Icarus in Assisi Author:Murray Bodo, Gaia Chiuchiu (Translator), Lorenzo Chiuchiu (Translator) "If you are both a poetry enthusiast and a lover of St. Francis, you will take double pleasure in this book of poems. Written by a leading author on Franciscan spirituality and a highly skilled poet, this slender book contains 19 poems. Running side by side with the poems in English are their Italian counterparts, translated by Gaia and Lor... more »enzo Chiuchiu of Assisi. Most of Father Murray's poems deal with St. Francis and other figures in his life. Several focus on St. Clare, one on Francis' father ("The Cloth Merchant's Tale"), another on "St. Anthony in the Walnut Tree" and similar aspects of Franciscan lore. The title poem, "Icarus in Assisi," provides the book's central image and theme. Icarus is the character in Greek mythology who flies (with artificial wings) too close to the sun. The wax in his wings melts, and Icarus falls tragically into the sea and drowns. Father Murray has acknowledged that the idea of Francis as Icarus came to him in part from watching today's hang gliders floating over Assisi and down toward the plain below." -- Jack Wintz, O.F.M., contributing editor of St. Anthony Messenger and former English teacher with an M.A. in literature« less