Universi

Universi won first prize among published books at the 8th Universum Basilicata International Poetry Competition (2021).

A collection of poems by Teri Volini, with a dedication by Stanislao Nievo. 150 pages, with direct access from the book to three video poems by the author. The poems are in Italian.

Introduction to the collection

Biophilic artist, painter, performer, researcher, linguist: as a poet, Teri Volini sings the sacredness and magic of visible and invisible worlds.
In a vision suspended between reality, memory and dream, she celebrates Oneness in a cosmic pantheism – being One with the Whole.

The poems are closely linked to the paintings, in the direct or subliminal communication of Teri’s magical vision of things, of her wonders, of her impossible: the “earthly galaxies”, the essence of a universal ecological Ethic, at the edges of time and space.

The privilege of a panic inspiration, dazzled by nature and the cosmos in every aspect and celebration, does not prevent Teri from being close to reality and to society – an awareness already evident in her performance art, which in poetry she expresses intensely in texts such as “Born in a place of stone”, “Honouring Life – Honouring Death”, “Angels and Clouds”, which reveal that dull “normalisation of horror” that leads human beings to indifference towards the pain and evil of the world.

Deeply sensitive to human suffering and to compassion – which also belongs to Oneness, being One with the whole – Teri touches on some of its aspects with great modesty, placing in her poems dramatic notes, at times hidden, often very sharp, for the sensitivity of those willing to perceive and appreciate them.

Rather as in her paintings, Teri often clothes her verses in a Veil, allowing Entry only to those ready to venture in and enjoy the deep emotion and beauty of her Song…

Delta Edizioni, 2015

Contents

Preface

Part one – One with the Whole
Breathing the Universe · Hyperuranian embrace · Green song to the moon · To Mother Earth · Of the same substance · Hierophany · The Return of the Young Earth · Oneness (We Are One) · Earthly and infinite space · Magna Græcia · Honouring Life, Honouring Death · Angels and clouds (Mare Nostrum) · Bees and abysses · Forests · Little poem of the full moon of April · Flying between worlds

Part two – Little poem of the alternating seasons
The First Season · Alice’s Summer · Autumn · Meditation on the beauty of the mountain in winter

Part three – Poetry Art Life
Chords · Mantèion · The Caress of the Goddess · Born in a Place of Stone · Dialoguing with the invisible · The Sound in the state of grace · Hieros Gamos · Mandala · The World Cup · The Red Ribbon of Life · The Wheel of Fortune

Part four – Paths and Wishes
The Language of Art · Crossings · Hymn to Life · For a new Golden Age

Multimedia · Appendix

Poetry Art Life

Synergy with some paintings and performances

The Artist’s source of inspiration is one, but its energy radiates into different fields.
A red creative thread runs through all of Teri Volini’s work: what changes is the form in which it is expressed.

It was already clear in the past how much the correspondence between apparently different fields contributed to a choral strengthening and enrichment of creativity.

A similar search for balanced harmonies had been happily achieved in the union of her paintings with the verses of great poets such as Sappho, Hölderlin, Whitman, Neruda, Apollinaire, Trakl, Lorca, Shelley, Keats, Rilke, Dickinson, Orten, Tsvetaeva, Plath, Sinisgalli… and many others,
rewarded by national publications, translated into an Invitation to Poetry.

Its value is confirmed also when it is her own poems that act – in some cases – as a counterpoint to her paintings or performances.

Heightening feeling and vision nonetheless leaves the different modes of expression independent of one another: the poems are not directly meant to describe the other works, nor are the latter meant to illustrate the former.

What matters is the balance, the happy union that is created, the synergy that arises, in that attempt to achieve the harmony and beauty at the heart of all Teri’s research.

Works linked to the poems:

• Green song to the moon, The Return of the Young Earth – Paintings
• Mantèion – Mantèion
• Stone Document – Sicily, Calabria
• Traces – Traces
• Mudra with early-summer fireflies – A fine synergy between artists: Teri Volini, Italy – Helène Gritsch, Austria
• The Sound in the state of grace – Mudra, Mudra in Bolognano
• Hieros Gamos, the Sacred Marriage – Hieros Gamos

A poem from part one

Breathing the Universe

With an inner microscope
silently
I have probed Nature.
The Cosmos.
Myself.
I have explored worlds.
I have entered the cups of flowers.
The many-coloured wings of butterflies
that sip nectar and sugary humours
then quench their thirst at night-time springs
by the House of the Spider.
To make the Invisible visible
the Evanescence of memories of this or other lives
– so fleeting, those of Dreams! –
I was granted Visions.
I followed the impalpable traces of Celebrations
using my own
fabulous magic wand
to glimpse and redraw their Wake.
I have seen
the velvety deep signal
of the living Universe.
I have felt
its Starry Breath.

(Translated from the Italian.)

Buying the ebook

The book is a PDF (in Italian), readable on computers, tablets and smartphones. It costs 10 euros and is sent by email after purchase. 30% of the proceeds will be donated to a humanitarian organisation such as Médecins Sans Frontières or Save the Children.

To buy it or for information, write to terivolini.art@gmail.com.

Art & Solidarity

Expressing myself creatively is also, for me, the best way not to lose heart in the face of the many problems – personal and social – that affect us, often painfully.

That is why I want to share it with those who know and appreciate me; but – in the wake of the tragic events affecting the most fragile and desperate part of humanity in these difficult times – to give this sharing a broader and nobler meaning, I thought of proposing a symbolic act, in which I hope you will join me: donating part of the proceeds from the sale of the ebook (30%) to a humanitarian organisation.

An ebook is a book in digital form. It is not printed on paper: the content is the same, only the container changes, and with it the reading experience. There is another advantage, hypertextuality: the possibility of reaching related content directly from the book through links – in this case, some of the video poems I have made and published online.

As a gift, here is one of the video poems, The Return of the Young Earth: watch and listen.

Thank you for the appreciation and support you will give to this Work.

Teri Volini