Umberto Piersanti, born in Urbino in 1941, is one of the Italy’s most acclaimed and widely read poets. His _Selected Poems _was published Gradive Publications in April of 2002. He describes himself as “incapable of existing anywhere except in myths, in nature, and in the past.” Critics see on Piersanti’s page the touch of Giovanni Pascoli and traces of another lyric poet from the Marches, the great Giacomo Leopardi. (updated 8/2008)