Milestone of Maltese culture

I have read with great satisfaction the article "Trieste international poetry prize for Oliver Friggieri" (August 6). Allow me to express some of my thoughts on this poet who has engraved his poems in my veins.

Prof. Friggieri belongs to a rare breed of humans; he is unaware of his greatness. He is of course conscious (at times, not always) that his work is liked but he doubts its deserving place. I have had the pleasure, privilege and honour of reciting Prof. Friggieri's poems for many years and have even recorded a CD with his poems. He and I are now working on another recording.

Prof. Friggieri's language is far from heavy. I never refer to a dictionary when reading his poems but I invariably stop every few lines to immerse myself in the spirit of his sentiments and imagery. His thoughts are not convoluted but their blade is extra fine and cut very deep. If you do not feel or care, then Prof. Friggieri is not for you! His heart bleeds for nature; his spirit is essentially Christian in search of itself. He flogs his own inconsistencies and considers himself a beggar of thoughts and seconds.

Those who do not know Prof. Friggieri personally may think that his shyness and humility are forced or calculated. I can assure the readers that he is indeed essentially a humble soul. It takes so much effort on my part to extract from him a sentence, which could very mildly smack of self-praise. On several occasions I had to send him to blazes when, before a recital night, he would tell me in a gloomy voice that attendance would be poor indeed because few would take the trouble to listen to his poetry. Jokingly, I would retort that he is right; the packed audience only comes to listen to my voice!

I must confess I feel elated whenever he reticently asks me to read his poetry. That is an experience I always relish. I weep, shout, whisper, love, react and succumb with ease because I find Prof. Friggieri's sentiments very close to my pitch. One cannot imagine the excitement I felt when one day I opened a newly published volume by him on the history of poetry in Malta and read my name printed on the dedication page. He had publicly dedicated the book to me. I treasure that book with great pride.

Prof. Friggieri is for me a milestone of Maltese culture. Not only do I enthuse myself in his poetry but I also relish his flowing thoughts, which he proliferates with much ease on so many different aspects of human life and Maltese culture. He is contemplative by nature and loathes plagiarism; hence he is deep, fresh and novel.

Through his latest Trieste honour, Prof. Friggieri has once again placed Malta on the map of world poetry. Nonetheless, I can imagine him asking himself: But is this really deserving?

In one of his poems he writes:

"I am a closed book, an alley,
the last meaningless letter of a strange alphabet..."

Well, as usual I strongly disagree with Prof. Friggieri about himself! His alphabet is not strange nor is he a closed book. This umpteenth international recognition in his regard simply proves him wrong.