And magi came from Chaldean
lands, bureaucrats from Egypt
and the teachers from India,
wise men too from harmonious
Hellas
seers and prophets and
heroes and rhapsodists,
the highest of all and most
educated and many came
from the island of Thule
and all the suitors brought their
inexplicable riddles to her
all that belonged to
the Sphinx and Cybil and none
of them remained unexplained
and all the mouths which uttered
the riddles were swallowed by
the hungry Hades and she
walked over their bodies…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3LP7NW6

THE DEAD HOUSE

And the house servants and some old men who were
passing, listened to him as they crowed next to
the colonnade and the servant girls with their aprons
lifted to their eyes, and our mother in the middle
of the front courtyard and the nanny next to her like
a lightning-struck old oak and a bit further
the pedagogue, pale like wax with his thin beard,
a fleshless arm, hanging from the chords of the harp
and the younger daughters, motionless, by the windows
hiding behind their dreams and suspicions, listening
though not understanding, observing the beautiful
stand on the messenger’s knee, his youngish, brown
beard, his black hair curly from the sweat and dust
and a little thorn hooked onto his chiton so that
forests walk and tables are raised on their two legs
like horses and the triremes sail over the trees
in the sundown and the oarsmen stoop and raise
themselves, stoop and raise themselves, stoop and
raise themselves, surely in the rhythm of Eros; and
their oars resemble naked women, hanging from
their hair, writhe and dash as they gleam in the sea
until the froth of the galaxy is outlined behind
the triremes; therefore
the messenger announced the glorious victory
amid the thousands of deaths, not to mention all
the wounded, he finally announced the return
of the king with lots of spoils, flags, carriages full
of slaves and a wound between his eyes, he narrated,
like a clever, exquisite eye through which death was
overseeing, and the master could now see through and
through to the depth of things, landscapes, people,
as if it was a diaphanous glass, and he could easily
read the pulsation of our blood, our mood, our fate,
the gold veins that flow in the rocks and the coal
ribs spread in the subterranean darkness …

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562980

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763726

Omega

I glorified the virgin’s dancing steps
and the sweet swaying of her body’s
attraction, passion and lust
endless desire of the boys who
dreamed of caressing such beauty and
and I glorified my last garment
suitable to the anchorite I once was, lighter
than light without any decorations or
a homeland, I took my first steps
toward the bright beacon showing me a path
I glorified the nightingale’s song among
the river foliage, a song in memoriam of
the chain that held me wedged in the soil
onto which I felt the moisture, helping the growth
of my new sprouts, alive and fiery as I was,
the scoff of people had no value over me
free loner, aloof, I was climbing my hill
toward the humble shack into which
I took my first breaths, and where I played
my first childish games with my brother
the sun shone brightly over us, the sky
shone snow white over my Minoan lands
from which I have come and to which
I’ll ultimately arrive at my destined hour.

https://draft2digital.com/book/4118210#print

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763777

excerpt

…we kids were into the food as soon as the crew finished and
that, too, added to the enjoyment of the threshing season.
After the harvest, as the days shortened, it was time to take
stock of the farm and do the autumn chores to be ready for winter.
The stubble was turned over, fences were repaired, straw was
hauled beside the barn for bedding and grain was hand-loaded
into a wagon and hauled to the elevator at Hubbard by the reliable
team of horses named Cholly and Manga. Barns were
caulked where required with a mud-straw caulking and the base
of the house was insulated with straw. Gardens were also readied
for winter, with the potato tops and other dried vegetation burnt,
and the garden ploughed under or cultivated.
Usually we were ready for winter and were either clearing
brush or picking rocks when the first snows arrived. Sometimes,
however, the snows surprised my parents and some of the needed
chores would be finished after the earth was blanketed with its’
first covering. I recall those first snows, the sky a leaden gray, the
air still and the temperature just below the freezing mark.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562900

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897920

POPLAR
Remember our poplar? Playful in the breeze
it kept us safe from the incendiary sun
as joyfully it swayed its graceful top
and whispered pleasantly its subtle pleasures
spreading its laughter to the yards and grapevines
when it was answering your ever-happy laughter.
I passed it yesterday. Oh, what the years can do!
Neglect and loneliness reigned all around,
but that gigantic poplar knew my pain
and with a soft, sad whisper told it
to the wind and to the sun’s insufferable heat
when it was answering only to my tears.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562959

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763513

…but I repeat
in one piece
from top to bottom
because of the fall
only his humble clothes
turned golden like the Sun
his face
they said pale, like the Moon
but lit like the Moon
these two stars
usually co-exist
in icons of Byzantine Art
and if he went to hide in Mytilene afterward
he was already immortal:
it was meant to live forever
I m m o r t a l
Perhaps along with his clumsy co-citizen
Giorgio de Chirico
and with Benaroya
among many
others
some from Volos
who lived before
and during
and after
the pulling of the ladder
era

https://draft2digital.com/book/3744799#print

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763734

Close up
Monotonous echo
of the flute
methodically dripping
onto fallen leaves
path covered by
autumnal whim
and you hide your lips
behind a kerchief concealing
your fiery desire
for my kiss
as I near them and
you pendulate between
your eagerness for my lips
and your fear
that I discover your
fiery anticipation

https://draft2digital.com/book/3746001#print

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763750

At the Café Entropy
Outside my window, there
in the fleeting life of the suburbs
a boy saved the world once
it turned its back to the void
showing the flashing passing of the secret
At the café entropy, the gathering of souls
the worrying patrons listen to something irreversible
a transformed wind charges the emotions
scattering time in lonely events
and the words into frightened birds
I flow in saving seas, in watery labyrinths
each spring is an uncertain cryptogram
that takes away all the storm that birthed me
and emigrates
what passed sparkles inaccessibly
what comes, exists here
among the icebergs

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPCRLJC6