Tasos Livaditis – Poems, Volume II

Long-listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards

https://griffinpoetryprize.com/press/2023-longlist-announcement/

THEN, who is the one who looks over our shoulders
signalling to someone else behind us and they agree
without us? I turned to look, however which secret
was even hidden with so much craftiness, as all else
was a conjecture amid the dark shadows? “No, no one
is left”, I said and when finally the car stopped in front
of the door no one got out since the incomprehensible
was already inside the house and the old man, standing
by the door, wore a big size robe
like the poor who, when they die, are very light in
their casket since Fate had wasted them and couldn’t
find a buyer for their souls; when the others returned to
the city to finish their day the poor dead seem surprised
that while time flies no one comes to send them away.

https://draft2digital.com/book/4051627

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763564

Orange

Response
In the tempest’s wrath
I longed for
a glimmer of hope
in the heat of July
I seek the tanned
smooth body of the woman
and the north wind said
find your path
in your ancestor’s footsteps
lean and reverently lift
the marble over their gravesite
to feel their warmth and
I asked the southwest wind
where is my sunshine
and it said,
it hides
in your heart

https://draft2digital.com/book/3746001

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763750

Neo-Hellene Poets, an Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry

LETTER TO MR GEORGE DE ROSSI, ENGLAND
When you come, you’ll find
only the grave of your father
where I stand now, writing to you
on this first day of May.
We will spread the month of May
over his benevolent breast
since tonight he fell asleep
in the arms of Jesus Christ.
He was serene and motionless
up to his final breath,
as still as he is this moment
now that his soul has fled.
Only for a moment before he left
toward his dwelling in the sky
he gently moved his hand
as if to bless you.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562959

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763513

Titos Patrikios – Selected Poems

Notebook

I
I discovered a summer with
strange winds and rain
though the elders say that during
this month it always turns nasty
in the northern islands.
During the night we gather
in the shack with the cane roof and
its only window, we drink tea, coffee
whatever is available,
we talk.
‘Death camouflages, it never
stays the same. It’s different
when you charge against it with
a thousand others, certain for victory,
different during the night
when you alone wait for it knowing
that daybreak is still far away’
‘Death is always the same
when you see it coming’
‘We die since we get old’
‘We live because we fight
since we can’t but fight like
we can’t live without breathing’
I lived near the train station for years
and I was hearing the train whistles
long before I read them in the poems.
The ship comes here once a week
and we keep on sharing
our names and our house.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562972

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L1TJNNF