"This is a book full of poems" by Enrico Tavagnutti (twitter/instagram). Enrico says this is "a collection of 14 poems I have written in the last 2 years which is about growing up, nature, mythology, university and society. In this collection, you'll also see the evolution of my style, which began two years ago, when I had decided to write poems in English, to a week ago." What I really love about so many of these submissions is that they cover very long periods of time in the evolution of the writer's work. You can really see how people grow as poets when you have an observation of their style, whether it's across a few years or an entire decade. I also really enjoy reading poems from writers whose first or primary language isn't English. Not just in the form of translations and the significance they hold, but also because it's a different perspective of the same words. It results in different arrangements or considerations that you often wouldn't get otherwise.

Enrico's style seems to combine and create relationships between science fiction concepts and classical Greek mythology. It's an interesting combination as they are often considered distinct aesthetics, although several aspects of Greek mythology could be considered early science fiction. In a way it almost tells a ballad tale of the poet himself as someone wandering alone. Not necessarily facing dangerous beasts, but certainly experiencing an internal struggle as he seeks a better understanding of himself. This wanderer feels very alone in the world, and that the ways he feels out of place both make it feel inescapable, and like a uniquely solitary lonely experience. It transitions into a bit of ecopessimism, but not so explicitly focused on climate change per say. Mostly a frustrated reflection on nature both on and off-planet, and that the people who believe themself both brilliant and average who explore it will find themself no different than those they look down upon when they die.

It's an interesting little collection, in that you can try and put a story together with it, but it really hasn't finished yet, and they cover so many different things with the consistent voice of someone angry in a sad way who's trying their best. There are a lot of sentences that end up standing out as one liners about self-discovery, self-questioning, self-loathing, self-acceptance, and self-evolution. This, alongside a general regard of the surrounding worlds, cries out in that universal exhaustion we're all combating as we trudge through each day.

"We live on the planet of dead living-things. Was it necessary?"

[CW // slight  NSFW, death by suffocation]