Click cover to download.

A series of texts, remixed from appropriated oral and written source material, that explore interpersonal conflict through a fragmented and implied narrative. The author seems to have a clampdown on what he is willing to express, and what few words are allowed through are charged with emotion and tension.

Available at Argotist eBooks.
Click here to download.

Click cover to purchase.

Elegy for Dead Languages collects in print the long documentary poems War Rug; Elegy for Dead Languages; and Hood, Handgun, Power Drill.

“Francesco Levato’s powerful documentary, War Rug—like Eliot Weinberger’s What I heard about Iraq before it—detains the language of the perpetrators of global military aggression and redeploys it to indict them. From J.C. Penny catalog copy to counterintelligence manuals and autopsy reports, War Rug is a fierce yet unfortunate reminder of the absolute horrors of our age.”

—Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary about War Rug

“In the poem War Rug, which was published by Broadsided last June, Chicago poet Francesco Levato explores the reality of living under a constant state of emergency, referencing the Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded advisory system in juxtaposition with other common crisis shorthand. ‘Code Blue: no breathing / no heartbeat,’ he writes.”

—Poets & Writers

Click cover to purchase.

“Francesco Levato’s translation into English of Tiziano Fratus’ collection Creaturing is stunning in its seemingly effortless and lyrically precise momentum. There is no question, this is an important collection and a most impressive and accomplished translation.” — Malena Mörling

“Tiziano Fratus is a passionate poet with a clear, distinct voice and a keen awareness that history opens the door of our future. We have much to learn from these engaged and engaging poems, much for which to be genuinely grateful.” — Sam Hamill

Fratus’ poetry explores what it means to be a young Italian poet today in the shadow of historical, cultural, and traditional forces. In Creaturingthese tensions, archetypal, at once timeless and timely are brought to the fore in an unapologetic barrage on the senses.

Click cover to purchase.

“Francesco Levato’s powerful documentary, War Rug—like Eliot Weinberger’s What I heard about Iraq before it—detains the language of the perpetrators of global military aggression and redeploys it to indict them. From J.C. Penny catalog copy to counterintelligence manuals and autopsy reports, War Rug is a fierce yet unfortunate reminder of the absolute horrors of our age.”

—Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary

War Rug is a work of documentary poetics in the form of a book length poem. Multiple interwoven narratives explore life within zones of conflict as viewed through the lens of current warfare. The narratives range from passages inspired by journal entries, firsthand accounts, and news reports to poetic constructs collaged from military doctrine, Freedom of Information Act released government documents (like CIA interrogation manuals, and detainee autopsy reports), and numerous other sources.

This enhanced eBook contains the author’s notebook with hyperlinks to access additional content like books, web sites, audio, and video that inspired and informed the author’s creative process. It is distributed in Portable Document Format (PDF) and is viewable and printable on virtually any platform – Mac OS, Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX®, and many mobile platforms, including the Apple iPhone.

Click cover to purchase.

“Francesco Levato writes with an urgency that will pull the covers off your eyes and ears. He is another Ginsberg appealing to America’s soul. Wake Up! Here are twenty-one “hard” poems with a tenderness woven into lines of violence. The women in Levato’s poems are survivors. A blues tint shadows many of the pages of Marginal State. Levato’s urban silhouettes are memories waiting for morning light.”

– E. Ethelbert Miller, director, African American Resource Center, Howard University

“These poems are hard to grapple with at times because they examine the familiar landmarks of our culture—advertising, television, Coca-Cola, patriotism—with a critical eye, juxtaposing our friendly constructions with the despair of poverty, the crippling loneliness of isolation, and the amoral machinery of capitalism. These poems … push us away from the center of our culture and make us question who we are when we strip away the half-truths we so readily live with.”

– Todd Heldt, Before You Were a Prophet

“Sometimes Francesco Levato writes of common things in a most uncommonly touching way. Other times he writes of stunningly original insights and feelings in plain speak.”

– Charlie Newman, deadmachinecity

“In Marginal State, Francesco Levato’s well-crafted and sensual poems take the reader on a courageous exploration through despair and isolation, from this country to Italy via England, then full circle back to America, and hope, by the collection’s end.”

– Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Ph.D