My Poems Won't Change the World

The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben said of Cavalli that she has written 'the most intensely ethical poetry in Italian literature of the 20th century'. One could add that it is, easily, also the most sensual and comical. "My Poems Won't Change the World" is the first substantial gathering of translations of her work into the English language. The book is made up of poems from Cavalli's collections published by Einaudi from 1974 to 2006, translated by an illustrious group of poets including Mark Strand, Jorie Graham, Jonathan Galassi and Gini Alhadeff. Thoughtful, sly and full of life, these are poems of the self, the body, pasta, cats, the city traversed on foot or by car, and -- always, and above all -- love.