.JPG)
Era giunta l'ora di resistere; era giunta l'ora di essere uomini: di morire da uomini per vivere da uomini. (Piero Calamandrei)
A tutti, buon 25 aprile!
Visualizzazione post con etichetta citazioni. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta citazioni. Mostra tutti i post
Scintilla la città di manifesti e di insegne,
come un paese fiabesco di gabbie d'usignoli,
ogni muro ha un suo nome che appartiene
all'ultimo vento di questa primavera
nelle notti di malva col pennello
e la biacca si scrive la nuova bibbia.
Il luccichìo dell'alba troverà le case
ferite di parole, come di larghe foglie.
La fiducia è una talpa per gli uomini stanchi;
se riesci a specchiarti in quelle leggende
già tieni il futuro sul palmo,
ma il primo soffio svanisce, come il peccato.
L'eternità nelle promesse è rinchiusa,
nei gesti sospesi e in quella cantilena
che si ripete per vincere il tempo,
quando si parla delle illusioni.
Presto sarà ogni muro un nido d'ombre,
e sulla carta lacera, tra le parole ferite,
i poveri leggeranno questi nomi,
come in un vecchio calendario.
Angelo Maria Ripellino, Versi inediti e rari, in Poesie prime e ultime, Aragno, Torino 2006.
Developing the use of poetry within healthcare culture
Abstract
While the visual arts are often given consideration as an important feature of healthcare environments, the literary arts remain an underdeveloped resource. This article describes recent nurse-initiated developments in Aberdeen which attempt to integrate poetry into the culture of hospitals so that patients, visitors and staff can be involved. In particular, the 'Poem Post' project is described. This project makes a selection of short poems available on postcards in wall-mounted racks within local hospitals, and incorporates a facility for feedback of comments and new poems. Feedback has been generally very positive and over 100 new poems have been submitted to the project. Issues arising from evaluation of the project are discussed, and lessons learnt from the experience are reviewed in order to encourage nurses to consider the possibilities that poetry can offer in the workplace.
Macduff C, West B. Developing the use of poetry within healthcare culture. British Journal of Nursing 2002 Mar 14-27;11(5):335-41.
Centre for Nurse Practice Research and Development, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, USA.
Vittorio Matteo Corcos. Yorick, 1889. Olio su tela, cm 199x138. Livorno, Museo civico giovanni Fattori.
Il ritratto eseguito dal pittore Vittorio Matteo Corcos raffigura Pietro Coccoluto Ferrigni, giornalista e scrittore umorista, noto con lo pseudonimo di Yorick.
Sul muro giallo del quadro si possono notare, graffiti dal pittore nella parte sinistra, disegni e scarabocchi impertinenti di ragazzetti. Invece, nella parte destra, una quartina ironica riferita al protagonista del ritratto:
Se l'uomo del dipinto qui al naturale
non è giovin, grazioso, e alto, e snello,
se ne accusi il pennello:
non ci ha colpa, per Dio, l'originale.
The poetry of genetics: or reading a genetic sequence — a literary model for cellular mechanisms
by Johannes Borgstein
The human-genome project makes the subtle promise that once all the human chromosomes are mapped we will be in a position to determine the genetic make-up of each individual, and, as a natural consequence, be able to “correct” many of the genetic errors encountered (while carefully avoiding any allusion to the possibilities of misuse).
However, the human genome, as the infinite variety and expression of characteristics demonstrates, is vastly more complex than the sequence of codons would imply, for they can be read in different sequences depending on where the reading starts, which sequences are read, and which ones are suppressed—as a book that has several stories intermingled. To follow only one story, words or passages must be skipped in different places, whereas in other parts, continuous sequences are read.
We may conveniently make an analogy with a sequence of letters, rather than of words, which are followed in variable order, with variable starting sequence. A complex code is thus required to interpret it.
Most classic literary works, furthermore, may be read at multiple levels; generally speaking, the better the book, the more levels may be read in it. A Shakespeare play, for example, may be interpreted as a simple story, suitable for children; a complex story, interpreted by adults; a collection of aphorisms and sayings; or a source of life’s wisdom. Similarly, by analogy, there are multiple levels to the human genome, whose expression varies in response to environmental factors, so as to weave a complex fabric of life at a number of levels and layers which make it extremely complex to interpret.
