The Chinese Gardens

I want to take you to the threshold of this Frosini's book of poems and then withdraw so that you can encounter his poems with a sense of his poetic nature in the back of your mind, but a completely open mind otherwise.
I have identified three aspects of Frosini's writing which I will explain and also illustrate with a sampling of poems. In Frosini's Poetry:

1. The Truth is Affirmed ; 2. Beauty is Conveyed ; 3. The Personal becomes the Universal.
   One of the key terms in contemporary poetry is 'POETRY OF WITNESS'. "Florence, A Walk With A View" is an excellent example of this type of poem. It exchanges the anger we experienced in the preceding poem with melancholy, but this is a haunted and desperate melancholy, not at all like the word's root meaning of sweet sorrow. Heinz Czechowski survived the World War II fire-bombing of Dresden, which killed 20,000 people. That is why Frosini refers to him as "The poet of the Death from the sky above Dresden". Czechowski probably wanted as much as any visitor to Florence to lavish all his attention on the art and architecture of this ultimate Renaissance city. In Fabrizio Frosini’s poem, the city charms the visitor with its natural beauty – "the silky lights of the / Sunset" – and artistic ambiance – "the intimate warmth of nostalgia that makes / Your heart melt at the sight around".
   In the finest poetry, beauty is conveyed in all of it sensuous and spiritual glory. The title "Water Music " refers to one of Handel's most popular works, a masterpiece of baroque melody, rhythm and harmony. The poem, however, is not about this music.. For professional reasons, Fabrizio Frosini was in the small town of Pecs in Hungary, where he met Csilla, whom he describes as "a beautiful, bright, lovely, young girl." She is a shining element of the beauty this poem conveys. "I was in my room, staring at the clear sky through the window. The moon, so pale and magical, drawing my imagination to her. In my ears Handel's music was playing softly.". There is the beauty of Csilla's ambition to become a ballerina. There is the beauty of VITA NOVA : Dante's idealization of Beatrice with its artistic and moral benefits experienced by a contemporary couple. And finally the beauty of sublimation, when an otherwise sensuous experience must be transferred to the plane of the Imagination.
   A given poem may garner many satisfied readers who have read it and been deeply moved in isolation from each other. The poem which exists on a printed page or at a website over time may have "nudged people's lives forward" but the poet himself is unaware of this truest measure of his poem's success. This is the case of another Frosini's poem: “Nocturnal Snowing”. This one is a Poem of Memory, which reveals the persistence of an experience of mutual attraction in the poet's life over many decades. The young woman, who is forever young and lovely in the poet's mind, becomes a touchstone of emotional value. She validates the poet's desire for her with her freshness and spontaneity, and their rapport shows this is a healthy and true desire for mutual happiness. But not all good experiences are given a future by the hand of fate. And so the poem also explores the emotional consequences of the loss of such a promising moment. At the website where “Nocturnal Snowing” is posted it is among the most read poems ever, with many and many comments by readers who were moved by this poem. The prevailing reaction in reader after reader is that “Nocturnal Snowing” related to their emotional lives. In other words, Fabrizio Frosini's personal experience reflected their personal experience, and thus the Personal becomes the Universal. [D.J.B.]