“The Home of Heartbeats” ~ Murano Lyrical Wonder

by Marina Rybak

Recently I attended a poetry reading at the Italian Cultural Institute. Giampaolo Seguso is a poet like no other.  He is a romantic philosopher, emotionally rooted at the heart of his spirit. He is an artist, a maestro glass blower, who is forging his masterpieces in the furnaces of Murano Island in the middle of the Venetian lagoon.

Not many of us are knowledgeable about professional occupation of our ancestors more than six centuries ago.  Maestro Giampaolo is a 23rd generation of the Seguso dynasty, whose personal artistic history is intimately intertwined with the cultural history of Venice.

A poet artist, Seguso loves to “draw with words”, asserting that the glass is his page.  He uses filigree-etching technique to inscribe his verses on the surface of his glass creations.

This literary art event revealed the fragile, sensual beauty of Seguso’s glass magic, while offering us a glimpse of his lyrical soul. 

“The Home of Heartbeats” is the latest book edition of the poems, engraved on the glass art by Giampaolo Seguso. When I asked Giampaolo to sign my copy of the book, he mysteriously with a twinkle in his eyes guided me to his short poem that ended with the following verses:

“do I become a castaway of the sea

 or a sailor of the sky?”

My silent reply was self-evident.