Danijel Zezelj
Rex

There are various ways to make poetry: Dante was a poet, Jim Morrison was a poet, Schultz was a poet, Maradona was a poet.

Danijel Zezelj is a poet.

Zezelj was born in Zagreb, graduated in his city from the Academy of Fine Arts, and began publishing his first works in various Croatian and Yugoslav specialized magazines. The style is very personal: Danijel's subject is never the represented object but the sensation the object evokes: a palpable anguish, a sense of desperation and primordial passion, the sordid squalor of man. His works captivate readers across half of Europe, and before the start of the war, Danijel fled his Yugoslavia to be adopted by our Italy. In just four years, he offers us gems of the caliber of "The Rhythm of the Heart" or "Sophia," the poetic heroin-addicted cop. In '95, he leaves Italy to initially move to the U.S.A., but he discovers that his wandering spirit is strong, and from here he will make a long series of countries his home. 

Rex:

The volume opens with the lyrics of "Goin' Out West" by Tom Waits, and it is precisely Waits' lyrics that will form the backbone of Rex's feelings throughout the story: "I’ll wait till the sun shines on me... I’ll drive all night," thinks Rex while fleeing from prison. Well. I know karate and voodoo too, I don't need any makeup. I've got real scars... I’ve got chest hair, and I’m comfortable without a shirt... Well, my friends find me ugly... I've got a masculine face. I've got a kind of crazy courage, and I'm good in bed," he thinks during his hour of liberty lifting weights, preparing his revenge.

Rex, in two words, is a cop unjustly imprisoned, reduced to the role of a little whore, he will find his revenge first inside and then outside prison. But Rex is not just this: Rex is also the story of a lost love, before being painfully found again, lost again. It's the story of a love that never started. It's the poetry of solitude: how far can a lonely man go? Where can sadness lead? Solitude dehumanizes the individual while sadness returns him to the world of men. This seems to be what Danijel wants to tell with his story.

I leave you with the thought that brings Rex back to human condition after pages and pages of being a beast:

"I was 11 years old. It was winter, November. / Mom sent me to buy flour and eggs. We lived alone, without money./My father had died two years before in an accident. He was driving a truck full of Coca-Cola./---/I had a five-dollar bill. Eggs and flour cost two and a half dollars. The shopkeeper made a mistake, thinking I gave him 50 dollars, he gave me 47 and a half in change./---/Instead of going home, I went to the amusement park. I went on go-karts all day./I played pinball, smoked, ate candied apples... I came home late. I had a headache and stomach ache. Mom was still awake. She was sewing pajamas for me./---/Since then I hate go-karts, pinball machines, and candied apples/---/And Coca-Cola.