Katerina Anghelaki Rooke, Selected Poems

I kept on closing to the reef
helped by the waters
with their light-blue blouses
that had painted on them the cypresses
from the cemetery on the opposite shore.
The beautiful temptation had overtaken me:
to not ever return again
to close the underwater cycle
around my neck,
necklace of unimaginable value.
As I swam farther out
I slowly ripped the fabric of the sea
I kicked down loves that surfaced
I kicked them back to their weedy beds.
Then I questioned myself
if I had truly desired
those acceptable shapes
of the desirable, something
between the subjected body
and the empty talk.
Eros is the only godly glance
that might fall on us
the unbelievers, I would say.
Yet, look, how the sea with the blue
eyelids arouses me now
I’m lasciviously scared
and I float on ditch water
not knowing where it takes me
because I walk on
the invisible side of lust:
death.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562965

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763521?th=1

Ken Kirkby – Warrior Painter

Excerpt

Humour is an intrinsic part of Ken’s make-up but if you want to scratch the
surface of the real Kirkby, you need to have an elastic mind. His secret life,
as he refers to it, revolves around more complex thinking than the average
person is prepared to enter into. Quantum mechanics is not a subject he
expounds on readily because, aware as he is that he doesn’t fit into the
comfortable mould most of us consider to be normal, and because he doesn’t
enjoy one-sided conversations all that much, there are only a few special
and close friends that are privy to discussions on what is broadly termed
quantum theory.
I find it curious that this subject is a puzzle that people run from. I’ve
tried to fathom why they find it so irritating, and this is what I have come
up with. We’ve been trained so thoroughly to believe that certain things
are the property of ‘special’ people—the elite, the priests, geniuses, the
scientists—and unless you are credentialed you do not even have the
right to talk about those things.
We bump into this in attitude at every turn of life—before people
allow themselves to listen, they ask, “What training do you have in this
subject?” Why should testimonials matter if you have an intelligent
thought that merits discussion? Because you can’t explain in medical
terms exactly how your brain works, does that mean you should not
have one?
The mental acuity required to follow the intricate pathways of this
thinking process brings Ken enormous pleasure. As his own dad did, Ken
corresponds internationally with stimulating and enquiring thinkers. But
that, too, had to be sidelined while he put the shattered pieces of his life…

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562902

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763289?th=1

Nostos and Algos

Lonely
Lonely hair dances
in a serene rhythm on
my middle finger seeking
anonymously to hide
in spasmodic breaths
of moist air under
your bed sheet and the cricket
insists to mimic your moans
comparing it to that foggy light
that stays quite erotically trapped
between your legs and
you say
touch me now, touch me here
where my blood shivers with delight

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763920?th=1