Separation
In the crystal night I’ll find you
again in the plaza close to the same
statue that saw us separating
that cold October morning
you to the west I to the east
from the merging point
of two lives, two lines
going opposite directions but
I’ll come back to you
holding a book in my left
hand and a carnation in the
other just in case you come
looking to stir my emotions
just in case you come yearning
for kisses like that cold
October morning we separated
Poem by Odysseus Elytis
LITTLE GREEN SEA
Little green sea thirteen years of age
how I would like to adopt you
and send you to school in Ionia
to learn of mandarin and absinthe.
Little green sea thirteen years of age
in the little tower of the lighthouse at high noon
to turn the sun and hear
how destiny becomes undone and how
from hill to hill our distant
relatives still communicate
holding the air like statues.
Little green sea thirteen years of age
with the white collar and your ribbon
enter Smyrna through the window
to copy for me the reflections on the ceiling
and from the God Have Mercy and the Glory to You
and with a little north wind and little lavender
wave by wave come back.
Little green sea thirteen years of age
I would secretly sleep with you
and find deep in your embrace
bits of stones the gods’ words
bits of stones quotations of Heraclitus.
Manolis 