How the genetic sequences may be read
Through a simple model or analogy, we can explore how a series of genetic sequences may be read in the cell. It is likely that, in reality, it is far more complex at all levels, with a larger number of intertwined “messages”, and that further higher levels of complexity exist in the expression within the cell, leaving aside for now all the possible extracellular effects of the proteins formed. Nevertheless, the analogy gives us some idea of what we are dealing with, and how difficult an interference or “correction” would be at any of these levels.
Let us take the following sequence of letters:
Ikeeptoseeaworldsixhonestservingmen(theytaughtmeall Iknew)inagrainofsandtheirnamesarewhatandaHeavenin awildflowerwhyandholdinfinitywheninthepalmofyourha ndandhowandwhereandwhoeternityinanhour (level 1)
Level 1—letter sequence in Latin script (genetic sequence)
Level 2—language (English)
Level 3—separate words
Level 4—indication of sequence in which mixed messages should be read
Level 5—separate poems (or proteins?)
Level 6—meaning: elementary
Level 7—complex, abstract concepts
With the knowledge that the sequence is written in the English language (level 2), I may begin, with some difficulty, to make out the words:
I keep to see a world six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew) in a grain of sand their names are what and a Heaven in a wild flower why and hold infinity when in the palm of your hand and how and where and who eternity in an hour (level 3)
I then need some knowledge of literature and poetry to be able to separate the phrases, which belong together and are to be read sequentially:
I keep to see a world six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew) in a grain of sand their names are what and a Heaven in a wild flower why and hold infinity when in the palm of your hand and how and where and who eternity in an hour (level 4)
Until, finally, the two quatrains are set down separately:
To see a world in a grain of sand and a Heaven in a wild flower hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. (William Blake)1
I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew) their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. (Rudyard Kipling)2
It is then largely a matter of maturity, education, and environment that determines what these poems mean to me, and how I capture the different levels and use or transmit the implied concepts.
Thus, at least seven levels (panel) may be distinguished in this very simple model of a DNA sequence. The first level is the interpretation of the individual sequence of Latin letters or bases. (One could conceive, perhaps, of one lower level in which the signs need to be interpreted as letters.) The second level requires us to be conversant with the language in which the letters are written, so that the third level permits identification of whole words out of the continuous sequence of letters; from this sequence, in the fourth level, we attempt to make out the phrases that under certain circumstances belong together, but which have been intermingled (some knowledge of the authors involved is probably necessary, and the genetic code must carry instructions as to which sequences should be read and which ones are suppressed). The fifth level of interpretation is to select the separate poems or protein instructions, which then go through a number of subsequent steps, just as a poem may be read on various levels. The purely visual imagery that a child might capture of sand and flowers and the rhythm of the language, and the adult interpretation of the complex abstract ideas, sensations, and emotions that the poem induces, makes them different for everybody—though with adequate emotional similarities for us to identify with the poet and with our fellow reader.
The actual DNA contains a large number of intermingled messages that not only control protein synthesis but also the expression or suppression of other messages.
With our present knowledge, we are only just beginning to interpret the letter sequence. To extrapolate from our model to human genetic engineering (as is too readily assumed and, at times, probably even practised) has further implications.
To insert a viral-linked sequence of genetic material into the correct section of the right chromosome—as has been suggested and attempted for “correction” of genetic defects encountered—is tantamount to throwing a dart at a small distant target, blindfolded. Moreover, it raises questions such as: how can we be sure the sequence will be accommodated into the right place? How do we know it will be expressed correctly? How can we be certain it will not have undesirable side-effects? And how can we be sure the viral “carrier” does not affect the sequence or have other side-effects?
A virus will merge into the genetic sequence at a predestined site (for the virus), which is unlikely to coincide with our chosen site. It will be a matter of chance that it is expressed at all, and even if not expressed, it may interfere with the expression or suppression of other sequences with unpredictable results. Then, we should enquire what the function of the virus is in the first place, and what its other sequences are able to affect.
In theory, astonishing results may be obtained, but there are too many uncertainties, too many unanswered questions and variables, and probably hazardous consequences that are inadequately considered. To trust to chance is perhaps too simplistic, and even then it may work against us with unforeseen complications (and how can we foresee all the possible complications of a process so little understood?).
The expression of the genetic code may thus be viewed as a language with almost limitless possibilities of expression within the framework of a fixed alphabet (four base pairs and a zero making five possible symbols?) and a structured grammar. Were it otherwise, physical expression would repeat and duplicate itself rather than giving rise to circumstances in which, despite overpopulation, there are not two people alike in the world; or two leaves of a tree for that matter.
