Amazon Category:  Poetry Publisher: iUniverse ISBN-10:  0595226035 Type: Fiction Pages: 271 Copyright: Aug 1 2002 This anthology of published and unpublished poems by 54 poets is a paen to their teacher, Ottone Riccio, age 81, who has been teaching The Intimate Art of Writing Poetry at the Boston Center for Adult Education for over 40 years.

Do Not Give Me Things Unbroken
DO NOT GIVE ME THINGS UNBROKEN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY TO HONOR AND CELEBRATE OTTONE RICCIO Edited by: Lana H. Ayers, Martha Miller, Mary R. Collins, wunjo, Peng-Ean Khoo and Ellen Beth Siegel. In Mark Edmundson's memoir, " Teacher: The One Who Made A Difference," he writes: " Good teachers have many motivations, but I suspect that loneliness is often one of them. You need a small group, a circle, to talk to, unable to find it in the larger world, you try to create it in the smaller sphere of the classroom." If this is Ottone Riccio's motivation, he certainly has found his balm. This is evidenced by an anthology of poetry his students at the Boston Center For Adult Education published in his honor entitled: " Do Not Give Me Things Unbroken..." Riccio, 81, has lead this workshop at the BCAE for nearly 40 years. The author of "The Intimate Art of Writing Poetry" has, over the decades, seen such poets as Anne Sexton and George Starbucks work out the kinks in their seminal poems at BCAE where he was their fellow student before taking over the class himself. Since then many poets have enriched their lives in his classes undoubtedly honing their skills before going on to publish. Riccio seems not only to have inspired devotion, but excellent writing if this book is any indication. One of Riccio's didactic methods is to present an assignment. This serves as a poetic bone for the students to gnaw on and spurs on their writing. As poet/student/publisher/editor, Lana Hechtman Ayers put it, the function of Ricky's exercises " is to ask the poet to stretch, to go a bit further or even into completely uncharted territory." During one class, Riccio threw his students the line, " Do not give me things unbroken. " From that fragment this collection was born. Many of the poems embody the request of that simple command. The poems take risks, are devoid of cliches, and come up with original ways of seeing and describing even the most banal subjects. The poetry that has sprung from the class strongly reflects the students' experience with the master teacher. As poet-painter Peng-Ean Khoo tells it, " We always found ourselves being flung away from the farthest corner of our comfort zones." It is rare in an anthology when I can take a cursory flip through a book and find so many poems that I like. "What I Am Longing For" by Sekyo Nam Haines, is an eloquent cry against complacency, and a search for the primal experience: " I was content in my walled garden/ where jasmines bloom / and apricots ripen/ You come to me in the shape of a shimmering, golden filigree/ how can I still be contained inside these walls?/ My Mongolian blood runs wild again." Martha Miller runs with the conceit, " do not give me things unbroken," by lauding the ripened and wizened over the pristine and untried: " Do not give me things unbroken/ What good is the tight new egg/ all bald and shinning?/ Give me peppery yolk running all over the plate/ sun-yellow yolk sopped up by buttered toast/ What good are boys?/They don't have the taste of blood upon them/ They haven't been ripped by life's unfastening..." And then there is the poem by Ellen Beth Siegel that sums up the man who inspired all of this, and who teaches his students to rage against the dying of the light: "I have sloughed off my dead skin. Now/ I rise from my ashes/ I rise from the powders/of ancient grasps/spraying a fanfare tail." There are 54 poets in this collection, so it would be impossible to do justice to them all. I will say that I found excellent work by Ellen Steinbaum, wunjo, and Beatriz del Rio as well as many others. The book is peppered with attractive prints and photos by Mary Collins, Shelia Twyman, Martha Miller, Peng-Ean Khoo and other poets in the collection who have also contributed graphic art. As a poetry workshop leader myself, I can only hope that I will one day be the recipient of such a tribute of poetry, art, and most importantly dedicated friendship. **** The publisher, ( http://www.iuniverse.com), has the book available to download for $6 **** Review by Doug Holder for: ibbetsonstreetpressupdate@yahoogroups.com ****