Annamaria Ferramosca was born in Tricase (Lecce), but currently lives in Rome. She is the author of five poetry collections:
- Il versante vero, Fermenti, Rome, 1999;
- Porte di terra dormo, Dialogo Libri, Como 2001;
- Porte/Doors, Edizioni del Leone, Venice, 2002, English translation by Anamaría Crowe Serrano and Riccardo Duranti;
- Curve di livello, Marsilio,Venice, 2006;
- Paso Doble, Empiria, Rome, 2006, a bilingual collection of “dual” poems co-written with Anamaría Crowe Serrano and translated into English by Riccardo Duranti.
A large collection of her published and unpublished poems (since 1990 to 2009) have been gathered in Other Signs, Other Circles, Chelsea Editions, Series Contemporary Italian Poets in Translation, New York, 2009, translated by Anamaría Crowe Serrano.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Premio Internazionale Forum, for Porte/Doors, and the Premio Astrolabio, for Curve di livello, as well as coming joint finalist in the Premio Camaiore, Premio Pascoli and Premio Montano.
As a writer of critical essays and reviews, her texts have appeared in several print and online journals, including “Poesia”, “La Mosca di Milano”, “La Clessidra”, “Hebenon” ,“Le voci della Luna”, “Poiesis”, “La colpa di scrivere”, “Leggendaria”, “Noi donne”, “FreeVerse”, poiein.it, and vicoacitillo.net. where reviews of her own work have also appeared.
Some of her poems have been anthologised in L’altro Novecento, 1999; Appunti critici, 2002; InVerse, 2006; Tradizione e ricerca nella poesia contemporanea, 2008. She has adjudicated at the Davide Maria Turoldo Poetry Prize. She currently collaborates with the Clepsydra Edizioni e-book which aims to provide online exposure for new poets.
Marina Serra. The assault
of a bright dawn, capable
of pushing the mountains of Albania
to here, under the balcony
I can almost touch them
green slopes and roots
intertwined with mine
From coast to coast
tides gleam with meaning
the rush of the sea
sings in Mediterranean
I could have been born on those mountains
bathed by my mother in the Otranto canal
reared on algae soup and rhymes from Lushnje
I could have found myself on that boat
overflowing with so much hope
its sides couldn’t handle the remorse
I am on that boat, I am
Albanian
greekmessapicegyptianlybian too
my blood is the patient, age-old
confluence of waves
(constantly churning
this unheeded sea)
from Curve di Livello, Marsilio, Venezia, 2006
Annamaria Ferramosca
© Translation by Anamaria Crowe Serrano
JEMAA EL FNA SQUARE
I enter Jemaa el Fna
almost stumbling on dry earth
re-enacting the delivery
of an ancient foetus, my African self
My nostrils inhaling earth magic
made of mintrootswornbones
The amnesia of the distant
white tribe, sterilized and mute
is already sorcery
The square has eyes that pierce like arrows
archaic voices sharp enough to carry on the wind
mimed stories like graffiti
I am the one who beats the drum
stomps her feet flows to the rhythm
absorbs the hypnosis of the snake
as it rises, supple, tired of repetition
stares at me, unbelievably friendly
And it’s strange, this urge for dates
beyond their taste, a craving
for bronzed gold to penetrate my skin
(maybe this is how genes mutate
under the sun, out of mimetic love
naturegiftsurvival)
Continental forgiveness on the African faces
offered with little objects inlaid
with pridehopesweat
(the sweat condensing everywhere
kneaded in the mud, built into houses)
That’s always been how the earth becomes human
I feel the mother’s wrinkles, alive
from Curve di Livello, Marsilio, Venezia, 2006
Annamaria Ferramosca
© Translation by Anamaria Crowe Serrano
GREAT MOTHERS OF MALTA
the fertile aspect of time
is equivalent to this mother
a happyobese guardian of Tarxien
curvilinear with hugs
the simplicity of her body needs no writing
like the sated sacred word
pointing out the soft innocent path
gifts of hooneywheat and semen
curve her thighs
her wombtemple imitates the sky
the nine moons go by
in a long slumber of encounters
sleeping mother wakeful to the newborn’s cry, even
to our lament
from Other Signs, Other Circles, Chelsea Editions,
New York, 2009
Selected Poems 1990-2009, Series Contemporary
Italian Poets in Translation, 2009
Annamaria Ferramosca
© Translation by Anamaria Crowe Serrano
Published with the permission of Annamaria Ferramosca