Genetic expression is modulated, as a language, by the environment (a language only developed in a social context). The surrounding cells somehow determine the expression and differentiation initally, followed by the addition of neural and more centralised humoural mechanisms as the organism grows in complexity, and, finally, by external environmental factors (think only of the calusses on the hands of a gymnast, where a purely mechanical stimulus induces thickened skin layers). Some environmental stimuli induce a whole series of “programmed” changes, as occurs in the developing embryo, whereas others may induce only minor modulations. All these factors contribute to a unique physical expression—even among identical twins, despite a variable resemblance at some levels. Although the leaves are all different, they are similar enough for us to identify the tree they came from. One of the striking conditions of living systems is that nothing is ever exactly the same; nothing can be static or in equilibrium. To state that evolution is the result of random mutations is akin to assuming that random typing by a monkey will produce the complete works of Shakespeare if we wait long enough—an overly simplistic concept that takes no account of grammar and language, let alone of meaning at its different levels. The poetry of genetics runs a lot deeper than we suspect; perhaps deeper than we can suspect.
Borgstein J. The poetry of genetics: or reading a genetic sequence--a literary model for cellular mechanisms. Lancet 1998 May 2;351(9112):1353-4.
Poetry in the genes
Canadian poet Christian Bök plans to encode his verse into DNA that will sit within the genome of a live bacterium. He tells Nature why he wants to create an organism that will translate its own poetic response. What gave you the idea?
Two essays I read inspired my Xenotext experiment to encode a poem inside the cell of another life form. The first reported a project at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, by Pak Chung Wong, who theorized that it might be possible to encode information as DNA and embed it in a microorganism. He enciphered lyrics to the Disney tune "It's a Small World (After All)", and was able to retrieve the information after several rounds of cell division. The second essay was by Paul Davies, an astrophysicist and exobiologist at Arizona State University in Phoenix. He speculated that the most efficient way for an alien civilization to make contact across stellar distances would be to send out robot emissaries to colonize the Galaxy, then wait until a sentient civilization could discover them. He suggested that such machines already exist — living cells — so perhaps evidence of extraterrestrial communication is already embedded in the DNA of life. I thought, why wait around? Why not make them right now? So I set about seeing if it was technologically feasible to encode a poem as DNA.
Which bacterium will you use?
The organism has to be robust. I selected Deinococcus radiodurans, an extremophile that can survive heat and cold, dehydration and high doses of gamma-radiation. And because the organism can repair its DNA very quickly after genetic mutation, it is highly resistant to evolutionary drift.
How will the poem be encoded?
The poem can be most easily encoded by assigning a short, unique sequence of nucleotides to each letter of the alphabet, as Wong has done. But I want my poem to cause the organism to make a protein in response — a protein that also encodes a poem. I am striving to engineer a life form that becomes a durable archive for storing a poem, and a machine for writing a poem — a poem that can survive forever.
Will future generations decode it?
My project is analogous to building a pyramid and then leaving undecipherable hieroglyphs all over it: later civilizations may not understand the language, but its presence will testify to the enduring legacy of our own civilization. An alien readership hundreds of thousands of years from now might recognize that such tampering with an organism constitutes evidence of an advanced intelligence trying to communicate.
What will the poem be about?
I don't know yet — I have to let the vocabulary, derived from my chosen cipher, determine what's possible for me to say based on all the constraints of making a functional sequence. I hope the poem won't be a decision so much as a discovery. Language is very robust. Even under duress, it finds a way to say something uncanny, if not sublime. Poets are always trying to write works that 'come alive' — but I'm trying to write a poem that literally is a living thing.
What is the status of the project?
Stuart Kauffman, a genetics professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, is lending me the expertise of his lab. The scientific portion will cost around Can$20,000 (US$16,000) and I hope to complete the work over the next two years. It will form the premise for a poetic monograph. I will also produce a conceptual art show that will include a sculpture of the gene made from toy molecules, and a diptych of images generated through DNA fingerprinting of the microbe.
Might DNA writing have practical uses?
You could 'watermark' genetically engineered organisms to track their movements through ecosystems, or trace the evolutionary progress of disease, or encode a 'user's manual' within the organism itself. I also imagine the technology could be used cryptographically as a convenient, secretive method of transmitting information. I believe that, in the future, we might want to store data in DNA simply because we want to protect our cultural legacy from planetary disasters — and I hope to be among the first poets to make a work of art out of such a burgeoning technology.
