'Do Not Give Me Things Unbroken'

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing"
-Pascal, 'Pensées'


In the Fall of 2002 I read an article about poet Ottone
Riccio. To honor him on the occasion of his eightieth
birthday, Riccio's students compiled a poetry anthology,
entitled, "Do Not Give Me Things Unbroken".
In that anthology, each of the poems by past and present
students, 54 in all, was inspired by a Riccio assignment
to write something based on the book's title phrase.
I decided to take the 'assignment' myself and the result
was the poem below:


'Do Not Give Me Things Unbroken'

Do not give me things unbroken,
bring to me what's scarred and scratched,
All that's bent, and soiled, and torn,
Bring to me the shoes unmatched,

I must have what's frayed and dented,
old and battered, crushed and worn,
Crippled, bleeding, unrepented,
helpless, hapless and forlorn,

All these things I gather to me,
Though they're broken so am I,
I don't know what they mean to me,
My heart loves them, God knows why.

-jorge999