Pierre Alferi: A Bountiful Surface of Blues

Special attention to internal rhythm, in his case, involves syncopatic multiplicity and repetition. Since the present text is an introduction, the above considerations in no way attempt to exhaust the rich universe of Alferi’s writings; rather, they offers paths of approach that, I hope, will facilitate and encourage the frequentation of his bountiful plastic oeuvre. First there is a meticulous fascination in Alferi’s work for compiling “precious” words, objects, ideas, concepts (the explorer is an intellectual entomologist) brought together in a small poem, sentence, paragraph; second (and this is where thematism and syntax are intimately intertwined), there is the construction of an acute relationship between the linked items. Since Alferi is currently involved in a new technological project with his web hypertextual novel Kiwi (so knowledgeable and rich that one cannot ignore the fact that backwards the title reads Wiki…) it will be interesting to see how Disson may expand her analysis to this new writing venture liberated from the confines of print but which, nevertheless, contributes visually to the impression of compactness. In common critical parlance in the US, “fiction” means narrative prose as opposed to (metrical) “poetry.” Since Alferi writes both “poetry” and “fiction,” narrative is a more generic term to define his writing.