 printing): ISBN 1-4010-6830-8