THE SECOND ADVENT OF ZEUS

ATHENA

Perplexed Athena gazed the sea

as if to say the balance of the world
was based upon it, fresh fountains
liberal and full of spring
like the palms
of the beardless poet
with reverence turned toward his heart

immense sea bearing gifts
in my endless wandering that
I discovered seeded fields
orchards with lemon trees
and grapevines ready
for the harvest

stars gracing rosy-cheeks
blue domes of temples
each in the arms of the other
words and dreamy images
hopeless this beauty
to escape

unless I again evoke Her spirit
logistical algorithm
Her divine intervention
a direction I was meant
to follow to the bitter end

until in the next room
they were already enjoying
the open bottle of champagne

ΑΘΗΝΑ

Η Αθηνά αντίκρυσε τη θάλασσα με απορία

σα να `λεγε εκεί βρισκόταν η ισορροπία
όλου του κόσμου, συντριβάνι
λεύτερο γιομάτο άνοιξη
σαν τις παλάμες
του αγένειου ποιητή στραμμένες
μ’ ευλάβεια στην καρδιά του

θάλασσα δώρα φορτωμένη
όταν μες στην ατέλειωτή μου
περιπλάνηση συνάντησα χωράφια
ολόσπαρτα, περβόλια λεμονιές
κληματαριές έτοιμες
για τον τρύγο

αστέρια στόλιζαν νεανικά μάγουλα
γαλάζιοι τρούλοι ένας
στην αγκαλιά του άλλου
λόγια κι ονειρικές εικόνες
ανέλπιδο απ’ την ομορφιά
ετούτη να ξεφύγω

εκτός κι αν το πνεύμα Της ξανά ανακαλούσα
ανύπαρκτος αλγόριθμος
η θεία Της παρέμβαση
κατεύθυνση που μου μέλλονταν
ν’ ακολουθήσω ώς το τέλος

ώσπου στο διπλανό δωμάτιο
με φυσαλίδες κι ευφροσύνη
οι άλλοι πίναν κιόλας τη σαμπάνια

~ΔΕΥΤΕΡΗ ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΔΙΑ, συλλογή εν εξελίξει.
~SECOND ADVENT OF ZEUS, collection in progress

Greece and Eurozone

This was the week the European dream died its deserved death
By
DarrellDelamaide

Politics columnist
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Greece will live to fight another day.
The Greek Parliament voted with a large majority to accept the impossible bailout demands of the European Union, pending the day when sanity is restored and these conditions can be reversed or abandoned.
The vote paves the way to begin negotiations on a third bailout and to provide immediate relief to Greece with a 7 billion euro bridging loan and increased liquidity assistance from the European Central Bank.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who showed a nobility rare among today’s politicians in humbling himself to ask for agreement with bailout terms that he acknowledged are pernicious and unjust, will remain prime minister, either with the fragile majority of a purged Syriza party or a national unity government.
The short-lived finance minister, Yannis Varoufakis, will return to the groves of academe, where his reckless ego will be more at home.
The ever-popular German chancellor, Angela Merkel, will win approval from her Parliament to begin talks for the third bailout of a fellow European country after she publicly humiliated Greece’s elected leader and forced him to grovel so that his elderly citizens could get medicine they need.
And Europe can begin the long process of unwinding a union that has failed and no longer has a chance of evolving into a United States of Europe.
Greece may perhaps negotiate the third bailout with the debt relief demanded by the International Monetary Fund and stay in the euro EURUSD, -0.4138% for a while.
But sooner or later, it will leave the euro, because every country in southern Europe will leave the euro. The euro as a currency for more than small handful of countries in the shadow of the German economy, will cease to exist.
The postwar “European Project” of political and economic integration is over.
Later this year, Spanish voters will register their protest against the euro with significant support for the Podemos movement, even if it falls short of giving that party a majority.
~ http://www.marketwatch.com