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After Michele Sovente’s graduation, Mario Pomilio and Luigi Compagnone helped him to find his place in the cultural life of Naples and they introduced him to Mario Stefanile, in charge of the cultural section of the newspaper “Il Mattino”. In 1974 he invited Sovente to work on literary criticism. In 2004 he officially took charge of the lyrical column Controluce, where original Italian poems were published for the first time.

 

His collaboration at “Il Mattino”

Michele Sovente published poems in Controluce from 2004 to 2011.It was a weekly and was published on Sundays, at the beginning on the first page of the Neapolitan section, then on the national one.

During his years in charge of the column, Sovente had also published other works of poetry. The double writings seemed to fulfill two different tasks:

 

• Volumes of poems, planned and organised in homogeneous collections, on one hand;

• The journalistic column, with poems inspired by current events, on the other.

 

Even if the two writings were separated, it was inevitable the influence of the weekly activity for Controluce, on his own collections.

The first poem, published in the column Controluce, dates back to 16th May 2004: since then, every Sunday, with few exceptions, a writing or a poem by Sovente had been published, till 26th March 2011, the day following the poet’s death. This shows how far the poet was engaged in the publication, till his very end. The column, which had lasted for seven years, was built up by a totality of 342 poems, which collected into a single volume, represent one of the most substantial collections by Sovente and probably the one who reached the highest number of readers. Professor Marianna Illiano has been taking care of the collection and publication of his poems.

The poems of Sovente’s first period were accompanied by photos, however the poet gave up this habit to give more relevance to words. The only language he uses in the journalistic column is Italian; expressions in dialect or foreign languages such as French and English are rare.

We frequently find poems dedicated to Naples and his land, in particular to the Phlegraean Fields, where the poet gives attention to details and to very important personalities of his city, like Totò, Diego Armando Maradona. Giancarlo Siani and lots of others.

This is, for example, a poem dedicated to Giancarlo Siani, published on 24th September 2004:

 

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Il fiuto e la sua spada

 

Giornalista di strada. Contento

non era di registrare le cose

come apparivano. Le sviscerava.

Il fiuto era la sua spada.

 

  ***

Di droga e di muschilli scrisse

finché poté […]

 

***

Giornalista inquieto. Camminava

tra la gente. Interrogava. Come

testimone sé stesso interrogava.

​

  ***

Nette le sue parole toglievano fiato

a chi a tempo pieno progettava

delitti. Li commissionava. Con colpi

netti di pistola è stato premiato

 

The text is accompanied by a photograph of the plaque set on the ramps dedicated to Siani and it is divided into free stanzas. We immediately notice that the name of the journalist is never pronounced, since it can be understood from the references, that are clear to the mind of the reader; in fact, he uses expressions such as “street journalist” and “restless journalist”[1].

Moreover, in addition to praising different characters, Sovente also dedicates poems to some of his dearest places in his territory, such as the Phlegraean Fields, the islands and some of the most famous streets in Naples such as Spaccanapoli, San Gregorio Armeno and the symbol of the city, the volcan, Vesuvius; he also writes about some places in Cappella, such as Miseno and Cumae.

Other poems from Controluce, connected in particular to the territory, are Il fiato dei Campi Flegrei and Per incanto e abitudine.

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[1] Marianna Illiano, Le poesie di Michele Sovente pubblicate su «Il Mattino», conference proceedings of Temi e voci della poesia del Novecento in the periodical «Critica Letteraria», Naples, Paolo Loffredo, 2017.