IAMAQ Magazine 3/2020
The memory of Luigi Giurdanella
Poet, cultural operator and co-founder with Gabriele Cavagna of the Cultural Association "The Poets of Aries", born in Milan on 21 March 1990 at Gabriele's Studio in Milan in Via Alzaia Naviglio Grande.
GABRIELE CAVAGNA: "THE IMMORTAL"
Gabriele would have liked this paradoxical title very much, he who was a teacher and lover of the unbelievable, of the irrational: of the paradoxical, in fact. We had a long-standing friendship with Gabriele. The first time I crossed the threshold of the Studio d'Arte l'Ariete, by Gabriele Cavagna, located in the most characteristic area of Milan, the Navigli, was the eighties. I arrived there thanks to a word of mouth between artists and intellectuals, who indicated it as the most popular literary salon in Milan. In that context, I recited some of my poems and Gabriele was enthusiastic about it, telling me that he had finally found "a soul mate". We chatted all evening. We discovered that we shared a certain characteristic in spreading the poetic message. He, a mechanical engineer, designer of complicated machinery, had written a whole collection of “Mechanical Poems”; I, employed in a multinational company, that work environment had inspired the collection. “Scenes of despair in an office”. Then we came to the conclusion that we were both autsiders of poetry. But, in the continuation, we said to ourselves: isn't it that instead we are poets lent to industry? And we burst into a resounding laugh. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, of a formidable cultural and intellectual partnership.
Upon hearing the sad news of Gabriele Cavagna's passing (Piacenza 21/3/1942 - Milan 9/11/2020), after a moment of bewilderment and despair, his poem "L’IMMORTALE" came to mind. Poetry that was included in issue VI of "I Quaderni dell'Ariete" April 2006, annual volumes of poetry collection reserved for our group "The Poets of Aries"; Group born on March 21, 1990 and of which Gabriele and I were the Founding Fathers. This poem is a true concentrate of very topical social problems; each character is a condensation of metaphors and symbols. When Gabriele read it in public, the poem aroused perplexity and hilarity. I was the first to make fun of that rushing from one person to another to ask for listening and attention. Among the characters interviewed there was a friend and a poet. I felt personally involved and laughing I said that if I had listened to him, the old lady would have grabbed him immediately!