Bow Down

Poetry. Art. Translation. Dedicated to Italian poet Amelia Rosselli, who committed suicide in 1997, BOW DOWN is in part a response to art by Los Angeles artist John Baldessari, whose collage methods are not unlike those that the author uses in his poetry. Several of these poems are a direct response to Baldessari's art, responding to and addressing issues in the visual work. The book contains Messerli's poems in the original English as well as in Italian translation by Manuela Bruschini. Also featured in the book are twelve black and white images of Baldessari's artwork. "On the contrary/the obscure is vast at a distance/confused as a single/act of flight/just as it arrives/in the night sky/to be engulfed/ in light..."--from "Unto Us."