THE RED ZONE
Poems by Julian Stannard

_________________________________________________________________________________

Julian Stannard teaches at the University of Winchester and occasionally reviews for The Guardian. He used to live in Liguria, where, briefly, he was Professor of Economics at the University of Genoa. He bears no responsibility for the economic well-being of Italy as a whole. His first volume of poetry Rina’s War (Peterloo, 2001) took us to the mysterious city of Zena. The Red Zone continues to make this overlooked Italian city the focus of attention. Yet the geographical range widens as the author finds himself in Corsica, the Vatican and the gangland territory of Calabria, as well as stumbling across the unexpected delights of Chesterfield.

From reviews of Rina’s War:

“Set for the most part in northern Italy where Stannard lived for a time, the poems are populated with characters that seem to have stepped out of a Calvino short story – ‘the butcher, the baker, / the priest, the collaborator…’ and though the quasi-narrative trajectory of the book is clearly autobiographical you have the sense of this world as a beautiful but fragile construction.”
Marita Over, Ambit

_________________________________________________________________________________

The Red Zone

I need to get back into the Red Zone
because I left something in the apartment
ten, twenty, thirty years ago.
And this little row of pants lining the alleyway,
handwashed, sparkling…
I need to climb these slate stairs.
Has anyone bothered with the locks?
And I thought the city so quiet
until helicopters drifted over my shoulder.
I need to get into that apartment
with it’s high celings, its whorey curtains,
the bat still flapping in the wardrobe,
a baby on the table.
Did someone leave a baby on the table?

_________________________________________________________________________________

THE RED ZONE
Price £7.95 per copy post free
Cover illustration: Mario Mafai, “Scena per il Balletto ‘Coro di Morti’ Teatro Dell Opera”, G.Petrassi Collection, Rome. Reproduced by kind permission of Mrs. G.Petrassi.
Publication: JUNE 2007 (92 pages laminated paperback).