Words, Original illustration by © Gianluca Biscalchin created for Stefania Lucchetti
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“Why words – they ask/ why now”
Excerpt from the poem “Words” included in the contemporary poetry collection Coffee Stains on My Books, Stefania Lucchetti, 2024Purchase the book to read the full poem
“Because they ride the winds and follow me home
They crash with waves on the shoreline / and whisper to the moon”
Readers often ask me how Coffee Stains on My Books was born.
Toward the end of 2023—it was December—I left the house as usual and, while walking through Milano, I was suddenly struck by a flow of words and thoughts.
That’s when the poem “Milano” was born, which I havre already talked about in a previous edition. (If you haven’t read it, read it here > MILANO – Look more carefully/Through the Looking Glass)
From that moment on, I began revisiting some poems that had remained hidden—first in my old blue notebook, and later in various scattered files on my computer. I rediscovered words that told stories, emotions, and submerged, forgotten thoughts.
It was as if a new door had opened—words and phrases started coming to me everywhere (I’m predominantly auditory, so I “heard” them speaking in my mind). To avoid losing these ideas, I returned to the habit I talked about in my 2011 book Ideas in Reality—taking notes as soon as a new idea appeared.
The poem “Words” tells this story – about words whispered from the seaside, where I spend weekends and holidays with my family; about words shouted from traffic lights, like Milano; about words murmured from a book or a fleeting thought just before falling asleep.
For me, writing is not a choice—it is a necessity, an ongoing dialogue that both narratess and creates reality.
This relationship with words is what gave life to Coffee Stains on My Books . In the introduction, I write:
“I have always believed that ideas have a life of their own, existing in an ethereal realm and knocking on the door of the artist who is receptive and ready to transform them into something tangible, something to be shared.”
The Illustrations by Gianluca Biscalchin
When the idea for Coffee Stains On My Books began to take shape, it was early spring of 2024—one year ago. Around that time, I met up with my friend, illustrator Gianluca Biscalchin, at the seaside and told him about my project, thinking it might be paired with some illustrations.
(For those who do not know him, Gianluca Biscalchin is a brilliant illustrator, art director, and journalist. He’s created illustrations for, among others, San Pellegrino, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Peck, Fabriano, and Pitti Immagine. In publishing, he has worked with Mondadori and Electa and drawn for Corriere della Sera and Repubblica.)
When Gianluca sent me his drawings, I saw my poems told through a language I don’t know how to speak—but one I love to listen to—the language of visual art.
Gianluca’s wonderful drawings are included in the English edition of Coffee Stains On My Books, and in the hardcover edition of the Italian version Macchie di caffè sui miei libri.
The illustration for the poem Parole has always been with me—it has become the symbol of my blog and, in a modern way, my logo.
Gianluca’s genius is also present in one of my favorite illustrations, that of Schrödinger’s Cat, whose eyes recall the illustration for Parole.
Read here > Schrödinger’s Cat.
Guest Author – Elena Mearini
In this edition, my verses meet those of the talented Elena Mearini.
Elena Mearini is a writer of both fiction and poetry. For several years, she has been teaching creative writing and has worked on autobiographical writing programs in prisons and psychiatric rehabilitation centers. She is the founder, director, and instructor of the Piccola Accademia di Poesia (Little Academy of Poetry) in Milan.
Mearini has published four poetry collections with Liberaria and Marco Saya publishers, and eight novels:
360 Degrees of Rage (Excelsior 1881),
The Eleventh Commandment (Perdisa Pop) – winner of the Gaia Mancini Prize and the University of Camerino Prize,
Upside Down (Morellini),
Bianca to Die For (Cairo),
Our Long Journey Was Short (Cairo) – finalist for the Scerbanenco Prize,
Infinitely Happy (Perrone),
My Mother’s Footsteps (Morellini),
and Body to Body (Arkadia) – nominated for the 2023 Strega Prize and awarded a special mention at the Giallo Garda Prize.
Her latest publication is A Many Days from Yesterday (A molti giorni da ieri) – Marco Saya Editore.
(translation by Stefania Lucchetti)
What are we missing
what don’t we know
when we give names
from street to village
from man to dog
living around us.
Which word refuses
to bloom into voice
and falls—never born—
at the foot of a father
lost.(Elena Mearini)
Elena Mearini’s poem speaks of the power of words. When we give a name to something, that something begins to exist in the mind—as an idea. On the other hand, when we are unable to name something, it is as if it does not exist at all. We are not aware of its existence, nor are we aware of its non-existence.
I particularly loved “What are we missing/ What don’t we know” because I found in it a powerful expression of the ability of words to describe our reality as well as to shape it, and of the responsibility we carry in using them.
Reviews
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