Month: May 2025

Water in the Wilderness

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Excerpt

Tyne did not feel like giving her a civil answer. She did not feel like answering at all. But she glanced at Miss Larson, and saw both compassion and encouragement in her eyes. So she spoke as kindly as she could. “No, we’re going to wait until I get home. And, if it makes you feel better, my mother is with the children while I’m at work.”
Ruby did not reply. She took the coffee mug and drank thirstily, then put it down and stood up. “I gotta get outta here, I need a smoke.” At the door she paused. “I’ll speak to my husband and we’ll make other arrangements for the kids,” she said haughtily, then left the room without asking again to see her sister.
It’s just as well, Tyne thought, because she knew that Lydia’s body had been removed to the funeral home earlier that morning.
Miss Larson looked at her nurse whose eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m sorry, Tyne. That was rough. She had no cause to say what she did.”
Tyne sniffed and lifted her shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. “Well, she’s upset. I don’t care what she thinks about me, but it sure hurts when people say unkind things about Morley. He’s a good man, Miss Larson. He lives his faith, that’s why people call him a Bible… a ….” She could not finish. Two tears slid down her cheeks, and she brushed them away roughly with her hand.
“This is the tough part of our job, Tyne, having to deal with bereaved relatives. We never really get used to it.”
Tyne nodded and reached into the pocket of her uniform for a tissue. “In the OR I didn’t have to deal with family, no matter what happened. I suppose I was insulated from the real world. I don’t know if I can handle it.”
“You will, Tyne. When you’re called upon to do it, you will. But, as I said, it isn’t easy.”
On the Cresswell farm, Rachael stood beside the fence and watched Morley herd the milk cows out to the lush green pasture. She didn’t know what was wrong with her today; she felt listless and lonely.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

Liquid Labyrinth

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Kodály race
Kodály-futam
your poem is either satanic or of the light of neon
like the twilight of a pub on a sofa
among naked vibrations teen keyboard
Kodály changed steps in the brouhaha
I am lending out of stitched sixth sense

  • the well-combed tune with a receipt
    my ashamed hand into your disguised pixel
    and the four-sixths between the lines that pinch the ears
  • on paper the watermark leaves a mark
    depressed pebbles in my pocket
    they get togather with a tropical donor heart
    and in the vision an authentic workshop secret
    your lovely melody keeps me in vain here to be
    I carved Kodály from the broken branches
    and your wicked appearance spoke to me
    on the street front of the keyboard it speaks hunches
    my boisterous gaze embalmed your visage
  • my target is shattering into pieces
    a Kodály voice’s price can’t be high
    if the half of some dirty words decreases
    I am the celebrator of the recent races’ magnificence
  • I am getting vacant – the new existence is ready
    at the costume party I’ve changed instruments
    because Kodály cannot be presented as mockery

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763718

Antony Fostieris – Selected Poems

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The Devil Speaks

“The angel doesn’t know anything

of his beauty

I only I

who betrayed my nature,

my first angelic nature,

may adore it now.

I, the whole of me, can fit in it

and tasting regret in the kisses

I can dream, I can fall in love

with the denied.”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763653

Arrows

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Excerpt

Despite it all, I felt gratified to be useful. Rats were a frequent
nuisance on ships; they woke us up at night, walked on us, dug their
teeth into our flesh. Many sacks had holes, and in some the rats were
still feeding. What to do? Benjamin was wiggling a stick in his hand.
He snuffled repeatedly while throwing me a similar weapon.
We took the hideous fruits of our slaughter to the upper deck,
spilling them overboard. The bodies of the rats floated on the surface
until two small sharks appeared and devoured them.
“Do what’s bad and expect it back,” Benjamin said, waving an
accusatory finger at the rats. I couldn’t tell whether he was joking.
Normally he was laughing. His eyes turned into a glittering line
whenever he laughed—but for several hours he had seemed almost
despondent.
“Something bothering you, my friend?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I’ve been from here to there and back all my life,
not knowing where night would find me. I thought life at sea would
be better, but . . . I should never have come.”
Our work together below decks had brought us together. This
was a different sort of confessional than I was accustomed to
hearing. I felt the solution was not necessarily in God’s hands.
“Why don’t you come with me to join the expedition? I’m sure
they will need a strong man like you.”
He looked up, eyes brighter, then his shoulders slumped again.
“I’ve signed on for five years with the captain,” Benjamin said. “I
have to stay.”
“You leave that one to me,” I said. And so devised a simple plan,
knowing I would soon be losing my brother’s companionship.
Although I felt I did not need my older brother as a protector, I knew
Bartolomé liked to feel he was necessary to me in that way.
Therefore, if Benjamin went to Bartolomé and volunteered to act as
my guardian in the New World, my brother might allow Benjamin
to leave the ship to accompany me, for my benefit…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981073522

