'time for reading'

[a piece in greek, moving from the anonymous poster -'time for reading'- that appeared in athens after the december 2008 riots, to a celebration of the merits of both john gray's straw dogs and rebecca solnit's hope in the dark - and of the fact that both were recently translated in greek]

epiphany

[a most telling photograph by tina rota, taken during the athens riots, on 10.xii.2008, stadiou st.]

happy new year

[greek version -based on the english translation by maya peretz- of a poem by the polish poet halina poswiatowska: as a small new year's present to readers known and unknown.]

for the solution

[a piece in greek, commissioned by lifo free press weekly. written on 8 december 2009 -the riots in athens had started in the night of 6 december- it principally expressed my consternation at the impasse that violence, under all its guises, represents.]

[not?] a chance meeting

[a piece in greek -commissioned by 'kathimerini' daily for the 'comment on a theme' column of its saturday 'life & arts' section- weaving the rich intellectual and social activist heritage described in rachel cohen's a chance meeting with one of its vindications: barack obama's recent election as president of the u.s.a.]

sailing in

On 3.xii.2008, the publication of To Sosivio [The Lifesaver] was toasted with red wine, thanks to the kind invitation of Kastaniotis Editions and the flagship 'Eleftheroudakis' bookshop, on Stadiou St., Athens.

robert frank

[a piece in greek, about robert frank - on the occasion of the 50th anniversary edition of the americans.]

suddenly

[a translation in greek of sylvia plath's 'sheep in fog', chanced upon in the faber & faber 2009 diary.]

the lifesaver

splash! [in bookshop sea]



[this print by monika zawadzka adorns the cover]

thom gunn: 9 poems

[greek translations of nine poems by thom gunn, originally published in 'poiesi' poetry journal.]

robert creeley: 14 poems

[translations in greek of fourteen poems by robert creeley, originally published in 'poiesi' poetry journal.]

darling i'm clearing up

darling i'm clearing up
it's cold here - and there?
i'm pulling up my hair pulling up
my hands, picking up the ribbons, the glitter
pencils, smiles - look:
pain went right through
the body called it in
the body waits - it wants/wanted to change
but it stays put
[pain will change it]
then it will go out, another
see? through a coloured
slit / then there's a ladder
and then everything's pink
[BLACK]
[wrong window]
start again -

darling i'm clearing out


Written in one go in a warm cafe in Stockholm's Sodermalm on an icy morning of October 2007. Eleni Theofilaktou had invited me to write a piece for her upcoming exhibition, "Darling, I'm clearing up" at 'tint' gallery in Thessaloniki, Greece (November 2007 - January 2008). She'd sent me photos of some of the works she'd be showing [e.g. the two below], we'd talked, I'd been keeping notes, mental as well as written. I sent the piece to her as a photo of the manuscript [above], since she'd liked the LLEL/LIR/LYR manuscript. She decided to make colour photocopies of it, which her show's visitors were free to take away with them.

[The english version is my own.]