Pier Giorgio Di Cicco (July 5, 1949 - December 22, 2019) was an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
-
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
. In 2005 he became the second
Poet Laureate of Toronto
The Poet Laureate of Toronto is the city's literary ambassador and advocate for poetry, language and the arts. The poet laureate's mandate includes the creation of a legacy project that is unique to the individual. They also attend events across th ...
.
Born in
Arezzo
Arezzo ( , , ) , also ; ett, 𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌕𐌉𐌌, Aritim. is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of above sea level. ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, his family immigrated to Canada in 1952. Di Cicco was brought up in several
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n cities, among them
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, Montreal, Quebec and
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. In the early 1970s he attended the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. While working part-time as a bartender at the university, he began to publish poems in little magazines. He has since written 13 books of poetry and in 1978 edited a volume of verse by Italian-Canadian poets, ''Roman Candles'' which became a seminal volume for the birth of Italian-Canadian literature.
His poems, consisting of deep images in
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s of free verse - with lines consisting of irregular numbers of
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s and (hypothetical) feet - often referred to di Cicco's immigrant and Italian-family experiences. In books like ''Flying Deeper Into the Century'' (1982) and ''The Tough Romance'' (1979) he communicated a modern, sensitive awareness of the confusing welter of 20th-century life. Di Cicco's unmetrical but imagistic lines flowed on, often with cumulative power, to release their tension at the end of their stanzas.
Di Cicco gradually felt called to a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
religious life. Reducing his output of verse, he spent a period in an
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
north of Toronto. Di Cicco then undertook religious studies and became a friar with a parish in
Brampton
Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipalit ...
, Ontario. In the 1990s he resumed writing and publishing poems, producing a selected volume and several others. In 2005, he was chosen Poet Laureate of Toronto; he published a poem weekly in ''
The Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' Sunday newspaper. In 2004-5 he taught at the University of Toronto. The writer and critic Joseph Pivato edited, ''Pier Giorgio Di Cicco: Essays on His Works'' (2011), an important analysis of his poetry.
His latest book (2018) is entitled ''Wishipedia''.
Selected bibliography
*''We are the Light Turning'' - 1976
*''Dancing in the House of Cards'' - 1977
*''The Sad Facts'' - 1977
*''The Circular Dark'' - 1977
*''A Burning Patience'' - 1978
*''Roman Candles'' - 1978 (editor)
*''The Tough Romance'' - 1979
*''Flying Deeper Into the Centuries"' - 1982
*''Dark to Light'' - 1983
*''Women We Never See Again'' - 1984
*''Post-sixties Nocturne'' - 1985
*''Virgin Sciences'' - 1986
*''The Tough Romances'' - 1990
*''Living in Paradise'' - 2001
*''The Honeymoon Wilderness'' - 2002
*''The Dark Time of Angels'' - 2003
*''Dead Men of the Fifties'' - 2004
*''The Visible Worlds'' - 2006
*''Municipal Minds: Manifestos for the Creative Cities'' - 2007
*''Early Voices: Flying Deeper into the Century & Virgin Science'' - 2009
*''Names of Blessings'' - 2009
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Cicco, Pier Giorgio
1949 births
2019 deaths
Canadian male poets
Italian emigrants to Canada
Poets Laureate of Toronto
21st-century Canadian poets
20th-century Canadian poets
20th-century Canadian male writers
21st-century Canadian male writers
Poet priests