The Da Vinci Poems

The Da Vinci Poems, the second book of poetry produced by artist and writer Anthony (Tony) Crisafulli, is inspired by the classic Italian fables that can be found scribed throughout Da Vinci's famous notebooks. had been doing research on Da Vinci's Last Supper when I came across some fables in his notebooks. They were delightful but surprisingly dark parables that seemed to speak directly to the Renaissance as well as to the present time. They were truly amazing and showed a dimension of Da Vinci that I had never known before. So when I finished writing my last book, I decided to do something with them; firstly because they captivated me and secondly because my children so enjoyed them. My first attempt at translating Da Vinci's stories was an utter failure. This was not because my translation was bad or the stories uninteresting in English, but rather they textually lacked the flow and surprise that Italian is so adept at communicating. Over the next few weeks, I lived with the texts that would not seem to let me be. One day, without thinking, I began to see them in verse. Instantly, I was pleased. Shortly after, I shared some of the poems with my publisher and he encouraged me to continue on and turn the collection into a book. A writer always has at least one audience in mind when creating a work for the public eye. I had two. The first audience was children. Not typical children, but the sort that find pleasure in reading deeper into a story -- those who seek to discover the hidden references and the second meaning that peaks out from behind the curtain of symbols and solitude. The other audience was my colleagues who are artists and poets. This is my gift to them for all the inspiration their work and friendship has provided me.