Neo-Hellene Poets, an Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry, 1750-2018

POEM BY NANOS VALAORITIS

THE WHOLE 24 HOURS

Half a century of afternoons spent with my grandmother

clouds, colorful lizards and other monsters

airhead girls like sparrows

with the guilty walk in their overcoats

a deserted bed-sheet on my face

daily encounters like tumbled down churches

limos with somber expressions at the steering wheel

unfamiliar persons waiting at the corners of the streets

unrecognized women who pass by in plural

patisseries filled with questioning glances

medicine, pills for emotions of asphyxia

hours that won’t come back and ghosts of cafes

tired or cheery waking up in the morning

a march toward the narrow door of the heart

nobody at the house where they said a crazy

Swedish girl with the eyes like lampposts lived

struggle for democracy, running competition and agony

a quarter less than half a century and something more almost on me

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Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume III, Second Edition

Sudden Change

Strong wind started blowing in the afternoon quietness;

it blew the newspapers from three kiosks,

whipped the glass doors and the widened faces

          of the clocks,

totally altered time as if they had turned

the beautiful, intricate painting to its back and nothing

was visible but its white paper, yellowed from dampness

and the secretive spiders. The people were lost; didn’t

know how to use that unexpected independence with

the bewilderment and haste of a vague deadline, seeing

the lights people put on under the trees every evening,

far away in dark, remote restaurant windows, in

secret gardens with unfinished railings, not knowing

whether their freedom would continue in the next day;

finally satisfied that their exact ignorance was

their wisdom.

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Wheat Ears – Selected Poems

Decollete

Woman wore a red dress

décolleté her breasts searching

for the exits and she had

a yellow hat covering her

brown brow crescents

ancient swords

eastern warriors harboring nothing

but love for white necklines and

for dancing to laughter

like you do popping up birds

from your hat to delight children

like the clown

with his wide smiling mouth

and sad wet eyes

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