Salvatore Toma

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Salvatore Toma
Born(1951-05-11)11 May 1951
Maglie, Apulia, Italy
Died17 March 1987(1987-03-17) (aged 35)
Maglie, Apulia
OccupationPoet
Genrefree verse
Literary movementPoète maudit

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]

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]

  1. ^ Maria Corti, Canzoniere della morte, Milan: Einaudi (1999), Introd., pp. vi-vi. See also Biography, on Vialetrastevere. Accessed 18 February 2012
  2. ^ Cf. Biography, on Vialetrastevere. Accessed 18 February 2012
  3. ^ Maria Corti, Ibid., pp.vii-xi.
  4. ^ S. Toma, Canzoniere della morte, Milan:Einaudi (1999).
  5. ^ Cf. "Il bosco della parole". Accessed 18 February 2012

External links[edit]