Salvatore Toma (11 May 1951 – 17 March 1987) was an Italian poet, born in the Southern Italian region of Apulia. A visionary and passionate poet, he delved deeply into the meaning of love and death, while searching within man and nature the connection with universal consciousness. A restless soul, part of the so-called wave of the Italian accursed poets, he committed suicide in 1987 aged 35.
Born in Maglie, province of Lecce, into a family of florists, Toma attended high school, but he would not continue his studies, even though he kept researching intensely the poets he loved.[2] During his lifetime he published six collections of poems, from 1970 to 1983.
His fame was enhanced nationally by the publication of a collection of his poems, Canzoniere della morte ("Canzoniere of Death") (Einaudi, 1999).
In 2005, Italian film director Elio Scarciglia made a documentary movie on Salvatore Toma, inclusive of testimonies and titled The Forest of Words.
