For Franco Beltrametti: April 29, 2016
Video highlight clips: Stefan Hyner reading Giulia Niccolai | Joanne Kyger reads "for instance dear Jaime de Angulo..." | Judy Goldhaft reads "If dawns have fingers..." | Jim Nisbet and David Schein perform "poetry is not a part time job"
A celebratory reading of the poetry of Swiss-Italian poet/artist/world traveler Franco Beltrametti (1937–1995) by Bay Area poet friends and German poet Stefan Hyner, editor of Beltrametti’s From Almost Everywhere: Selected Poems 1965–1995 (Fondazione Franco Beltrametti/Blackberry Books, 2016), incorporating Claudio Tettamanti’s short film “Ultime cose (d’après CHOSES qui voyagent)," made shortly before the poet’s unexpected death in 1995.
“From ‘a crowded place called future’ Franco Beltrametti arrives, once again, with subtle eloquence to surprise us with his unexpected nuances and turns. These poems give us his presence in the USofA, calling up poets and ancestors of every sort; and show us the transparency and modesty of his world: ‘I am my only visitor.’ But one with many friends — ‘boot tracks in and out’ — and the muse always under his roof of the moment.” —Joanne Kyger
“You are the poet.” —John Cage
Photo: Franco Beltrametti, 1977, courtesy Giona Beltrametti