Interview by Krista Zala, a journalist based in Victoria, Canada.
Email: kzala@nasw.org
Bök C. Q&A: Poetry in the genes. Interview by Krista Zala. Nature 2009 Mar 5;458(7234):35
«La metropoli si presenta come luogo aperto dell’identità sociale, della memoria culturale e delle possibilità storiche. Questo spazio è quello che oggi può essere invaso dai linguaggi che sotto l’impatto della globalizzazione dei rapporti culturali non sono proprietà di nessuno. [...] Sono tali linguaggi che ci permettono di 'esserci', che permettono all'essere di esplorare le possibilità nuove. Questi linguaggi parlano, e parlano di un luogo culturale particolare dove il passato e la memoria, le iscrizioni e le prescrizioni, sono ri-scritte, ri-citate e ri-situate.»
Iain Chambers, Paesaggi migratori. Cultura e identità nell'epoca postcoloniale, Roma, Meltemi, 2003.
Lunghissime strade in cui vorrei correre,
come un jockey perduto in una foresta invernale,
lunghi viali bianchissimi in cui, nero corvo,
vorrei saltellare,
lunghe traiettorie sull'orlo di un pestilente canale,
lunghi teli lucenti di mùssola candida,
lunghe strade agghindate con gale di salici,
lunghe dighe protese verso l'Olanda,
lunghe lingue che pendono da musi equini,
lunghe vérgole, verdi festoni,
lunghissimi veli di cavallerizze sognanti,
interminabili spiagge, in cui piccoli omini
giuocano con enormi palloni.
Angelo Maria Ripellino
Colloquio
di Andrea Zanzotto
"Ora il sereno è ritornato
le campane suonano per il vespero
ed io le ascolto con grande dolcezza.
Gli ucelli cantano festosi nel cielo perché?
Tra poco è primavera
i prati metteranno il suo manto verde,
ed io come un fiore appassito
guardo tutte queste meraviglie."
Scritto su un muro in campagna
Per il deluso autunno,
per gli scolorenti
boschi vado apparendo, per la calma
profusa, lungi dal lavoro
e dal sudato male.
Teneramente
sento la dalia e il crisantemo
fruttificanti ovunque sulle spalle
del muschio, sul palpito sommerso
d'acque deboli e dolci.
Improbabile esistere di ora
in ora allinea me e le siepi
all'ultimo tremore
della diletta luna,
vocali foglie emana
l'intimo lume della valle. E tu
in un marzo perpetuo le campane
dei Vesperi, la meraviglia
delle gemme e dei selvosi uccelli
e del languore, nel ripido muro
nella strofe scalfita ansimando m'accenni;
nel muro aperto da piogge e da vermi
il fortunato marzo
mi spieghi tu con umili
lontanissimi errori, a me nel vivo
d'ottobre altrimenti annientato
ad altri affanni attento.
Sola sarai, calce sfinita e segno,
sola sarai fin che duri il letargo
o s'ecciti la vita.
Io come un fiore appassito
guardo tutte queste meraviglie
E marzo quasi verde quasi
meriggio acceso di domenica
marzo senza misteri
inebetì nel muro.
Polly (Kim Novak): - Sai, quando andavo alle medie c'era un ragazzo che mi scriveva delle poesie.
Orville J. Spooner (Ray Walston): - E che genere di poesie?
Polly: - Sapessi, le scriveva col gesso sui muri... dovevo correre per tutta la città a cancellarle.
dal film Kiss me, stupid di Billy Wilder (1964)
Blocco studentesco (noi, prima della manifestazione)
Hanno caschi
e passamontagna,
lunghi e grossi bastoni,
manici di picconi, ricoperti
di adesivo
nero, avvolti
nei tricolori.
Urlano: Duce,
duce.
[...]
Si parlerà soltanto
degli incidenti, giorno dopo giorno
passerà l'idea.
È il metodo Cossiga.
Ci stanno fottendo.
"Cina.
