PIER GIORGIO DI CICCO

Afterword by Dennis Lee

ISBN 1-894469-05-4
$19.95 CDN
172 pp

After fifteen years of publishing silence, Pier Giorgio Di Cicco is back. Living in Paradise contains his best poetry from the seventies and eighties along with his first new poetry since he left the literary world to join a monastery. As Dennis Lee says in his penetrating afterword, "It's a book we have sorely missed." Readers will find generous selections from major works like Flying Deeper into the Century and Virgin Science, as well as from The Tough Romance, of which Lee says, "There is nothing in our literature to match this sinewy lyric explosion, with its pyrotechnics, its philosophic edge, and its undertow of heartbreak." With Living in Paradise, readers can rediscover a major poet, once again writing at the height of his powers.

Praise for Living in Paradise

“In truth, you couldn’t ask for a better testament to creative energy than this inspiring—and intriguing—collection.”

- The Toronto Star

“Most of the poems also make the take-your-head-off leaps and brilliant improvisational music that his best work offers. The new work is not impenetrably religious, but does seem less frenzied. If you don’t know Di Cicco’s writing, this book is a good place to start. For admirers, it’s catch-up time.”

- Books in Canada

“Now he’s back, a lost treasure self-unearthed, and writing again…We’re very glad to have you back, Mr. Di Cicco”

- Broken Pencil

“The poems…smoothly follow one after the other, transforming into the timeless entity of one poet’s oeuvre.”

- Arc Magazine