When it comes to those we love, even our most yearned-for states of union are subject to change. afterlove endures the swarming devastations of loss as consummately as it enters love’s raptures, ever alive to devotion’s flow and ebb. From domestic paean centred on the beloved, through a father’s unabashed affection for his children, to the sometimes savage realisations of love’s dissolution, these poems succeed in spanning relationship heaven and hell. Mario Petrucci generates love (and non-love) poetry that refuses to squint in the glare of experience. With characteristic candour and inventiveness, whether through light-filled lyric or a murderous remaking of myth, Petrucci takes us just about everywhere love can go. afterlove is a collection marked by emotional openness and imaginative risk. These poems of family connection and disconnection are probing, and those featuring the poet’s relationship to his children are particularly striking in their tenderness and honesty. Moniza Alvi

Written in the lead-up to a particularly turbulent moment in Ukraine�s recent history, Petrucci�s micro-essays strike with the combined force of reportage, philosophy and parable. Both profound and witty, these �letters� shun the churn of the news cycle in favour of the human cycle, offering keen diagnosis of our habits and blind spots, our lapses of imagination and attention, the perils of global modernity. Illumination and metaphysics come disguised as journalism, the compressed form ideal for those averse to lengthy treatises. Each paragraph-sized detonation shatters contemporary illusions, razing what numbs, distracts or quietly warps us, clearing space for a 1000-word miniature masterpiece of existential clarity. Here, our deepest questions meet the conviction that insight and vigilance remain revolutionary. Challenging the core values we live by, �Letters to Ukraine� delivers a masterclass in disciplined thought, 200 words at a time.

The thirty-nine poems of anima bring a distinctive, archetypal potency to the closing stages of Mario Petrucci's larger i tulips project, the 1111-strong sequence in which this sub-sequence crucially sits.Arising organically from prior modernist experiment, Petrucci's style nevertheless remains utterly contemporary. His mastery of the shape and sound of each poem makes for an intense and all-consuming experience, refocusing an array of influences through an acute lyrical sensibility. By yielding so completely to the power of linguistic transformation, these searing, necessary poems capture both the crisis and the beauty of the heart's innermost voyage."Mario Petrucci's anima is a revelation of the underside of a human heart submitting to the contradictions of love, doubt and mortality. This remarkable work reconfigures the soul as well as the mind, through language that shapes the ineffable into a visceral, triumphant poetry." Alexandra Burack, American poet and educator"The tensile delicacy of Petrucci's lines springs back with a very English baroque, Miltonic surprise: sense-ambush occurs in the next line, skewering what's gone before. Between these line-breaks rests a declamatory silence tested to snapping. This is major work to cast shadows." Álvaro de Campos [tr. Simon Jenner]"With a brio and tenderness all of their own, these new lyric poems are modernist marvels, word sculptures pared to their very essence… Petrucci's tulips promise to grow into a truly ambitious landmark body of work."Poetry Book Society Bulletin"Reminiscent of ee cummings at his best... vivid, generous and life-affirming." EnvoiMario Petrucci aspires to "Poetry on a geological scale" (Verse), whether exploring the tragedies of Chernobyl (Heavy Water, 2004) or immersing himself in heart-rending invention (i tulips, 2010).

When it comes to those we love, even our most yearned-for states of union are subject to change. afterlove endures the swarming devastations of loss as consummately as it enters love’s raptures, ever alive to devotion’s flow and ebb. From domestic paean centred on the beloved, through a father’s unabashed affection for his children, to the sometimes savage realisations of love’s dissolution, these poems succeed in spanning relationship heaven and hell. Mario Petrucci generates love (and non-love) poetry that refuses to squint in the glare of experience. With characteristic candour and inventiveness, whether through light-filled lyric or a murderous remaking of myth, Petrucci takes us just about everywhere love can go. afterlove is a collection marked by emotional openness and imaginative risk. These poems of family connection and disconnection are probing, and those featuring the poet’s relationship to his children are particularly striking in their tenderness and honesty. Moniza Alvi

Written in the lead-up to a particularly turbulent moment in Ukraine�s recent history, Petrucci�s micro-essays strike with the combined force of reportage, philosophy and parable. Both profound and witty, these �letters� shun the churn of the news cycle in favour of the human cycle, offering keen diagnosis of our habits and blind spots, our lapses of imagination and attention, the perils of global modernity. Illumination and metaphysics come disguised as journalism, the compressed form ideal for those averse to lengthy treatises. Each paragraph-sized detonation shatters contemporary illusions, razing what numbs, distracts or quietly warps us, clearing space for a 1000-word miniature masterpiece of existential clarity. Here, our deepest questions meet the conviction that insight and vigilance remain revolutionary. Challenging the core values we live by, �Letters to Ukraine� delivers a masterclass in disciplined thought, 200 words at a time.

The thirty-nine poems of anima bring a distinctive, archetypal potency to the closing stages of Mario Petrucci's larger i tulips project, the 1111-strong sequence in which this sub-sequence crucially sits.Arising organically from prior modernist experiment, Petrucci's style nevertheless remains utterly contemporary. His mastery of the shape and sound of each poem makes for an intense and all-consuming experience, refocusing an array of influences through an acute lyrical sensibility. By yielding so completely to the power of linguistic transformation, these searing, necessary poems capture both the crisis and the beauty of the heart's innermost voyage."Mario Petrucci's anima is a revelation of the underside of a human heart submitting to the contradictions of love, doubt and mortality. This remarkable work reconfigures the soul as well as the mind, through language that shapes the ineffable into a visceral, triumphant poetry." Alexandra Burack, American poet and educator"The tensile delicacy of Petrucci's lines springs back with a very English baroque, Miltonic surprise: sense-ambush occurs in the next line, skewering what's gone before. Between these line-breaks rests a declamatory silence tested to snapping. This is major work to cast shadows." Álvaro de Campos [tr. Simon Jenner]"With a brio and tenderness all of their own, these new lyric poems are modernist marvels, word sculptures pared to their very essence… Petrucci's tulips promise to grow into a truly ambitious landmark body of work."Poetry Book Society Bulletin"Reminiscent of ee cummings at his best... vivid, generous and life-affirming." EnvoiMario Petrucci aspires to "Poetry on a geological scale" (Verse), whether exploring the tragedies of Chernobyl (Heavy Water, 2004) or immersing himself in heart-rending invention (i tulips, 2010).