A Gap in History

We took leave of the snow.   
We came here
in order to learn to breathe,
to live and to love.

Always searching.
The kindness in malice, 
the right in unfairness,
the logic in slaughter.

As the Byzantines,
the crusaders,
the Ottomans,
or the tanks with the swastika,
were passing by.

Bent in the beach,
next to the pines
that have kneeled from the wind,
we try hard now
to put all those ancient stones
back in their place.

But to no avail.
Our memories have dried out
as the watercourse of a stream
in the summertime.

They will pass centuries for this soil
in order to forget our passage.

January : 2008

Against the Wind  

Who threw water on the wick?
Who, restless and trapped
Can survive in this necropolis?
Trumpeting down the walls
that are not of Jericho.
Trumpeting down the walls
that besiege a chthonic people.

Tonight I shall return as a black dove
to bring you an oak tree branch from Dodona
And a darkness full of lightning
all the way from the palace of Atropos.
So that you stay up all night
and knead
a bright sunshine for tomorrow.

"Good morning wind-vane",
to say when morning comes,
"where do the winds blow from today?"
And just like a white horse
to gallop against the wind.

July : 1998

Abandon Pallini

In this place your truths are bleeding.
Athens is here no more.
She travels down a cart-track,
with a useless spare wheel in the trunk.

She named Hyakinthus Apollo
and Apollo Jesus.
She buried the cloud compeller
underneath chapels of Prophet Elias.
And chapels of Prophet Elias
underneath TV antennae.

And it is five past ten in the morning.
Eilithyia descends Parnitha,
bearing an arm of death flowers.

Smell the wind.
Listen to the birds of Teiresias.
This morning carries a strange message for you.
The dream is a broken glass in your stomach.
How can you live without its glow?
And how can you put it back together again?
You shall bleed in any case.

Lean towards the earth.
Wash away your vows at Styx.
And just like Alkyoneas,
abandon Pallini.

 April: 2000

What's The Difference?

If you're burying the truth in your pockets
or you never search for it
-what's the difference?

If you afraid to fall in the fire
or you don't see the need to make it
-what's the difference?

If you're crossing the hands waiting
or insensitive you sleep
-what's the difference?

If you strike the heart on the wall of loneliness
or you strike the heart on stone persons
-what's the difference?

 May: 2000

Unrelenting Traveller

Eight salty Beaufort striking my face
at the edge of Inverness.
With my hands wide open
I'm balancing like a seagull
in front of the black and angry Atlantic.

I feel your lonely sunset 
as you cross the ocean for hours.
I feel your longing wave
as you come to reach and burst out on the beach.

But since I was a child
an unknown star
permanently drives me to chaos,
and it is impossible to resist.  

I travel thirsty on clear waters.
I travel hungry in fruitful gardens.
With great eagerness,    
that suffocates inside my breast.
With an insistent deputy,
being stuck as chewing gum under my shoe.

This world is so vast.
and this brain, so restricted.
When I will find a beach? 

April : 2000

The Future Now! 

I never been
ocular witness
one of the happiest moments
that I dreamed.

I did never taste
the wine of freedom
that I knead in my cellars.

And the river goes down onrush,
in order to sweep
this litter life.

So here I am
At the bank of Acherons
grin and bear it
as in a bus station.
The system
is doping me with money.
My friends
promise me a sunny day.
And I want
the future now! 

November: 1975

I Need You

Now all the flowers become blue.

Salty the kisses I give to the wind.
Illusions those green, beloved eyes.
Every night I find my dreams
have run offshore.
Sometimes in the Indian Ocean
sometimes in a Caribbean sea
or out of port in Dubai.
Lifesavers stay beside them
but they do not copy the signals.

I wish I was a dragon in Canton
chrysanthemum in Kyoto.
I wish I was a fellah in Port Said
a meridian in the parallels of your glance.
Every time I need you to take my life away
to finding you
in a handful of fresh water reflecting.
To seeing you
in a misty meadow rising.

 July : 1985