Poem by Kostas Karyotakis

SMILE

Although she never learned of it she cried

perhaps because she had to cry

perhaps because misfortune always comes.

Tonight the dusk is just a dream

the ravine remains enchanted

the rain stopped and the tired girl

lied onto the moist clover-field

her parted lips two cherries

this way as deeply she breaths

her breasts ascent and descent

as if the most crisp April rose.

Sun rays flash through the clouds

and hide in her eyes, the lemon tree

drips moist onto her body

two diamonds stop onto her cheeks

you think she may be crying

as she smiles to the faraway sun.

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THIS took place, especially when God’s sickness kept me

down where the futile couldn’t pass and the dead carriage

driver, standing on the railings was still holding the horses

faraway in the endless, since there wasn’t ever any return

only plenty of ancient words, repeated in a different place

or suddenly kept silent,

since we were all strangers here, simple tenants and what

occurred will re-occur and our days are the repeated

signal of something we never understood.

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Poem from the book IMPULSES

Hearing Aid

Growing forgetful in glory

thoughts you never had in youth

but when the chickadee chirps

you tune in your hearing aid

bask in the shape of your

statue honing fine verse

in your serene walk through

the park confer the shape

of untouched vulva

no one asks you for detail

yet you do this to persuade yourself

you can still                                                                        

recite deep verse though you’re

as fritzed as the hearing aid you like

to tune in to the chickadee’s chirp

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EROTIKOS LOGOS

I

Fateful rose, you looked for ways to wound us

but you bend like the secret to be redeemed

and the command you chose to give us was beautiful

and your smile was like a ready sword.

The accent of your circle brought the world to life

the path of a deep thought emerged from your thorn

our ardor dawned sweet and naked to possess you

the world was as easy as a simple heartbeat.

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From the Book THE MEDUSA GLANCE

Regime Change

Target country needs

a new despot

failed regime needs

to be changed

bombs, missiles,

guided death

put to work

defence contractor

in overtime

one can’t stand opposite

the deciding elit

with its rightful right

to punish, set straight,

do justice

old despot needs

to be replaced

announced in the evening news

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From the book THE MEDUSA GLANCE

Diptych

A clear cut case, the leader

of the free world said

either with us or against us

underlining the war might

stored in dark warehouses housing

his selected war toys

his opponent, on the far away land, blinked

his eyes before the economic

slavery of multinationals and

devastatedly falling bombs  

to smartly flatten desert land

a clear cut case, the leader

of the free world said

either with us or against us

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POEM BY MANOLIS ANAGNOSTAKIS

YOUNG MEN FROM SIDON

We shouldn’t complain, really

your company was pleasant and full of vigor:

freshened girls, wholesome boys

full of love for life and for adventures

and your songs were sweet and meaningful

very sentimental, humane

for the children who died over the other continent

for the heroes killed in past years

for revolutionaries with black, green, reddish skin

for the grief of every suffering man

this involvement especially an honour for you

for today’s problems and struggle

you always appear and you fight, therefore

I believe it’s your right to play

in groups of two or three at a time  

and to fall in love

to just relax, brothers, after such tiredness

(George, have you noticed we’ve aged prematurely?) 

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Poem by Kiki Dimoula

SOME NIGHTS

Now that my old visions

have vanished far away into the seas

and their shape can’t reach me

and their memory has left me

I haven’t ever wished

to return to such thoughts

yet during

some endless nights

and almost tirelessly

my old visions

from the far away seas

I recall

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Poem from the book EL GRECO

Red Carpet

Like a red carpet I lay my heart

before all the ethereal fleshless

images which you have graced

with life.

in front of your fiery passion

for greatness, charisma which

transcends the ephemeral,

the only means you need.

Great grandfather were men

the same in your days?

How did your Cretan glance

embrace them?

How did the Cretan sun

which you carried in your heart

shine on them?

Your ever enduring masterpieces

your endless inspiration but a

witness to your splendorous vision,

to your celestial fervor.

A witness to your

relentless effort to unfold,

one by one, man’s

heart like the petals of a rose.

A witness to your

undying yearning to transcend

one by one the layers

of a man’s caged substance.

Step by step on the ladder upwards.

Less flesh forward:

spirit only.

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Poem by GEORGE VIZYENOS

PARABLE

The morning star can never shine

as you when you appear, joy-giving lass

nor does the green clover have as much

as you have freshness on your sweetened lips

nor do the flowers of narcissus have

such fragrance as your lightest breath

nor does the bird know how to sing such

sweet songs as your inventive lips.

One only it can’t learn—to sing I love you—

and for this, I dare to say, another soul may die.

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