Saturday, October 1, 2016

EDITORIAL

WELCOME
TO
OUR POETRY ARCHIVE


“Dreams of light can turn dark during the night;
looking past, the darkness shines hues of color in sight;
See the Unseen.”
~Stacia Lynn Reynolds~

Humanity has turned its thoughts and actions, throughout these last few generations, from people who were once empathetic toward one another, to an apathetic generation full of hate, mistrust, with no apparent passions to help mankind. People talk and people listen, stirring and adding to the clouded black pot of negativity. These pots of hate and condemnation grow hotter and hotter as it boils, while the hearts of mankind grow colder and colder. Where condemnation abounds, judgment clouds and forgiveness is never found. People are drowning in an apathetic world. Drowning in the depths of misunderstanding, hate and mistrust. Has humanity come to a place of no return? Can these obstacles we face day-to-day be overcome? Where can we find a new beginning and a new start where empathy abounds and apathy is destroyed? Where appreciation is gathered into a bouquet of beautiful apparent colors.

Let us become shelters for one another. Let us not leave people in the darkness of condemnation. May we cease to judge, or condemn people only on what we hear; words tainted black, blacken the soul. Let us not look upon the outward appearance of our neighbors, but look inward. May our minds be open to goodness, displaying kindness to those around us and to those we meet. Search for the shining diamonds within others, and search for gold within the hearts of people. People hide, within their own souls, out of fear of hurt; so we need to clothe ourselves with compassion and mercy, no longer leaving others alone. When the sun falls, leave the darkness remain as night, and rise in the wings of the morning, shining our lights upon all mankind; where mercy and abounding grace may be found.

“There’s a very deep connection among human beings.
All we have to do is open our minds to it.”
~Yanni~

Our Poetry Archive’s newest intention is to publish continental poets and poetess from every corner of the world. We have pursued this newest idea so readers of this blog may grasp the literary forms of poets and poetess from each continent, and find appreciation in each writer. In this October 2016 Edition, we are featuring poems from 48 European poets. Though we failed to represent poems from every corner of Europe, we feel this a great representative effort, on behalf of Our Poetry Archive.    Our Poetry Archive is pleased to introduce the Featured European Poet, in this special edition; Chryssa Velissariou. We encourage everyone to read her inspiring words, found in her personal responses given, in our interview with her.

Our Poetry Archive’s next Continental Special Edition will focus on North America. This Special Edition is scheduled for December 2016. Our Poetry Archive is extending an open invitation to all North American poets and poetess. Please send at least three poems (on any topic), a profile picture & a short Bio along with the explicit confirmation of your permission for publication of your copyrighted materials in OPA before November 10, 2016. Our email address is: <ourpoetryarchive@gmail.com>

Author Stacia Lynn Reynolds, editor, sincerely thanks each and every poet, poetess and reader who is actively involved in this wonderful blog and continued support of Our Poetry Archive.
From The Editorial Desk
OPA
A
WORLDWIDE WRITERS’ WEB
PRESENTATION!

PUBLISHED BY

OPA

OUR
POETRY ARCHIVE
ONLINE MONTHLY POETRY JOURNAL

email us to:

******************************************

CHRYSSA VELISSARIOU

OUR POETRY ARCHVE FEATURED
POET OF THE MONTH
CHRYSSA VELISSARIOU

OCTOBER 2016


OPA How long have you been writing Poetry? We would like to know the early stories about your growing up as a poet or writer in general. Who are your favorite Poets? What are some of your favorite genres to read and to write? Had they inspired you a lot, do you believe in inspiration as a guiding force behind writings at all?

CHRYSSA I’m a reader first of all. I was attracted by poetry since I was eleven years old, meaning my first years of adolescence. I was not a conscientious reader of poetry though; since I always was a bookworm I was reading everything I could even if it was difficult to understand for my age. I was not considering the poetry books as books to read; they were more something like a distraction for me, a subtle delight, a consolation, something I was reading to feel not to think about. So without knowing it I was always reading poetry the right way, through my heart. I started to read first the Greek traditional poems and song, which were simple, direct and were about stories of people with repeated patterns, metaphors , structure and rhythm. Those poems had many elements of myths and a sense of fairytales which attracted my innocent soul then. Afterwards I started to read all the classical and contemporary Greek poets like Kavafis, Seferis, Elytis, Palamas, Skarimbas, Ouranis, Solomos, Kalvos, Mavilis, Krystallis, Valaoritis, Polidouri, Varnalis, Ritsos, Empeirikos, Vassilikos, Sikelianos, Livaditis, Karouzos, Demoula, Anagnostakis, Kaknavatos, Lapatiotis, Sachtouris, Sinopoulos, Karouzos, Kariotakis, Sinopoulos, Kavvadias, Eggonopoulos  etc. They are so many and important poets… Greek poets are great! In the last fifty years two Nobel prizes (Seferis, Elytis) and two Lenin prices (Ritsos, Varnalis) were awarded to Greek poets. When I discovered the exceptional ancient poets, first of all Homer and Sapfo, I started to read them passionately too. I still “feel” them all and many others… I was learning to speak French during my early years so I was reading French poetry from the prototype too. In my eighteen years I had next to my pillow the Bible and Rimbaud… My mother was a theologian so my youth was filled with the serene byzantine hymns, great pieces of poetry too… Romanos o Melodos was writing about God like a man in love to his beloved one. In the University I “met” Nazim Hikmet, Khalil Gibran, Poe, Shelley, Kipling, Wilde, Parra, Pessoa, Bukowski, Plath, Mayakovski, Milosz, Cummings, Dante, Shakespeare, Elliot, Goethe, Kafka,  Dickinson, Blake, the Beat poets, Tagore etc. I was very lucky to have learned many languages so I was reading poetry from the prototype.

