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    A Choice of Uppercuts
    A Choice of Uppercuts
    A Choice of Uppercuts
    Ebook102 pages19 minutes

    A Choice of Uppercuts

    By Oliver Scharpf

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    About this ebook

    Scharpf's poems can be defined as expanded haiku. In spite of their brevity, however, they are suited to record physical and emotional journeys. Scharpf's verse has a distinctive colloquial diction: a sort of noisy stream of consciousness established by unorthodox syntax, sparse punctuation and frequent resort to verbalisms. Scharpf engages the reader with vivid snapshots of recognizable situations and feelings and thus the poems resonate with the poet's experience.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGuernica
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781550715606
    A Choice of Uppercuts
    Author

    Oliver Scharpf

    Born in Lugano in 1977, Oliver Scharpf is a Swiss author who writes in Italian. At the age of twenty, Scharpf won the prestigious Premio Montale for an unpublished collection, which was then released by Mobydick with the titleUppercuts. The Premio Montale was followed by the Premio Città dell’Aquila and the Premio Schiller. In 2007 peQuod published Scharpf ’s second collection, La durata del viaggio dell’oliva dal martinicocktail.

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      Book preview

      A Choice of Uppercuts - Oliver Scharpf

      OLIVER SCHARPF

      A CHOICE OF UPPERCUTS

       ESSENTIAL POETS SERIES 180

      Translated and Introduced by Marco Sonzogni

      Foreword by the Author

      GUERNICA

      Toronto – Buffalo – Lancaster (U.K.)

      2010 

      Foreword

      Let’s be upfront about it, my uppercuts are better than your usual poems. They breathe like Japanese haikus. Sure, they’re a bit longer, even though they are so quiet. An uppercut, in box- ing, is a punch that comes from underneath and hits you on the chin. Often, it knocks you to the floor… cold… out for the count. But the thing is, to attempt an uppercut, you’ve got to put your guard down. You see, in literature you can win on points. But with this sort of business either you win by KO or you don’t. Paul Valery wrote somewhere that the first line was stolen by God. Now, the uppercut tries to get that back. Re- member what De Niro says in The Deer Hunter? One shot… just one shot… Anyway, talking about the haiku in 905 BCE, Ki no Tsurayuki said, Poetry is what moves the earth and the sky without strain; what moves the invisible gods and demons to pity; what dignifies the relationship between a man and a woman; what comforts the hearts of fierce warriors. Well, now I’ve got to go and eat fish-and-chips by myself. I live in a black- and-white movie that you don’t find on TV. Cheer up.

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