Contrapasso by Alexandra Fössinger

Book Review by Anna Cavouras

Italian poetess Alexandra Fössinger brings her perceptive eye to life in her poems that examine “the spaces between things, the tiny shifts in time, the overlooked, the unsaid.” (Contrapasso, p.73). I reached out to Alexandra to hear how she interprets contrapasso as a theme and she shared the following:

For me it evokes a philosophical question – not only of whether we have the moral right to punish someone according to these principles, but also of who we punish. Is justice truly infallible? I’m not trying to answer this question, only to point out that something we tend to see as so strong and untouchable as justice is, maybe, not, when put into the hands of humans, who are in their nature fallible. 

Contrapasso directly translated refers to a punishment directly inflicted, such as an eye for an eye. This collection questions that premise of something concrete and unflinching in the hands of human hearts and minds, as the author mentions above. This philosophical exploration emerges through sounds turned into words, an auditory collection in written form inviting readers to speak the poems aloud letting them loose into the wind. Many of them reference sounds–from bird wings to songs–and ironically opening the collection with the first poem “Birds for someone who cannot hear.”  The collection is divided into three parts, giving readers a chance to absorb the poems and a place to pause in their journey through Alexandra’s work. 

Part 1 uses a mix of languages and cultural references, situating the author on a worldly perch to whisper the unsaid to her readers. Part 1 also plays with form and style, weaving in quotes, questions, conversations in stanzas of various lengths. 

From Oitarnao, “Dandelion clock ticking time away, make a wish, make a wish, that will save us before it’s too late.” Alexandra pulls great meaning from a humble flower, calling on the drama of adulthood through the eyes of a child. 

In one of my favourite sections Intermezzo, there is a note that this poem is “barely audible,” a soft declaration: 

still I function
with less than me,
everything-less, but
nothing more. 

From Part 2 the poem Shush! As a reader I can feel the importance of the poems returning and she fills the pages with their words. 

the decades now        negotiated, all my
poems have come back to me, to
lure me into
This. 

Part 2 brings poems about nature and Alexandra’s connection to the presence of birds, trees, grass, and how they represent the experiences of life – sharing space, intimacy, and the ever changing reality of relationships. Poems where people turn into birds and others occupy empty webs, many of these situate the self in the environment, experiencing space as fluid between the natural and human worlds. 

When the last poem is finished I know I have spent time questioning truths, the words of uncertainty resonating solemnly through my mind, leaving me grateful for the time I spent among the world as Alexandra sees it. 

Anna Cavouras finds stories everywhere. Some of work has appeared in Studio Magazine, Boneyard Soup, and with the League of Canadian Poets. She is a former writer-in-residence with Firefly Creative Writing. Currently, she is a judge with Reedsy Prompts and an editorial assistant with Minerva Rising Press. She always carries her feminist agenda.