General

The monarch butterfly staggers

in front of you light stumbles

on the mauve heather and song you

hear pacifies

suddenly the statue of the general

parked on solid earth unlike

his image in clouds

sweats glory while his subtle smile

bleeds

forgotten soldiers haunting

cenotaph earth his arms

wide as to embrace

all heartsick and hovel-less souls

and his legs straddle the pedestal

poised to announce war is over

wars should be declared obsolete

https://www.lulu.com/account/projects/y26q9n?page=1&pageSize=10

A DOG IN THE NIGHT (excerpt)

And that house, which I described to you, was very dark; it

didn’t delay the road traffic at all, nor the soft songs

            heard from the boats,

or the lights that were turned on slowly at the shore-line.

The reflection of the sea lighted the facades of the houses.

The two shadows of couples in love remained among

the dusty road oleanders. No one listened to the hollow

echo from the wing of the bat on the railings in the backyard

like an ashy palm that hit a motionless face. What would it help

if we reverse things, words, events and even ourselves, wearing

a sweaty shirt that we put on in front of the window, immovable

there, in the current — waiting and not waiting.

That day passed noisily in that seashore city.

Soon after the moon shone, wide, despotic, dominant,

and enforced a silvery silence in the marketplace, in the

             quarrels, the lies,

on the store shutters, the glass windows of the jewelers,

and the suburb roofs where the birds had already

             roosted.

A faint glare easily established the meaning of a dusty

            bottle on the old self.

https://www.lulu.com/account/projects/5pnz8y?page=1&pageSize=10

Poem by Dina Georgantopoulos

ΣΚΕΨΕΙΣ ΧΙΟΝΙ

Θέλω να σε αγγίξω

με τη λαχτάρα και τη χαρά

της πρώτης νιφάδας στα χέρια μου

να με λυγίσει

το βάρος της μεγάλης αγάπης

να ζεσταθώ από τα αισθήματα

που είχα φυλάξει στο χιόνι.

THOUGHTS OF SNOW

I want to touch you

with the longing and joy

of the first snowflake on my hands

that the weight of great love

bends me

that I feel warm in the emotion

of what I’ve hidden in the snow

https://www.lulu.com/account/projects/vznd2p?page=1&pageSize=10