Siempre chicos en mis poesías

"An exclusive poet of love"—that is what they called me. And perhaps it was true. But the wind over the grass and the murmurs of the distant city—are these not love, too? Beneath warm clouds, do the sounds of a love that burns and never fades away not still linger? Regarded by Pier Paolo Pasolini as the greatest Italian poet of the 20th century, Sandro Penna (1906–1977) created a body of work that is both intense and delicate, distinguished by the emotion and subtlety with which he approaches homoerotic love. Deeply sensory and vital, Penna’s writing distills experience into brief snapshots that evoke scenes, atmospheres, and those moments of illumination that give a life its meaning. As Natalia Ginzburg noted, "his poems are like his footsteps—light and silent—yet they leave a profound mark on the reader, as if the world were pausing in a moment of beauty and pain."