In Our Mother's Voice

This collection of poems is a tribute of affection to a language threatened by extinction. Like the glaciers that topped the mountains defining much of Piedmont's horizon, the agricultural world that still used Piedmontese as its mother tongue has been slowly receding for years. The numbers of speakers of Piedmontese dwindle and attempts at reviving its popularity, albeit commendable, are faced with Italy's changing demographics. And the much-needed arrival of migrant handworkers from abroad will increase the number of speakers of standard Italian but very unlikely those of Piedmontese. This book is an anthology, but not an objective or comprehensive portrayal of the vernacular poetry still written today in this Northwestern part of Italy. As anthologies do, it reflects the taste of its compiler. The poets whose voices are recorded here in print are alive and writing, carrying forth the torch of ancient traditions and their own mother's tongue. They come from different areas of Piedmont and diverse walks of life. And their poems are written in different variants of a vernacular that convention would identify with the pronunciation once used in Turin, the region's capital. Except for few of them, the readership for these poets rarely reaches beyond the confines of the region. This collection hopes to bring more recognition to their work.