A World of Imperfect Haikus: Poems 2022 by Richard Milazzo is a book of poetry the author contends a “poetry lover (ugh!) will regret reading. And which I regret writing.” He believes in “neither poetry nor in the excuses that led him to “compile these complaints and lamentations, these manifestations of self-pity; existential stories out of school; an ideological bag of tricks resulting in an orgy of dialectical irresolutions, but which did not prevent me from lauding, at some subliminal level, these louche and outré characteristics. In the end, this is all you will find here.” We, the publishers, of course, beg to differ. But our opinions, evidently, mattered little to our author, unable, as we were, to dissuade him from this onslaught of self-deprecations, and ultimately from denouncing the book. A “poet with black wings,” indeed. Such is the title of a painting which Alessandro Twombly destroyed, but which did not stop the author from gracing the front cover with it. “What attracted me was the way the word ‘imperfect’ pointed in the direction of the so-called ‘flaw’ in the image, the lacuna — the damaged part, the missing part of every history, every image, every perception.” A poet with black wings, if ever there was one, “invested neither in the journey nor the destination.”
A World of Imperfect Haikus: Poems 2022 by Richard Milazzo is a book of poetry the author contends a “poetry lover (ugh!) will regret reading. And which I regret writing.” He believes in “neither poetry nor in the excuses that led him to “compile these complaints and lamentations, these manifestations of self-pity; existential stories out of school; an ideological bag of tricks resulting in an orgy of dialectical irresolutions, but which did not prevent me from lauding, at some subliminal level, these louche and outré characteristics. In the end, this is all you will find here.” We, the publishers, of course, beg to differ. But our opinions, evidently, mattered little to our author, unable, as we were, to dissuade him from this onslaught of self-deprecations, and ultimately from denouncing the book. A “poet with black wings,” indeed. Such is the title of a painting which Alessandro Twombly destroyed, but which did not stop the author from gracing the front cover with it. “What attracted me was the way the word ‘imperfect’ pointed in the direction of the so-called ‘flaw’ in the image, the lacuna — the damaged part, the missing part of every history, every image, every perception.” A poet with black wings, if ever there was one, “invested neither in the journey nor the destination.”
Richard Milazzo is a critic, curator, publisher, independent scholar, and poet.
Among his most recent poetry books are A Tattoo in Morocco: Poems 2007, with drawings by Mimmo Paladino (Modena, 2015); Storyville: Poems 2010, with drawings by George Hildrew (Tokyo, 2017); Ghost Stations: Poems 2015-2016, with photographs by Fausto Ferri (Tokyo, 2017); One Thing at a Time: Poems of Japan 2016, with drawings by Abraham David Christian (Berlin: Galerie Albrecht, 2017); Night Song of the Cicadas: Poems of South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia 2017, with drawings by Joel Fisher (Berlin: Galerie Albrecht, 2018); Scenes of Everyday Life: Poems of Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Russia, 2016, with mixed media works by Aga Ousseinov (Tokyo 2020); Bamboo Ladders: Poems of Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, 2012, with drawings (Layered Landscapes) by Holger Trülzsch (Berlin: Edition Geistesblüten, 2022); Desuetude: Poems of Paris, Venice, Japan, 2017-2018, with photographs by Elliot Schwartz (Tokyo, 2022); More Fugitive Than Light: Poems of Rome, Venice, Paris, 2016-2017, with collages by Daniel Rothbart (Tokyo, 2024); The Wind is a Clown in Your Closet: Selected Poems of Venice Written at the Pensione Accademia, Venice, 2018-2024, with drawings by Sandro Chia (Modena: Galleria Mazzoli, 2025); and The Sound of Trees Thinking, the Mind Wandering: Poems of Venice and Japan, 2024-2025 (Ronciglione, Italy: The Villa of Ten Dogs, 2026).
Recent art books include Peter Nagy: Entertainment Erases History; Skewed: Ruminations on the Writings and Works of Peter Halley; The Corner of the Room: Ross Bleckner’s Paintings of the 1970s; A Kiss Before Dying: Walter Robinson — A Painter of Pictures and Arbiter of Critical Pleasures; Nostalgia for Scandal: The ‘Not’ Paintings, Sculptures, Works on Paper of Mike Bidlo; Outside Our Window: The Recent Paintings of Ross Bleckner, 2018-2025; Enter the Barbarians: Essays on the History and Culture of the Art of the 1980s, Vol. I: Allan McCollum (Tokyo: Tsukuda Island Press, 2024); and Scam Likely: Post-Critical Essays on Art and Culture, published by Peter Halley’s press, Index Books, 2025.
His most recent exhibition, accompanied by a monograph, was Sailing to Byzantium: 6 New York Artists in Venice — Donald Baechler, Ross Bleckner, Peter Halley, Vik Muniz, Peter Nagy, Walter Robinson, at Palazzetto Tito, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Palazzetto Tito, Dorsoduro, Venice, December 2025 - January 2026. Forthcoming is the book, In the Glare of Shadows: The Works of Annette Lemieux; and the exhibition and monograph, Incrementality and Experimentation in the Works of Peter Halley.
He lives and works in New York City.