Jazz with Ella

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Excerpt

The tour wound up at the fairground’s major landmark—an impressive communications tower. Natasha launched into her set speech. Several of the group yawned.
“Excuse me, Natasha,” interrupted Ted. “In Toronto, we’re just now building a free-standing tower like this one—for telecommunications. It’ll be the tallest in the world.” He beamed proudly, removing his baseball cap and flicking one hand through his curly hair.
For a split second Natasha’s face twisted in rage. Colour rushed to her cheeks and she drew up her chin.
My god, I think she’s going to explode, thought Jennifer. Several of the students backed away hurriedly.
“How many metres?” Natasha snapped.
“Oh, well, I’m not sure…”
“Ah.” Recovering, Natasha smiled triumphantly. “But this one has a restaurant at the top…that revolves.” Ted smiled and shut his mouth.
“I thought she’d lost it that time,” Paul muttered to Jennifer. “Have you noticed how touchy the Soviets are when you criticize—or even make a suggestion that anything could be wrong in their country?”
“Yeah, they’re pretty defensive.”
“I’m too tired to take in any more,” Paul continued. “Let’s zap over to that ice cream stand and sit on the grass for a while.” The two slipped away and were not surprised to see Lona and David following them.
“Whoo,” David shuddered, sprawling beside the others to suck on a strawberry cone. “You have to have the constitution of a bear to see this country right.”
“I hear we’re going to visit an elementary school tomorrow,” said Lona. “I think I’ll pass and go to the Trediakovsky Art Gallery instead. I must see the Rublev icons.” She rearranged her cream linen suit and settled gingerly on the grass.
“I’d like to meet the children,” Jennifer said mildly, dusting off her faded blue jeans. She was aware that she was supposed to be supervising this unruly crowd, but she was torn. In her opinion they were over-supervised between Natasha’s military command and Chopyk’s academic requirements. Fortunately, this morning the professor had dashed off on his own errand, putting her in charge. Surely the students could be allowed to explore at their own pace? That’s what immersion in a country was all about, wasn’t it?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763246

Wheat Ears – Selected Poems

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Teaching

And Themis was put in a dark dungeon

while I faced my kin’s delirious eyes

yet, though I had much to say,

I kept silent, momentarily, to give

time to their simple-mindedness 

bubbling along with the creek’s murmur

the innocent smile of a child upon which

I entrusted my hope to rediscover justice

with spring flowers rejuvenating

the veins of impeccable Eros

my distraught friends remained imprisoned

and I, dressed in rags, walked over the lands,

and being soft-spoken and with new symbols

with new follies and new anecdotes,

I tried to revert the beliefs of

new Judases born with sharpened teeth

ready to devour each other

nothing to leave for the winds

the rightful inheritors of my teachings

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BS8SNKXM

Swamped

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excerpt

these images oen came to his mind when he walked
the seawall along the Dundarave to 22nd Street. When he reached
the dock, he would go to the end, lean over the wooden structure,
and gaze at the sea bottom, at the sea life around the big wooden piles
full of barnacles, on which the small fish fed, at the crabs visible from
above where he stood. He remembered all the times he and his
brother would chase and try to outsmart the small crabs on the rocks
of his homeland, and how they would get soaked by the waves crashing
against the same rocks where they hunted the crabs and sea snails
their mother could turn into tasty meals that he devoured eagerly
every single time.
The sea’s familiar aroma filled his lungs. He looked around at all
the people standing and admiring the skyline of the University of
British Columbia across the bay or gazing out at the open sea toward
Vancouver Island, which was clearly visible in today’s sunshine. His
ears picked out a strongly accented voice behind him saying something
about the size of the university campus across the water and
the number of students that went there, and then a similar voice answering
him. The people talking were Iranians. He knew the accent.
Having an accent himself, he had learned to discern the accents of
others during his twenty years in Canada. He leaned over the wood
fence again and looked down into the water. It had a fascination that
attracted his eyes every time. He couldn’t imagine himself living in
the interior, in a place far from the sea. The restless, changeable sea
with its serene, glassy surface or its rough waves when the winds ran
amok. It was too important to him.
Eteocles Armenakis from Crete, had worked for a while for CP
Rail when he first came to Canada. The other yard men, his co-workers,
couldn’t handle the name Eteocles, so they had renamed him
Eteo. This prompted Eteocles to file for an official name change, and
he became Eteo Armen, simplifying both his first and last names.
Eteo raised his body up from the edge of the dock and felt the
tears filling his eyes. The images of those early days would remain
forever in his memory. They would always bring tears to his eyes. He
started walking back toward Ambleside Park.
His phone rang. It was Herbert.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Still Waters

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Excerpt

Carol Ann tossed her head. “I can’t think of anything better.”
Tyne grinned and glanced at her watch. “Hey look, gang, it’s getting
on to dinner time. I’d like to go have a peek at the roster before
we eat. So hurry up and change, then we can get to the cafeteria before
the rush. I’m starved.”
A few minutes later, as they hurried along the corridor, Tyne said,
“Did either of you see the menu board? What’s for dinner?”
“It’s Sunday. Need you ask?”
“Oh no, not beef stroganoff on my first day back?”
Moe poked her in the ribs. “No, sorry to disappoint you, kiddo.
Not beef stroganoff. That’s just their fancy name for it. It’s plain old
beef stew.”
Tyne groaned. The house mother, having overheard their comments,
looked up and scowled as they passed her desk.
As they spilled out the door onto the street, Tyne murmured under
her breath, “Oh, Mom, I sure miss you now.” 
Tyne stood at the nursing station on St. Francis and listened intently
as Sister Mary Louise assigned the graduates and student nurses
their duties for the day. Six of them gathered around the desk, two of
them third-year students. Joan Farr from the September class looked
nervous. She had just attained her third-year status, and probably
did not feel quite ready for the private patients on St. Francis, many
of whom were professional people, two of them doctors.
Tyne remembered Moe’s words as the three roomies ate breakfast
in the dining hall that morning. “It doesn’t matter how much money
they have, Tyne. Just remember that in bed with nothing on but a
skimpy nightshirt, they’re just the same as you and me.”
Tyne repeated the words to herself as she made her way down the
corridor with a tray of medications.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763068

Vespers

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Wings
Obstinate swallow wings spread
open merciless windbreakers
pronouncing elegance against
dictum’s profanity, legs
tucked away unlike a statue’s
yearning in awe for
his own feathery propulsion
must stand durable instead
on firmness, while
blue heaven consoles
loneliness with puffy clouds
whiting the distant shore
where everything someday
will adhere to excellence

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763033

Βασίλης Μόσχος, Δύο ποιήματα

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Βασίλης Μόσχος, Δύο ποιήματα