I PARCHI LETTERARI® IN CALABRIA “JOURNEYS TO THE FUTURE OF MEMORY” - I PARCHI LETTERARI ON THE ISTHMUS: COSTABILE

FRANCO COSTABILE – The poet was born in Sambiase on 27 August 1924. His father, after marriage, abandoned his wife and son. He studied at the F. Fiorentino Secondary School of Nicastro and then transferred to Rome, periodically returning to his hometown. In Rome, he attended the Modern Literature course held by Giuseppe Ungaretti, with whom he established a special bond, perhaps because he was searching for the father that he had never had. He taught in a secondary school and published his first volume of poems: The Olive Tree Road. Through Brignetti, who had became a journalist, he sent a copy to the father that he had never forgotten. From there a written correspondence between the two began. He married Mariuccia and had two daughters. These were peaceful years, also because of his newfound relationship with his father. He taught Italian and History at Technical Institutes and he published his poems, which would later become the volume that provided him with a certain amount of success: The Rose in the Glass, in well known literary magazines. However, this tranquillity would only last for a short while. In fact, the relationship with his father was broken and the old wounds were reopened. He then wrote The Ballad of the New Emigrants which would mark his farewell to his life and his land. His wife moved to Milan, taking his daughters with him and his mother died due to an incurable disease.

Costabile began to live in oppressive solitude. He died on the 14th of April, 1965.
Ungaretti’s poems were later transcribed to the poet’s tomb at the family chapel of Sambiase and on the facade of the home where he was raised

"With this heart that was too much of a storyteller"
you said, placing a rose in the glass
and the rose died slowly
like your heart, it died forever
telling a story that was too tragic"