Nell’edicola-emporio di Otranto compriamo un ombrellone. Arrivati in spiaggia, mi accorgo della strana etichetta adesiva sulla fodera di cellophane. C’è scritto: “Questo prodotto non è stato fabbricato in Cina”. Il non è sottolineato ed evidenziato in neretto. Cerco di figurarmi le circostanze che hanno portato questa scritta fino a me. [...] E così ho assistito all’ennesimo capovolgimento di un genere letterario: da “made in Italy” a “not made in China”, da “Mattina – Santa Maria La Longa il 26 gennaio 1917 – M’illumino / d’immenso” a “Questa poesia / non è stata scritta / durante un corso di scrittura / e non ha mai partecipato / a un poetry slam”.
Pubblicato da t.scarpa il 04-09-08 su www.ilprimoamore.com"
La nostra città: Graffiti
Da dove sbuca questa lingua fetale,
con i suoi guizzanti caratteri
alfanumerici?
Chi parla l'interlingua-spray
dai muri, dai tram, dai citofoni?
Cosa cerca di dire
questa citofonata lingua
che dal basso chiama?
(Valerio Magrelli, Didascalie per la lettura di un giornale, Torino: Einaudi, 1999)
Su tutte le piazze si vedevano teatrini di tela, affollati di ragazzi dalla mattina alla sera, e su tutti i muri delle case si leggevano scritte col carbone delle bellissime cose come queste: Viva i balocci (invece di balocchi): non voglamo più schole (invece di non vogliamo più scuole): abbasso Larin Metica (invece di l'aritmetica) e altri fiori consimili.
Pinocchio, Lucignolo e tutti gli altri ragazzi, che avevano fatto il viaggio coll'omino, appena ebbero messo il piede dentro la città, si ficcarono subito in mezzo alla gran baraonda, e in pochi minuti, come è facile immaginarselo, diventarono gli amici di tutti. Chi più felice, chi più contento di loro?
Carlo Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storie di un Burattino, 1949.
"Al Direttore di Repubblica:
è disarmante vedere firme celebri annaspare di fronte alla satira e alla sua natura. Quello della volgarità, da sempre, è il pretesto principe di chi vuole tappare la bocca alla satira. Che sia chiaro una volta per tutte ( i furbastri più o meno interessati mi hanno un po' stufato ): la volgarità è la TECNICA della satira. Con questa tecnica, la satira esprime idee e opinioni. Censurare la satira ( in nome del cattivo gusto o di altri princìpi volatili e capziosi ) è censurare le opinioni. E' fascismo. Chi si attarda in disquisizioni sul buon gusto è un censore. Punto. L'unico limite lo stabilisce la legge: diffamazione, calunnia. La satira è arte: o è totalmente LIBERA, o non è satira. Se io parlo del sostegno immondo di Ferrara alla guerra criminale di Bush, Blair e Berlusconi in Iraq, e voi vi scandalizzate dei toni satirici invece che di Abu Grahib o del napalm a Falluja, la vostra scala di valori è corrotta. Era questo il significato di quel monologo. Come volevasi dimostrare.
Daniele Luttazzi"
(11/12/2007)
«Ma ciò che attira di più lo sguardo è la farmacia del signor Homais, di fronte all'albergo del Leon d'Oro. La sera soprattutto, quando la lampada è accesa e i boccali rossi e verdi che adornano la vetrina allungano lontano sul terreno i loro riflessi colorati, si intravede, come in mezzo a fuochi d'artificio, la sagoma del farmacista appoggiato al banco. La sua casa è coperta da cima a fondo da scritte in corsivo, in tondo, in stampatello.»
(G. Flaubert, Madame Bovary, 1857)
3msc
Che dire di 3msc
e un film
meraviglioso
all'inizio riccardo mi sembrava
un teppistello
senza carattere
ed era così
poi lo visto sul viso
e mi sn innamorata.
Dp Step e Babi si sn conosciuti
dp la gara di moto,
Babi cadde sulla merda
e poi
si spoiò
xò step
sbirciò
e babi
se ne accorge
dp ricky gli da la sua giaka
poi doveva accompagnare in moto
a casa e step gli a detto
ma ke puzza (quando lo abbracci x nn cadere)
i suoi nn lo accettavano
era un teppista cn la moto
Dopo loro si pensava
anke se nn erano insieme
dopo essersi conosciuti
x un po fecero
l'amore
in spiaggia e
dalì
il loro amore
cominciò
a sbocciare...
Xò ce stata
una piccola itercezzione
fra loro
il loro migliore amico
pollo
muore
e finisce cosi
tra loro
io
ho pianto nn
x quante ore
originale in prosa di Alessandra
(Cesano Maderno, 7 marzo 2007)
Iscriviti a:
Post (Atom)