During all my adolescence I wrote only two poems which I hated right afterwards and I tore apart the sheet of paper whereon they were written. But I remember to recite “poems” all my life… Everything, I was singing it like a poem inside my soul and mind. I remember myself to recite on the shore to a girlfriend in rhythm and rhyme all the Ancient Greeks history as we has learned it in school. To console myself I was talking poetically to me in sorrows, I was expressing with verses my joy. As my mentor Faidon Theofilou named my kind in one of his numerous books, I just was an “oral poet” all my life.

This continued till recently… It is only ten years ago that I felt the need to present my poetry on internet, on facebook poetry groups, on my blogs, in many international anthologies, literature journals, magazines and of course in my Greek books.  But since then I create poems all the time like a fool. I wrote more than 3000 poems during the last years and I translated many of them or I wrote others directly in three languages, English, French and German, but mostly in English.

There is not parthenogenesis in literature. But after all this I read I don’t know who could have been my model poet. I think that inspiration is the moving force as also the sense of metaphor and the ability to create images. I think a poet remains a fascinated child looking for new experiences around him all his life. I also think a poet is characterized by high compassion, intuition and awareness. A great love for beings and nature.
I wrote poems using many genres of poetry. I prefer my brief allegorical poems. Most of my poems verses use a kind of haiku style.


OPA What has been the toughest criticism given to you as a writer? What was the biggest compliment? Did those change how or what you write? What has been the strangest thing that a reader has asked you?

CHRYSSA They say I write too much. I often become verbose. I don’t like it, but sometimes I need it. A Greek American professor of literature last year told me I am a born poet and I write the way I speak. He said it is the easiest thing for me to write verses that others work and study too much to create. He also compared me with Emily Dickinson. Another Greek author and poet I respect too much told me once that my writing resembles to the writing of Anna Akhmatova and another respected poet told me that some of my love poems are as if they have been written by Joyce Mansour (smile). I do not even believe I’m an important poet! But I know they said their opinion frankly so I feel proud though humble. A mother asked me once to write a poem about her dead daughter and not to tell anyone I was the poet; she wanted to present the poem as hers in the memory of her daughter. I felt much moved and I did it. She still feels so grateful to me! She says the poem was telling exactly what she was feeling and she never could express wordily.


OPA What is your favorite poem you have ever written? Compared to when you first started writing, have you notice any big changes in your writing style or how you write compared from then to now?

CHRYSSA I feel all my poems are my children and a mother could not say one of her children is better than the other. But I remember very dearly the first poem with which my mentor Faidon Theofilou presented me to the public in his famous blog and from which my blog took its name. The title of the poem is “Apolestheen” meaning in ancient Greek “I’m lost”. This poem had been also published in English and in Greek in an international anthology of the Canadian editor Brian Wrixon with whom I published poems in more than fifteen of his anthologies. Well yes my style is dynamic as it should be the style of every living poet. My poems have been developed from a classical and strict structure into a more liberal structure and a surrealistic style. I feel freer to use strong words now and to touch non conventional themes.


OPA What has been your favorite part of being a poet or and author? What has been your least favorite?

CHRYSSA I feel more a poet than an author although my readers say I write prose skillfully. I like the thickness of motions and images in a good poem. I don’t like to be verbose in strong emotional themes…


OPA Did you get to quit your day job and become a writer and or author or do you still have a day job and writing is something you do for fun? If you still have a day job, what is it?

CHRYSSA Well I am a succeeded and prized professor of Physics, I do not even see Physics as a job although I gain money from my teaching. Physics has always been a great love for me. Poetry is not at all for fun though. I respect my Art and I feel complete through it. I cannot live without Physics or Poetry anymore. I’m in love with both of them (smile).


OPA Besides writing and reading, what is your most favorite thing to do?What genre are you most looking forward to explore during your writing career? Why?

CHRYSSA I also like, as I said before, Physics as teaching or educational research. I was specialized in Space Physics but lately I am interested in NT education. But before all I feel I am the mother of my four children. My family matters above all to me. I am a dynamic poet and I develop my views about my Art day by day. I do not know to where I’ll go as a poet , I know what my inspiration tells me to do right now and right now I am preparing to write something like a poetic novel, a big story in poetic word. I feel this is a challenge for me, how to remain brief in words and also write something extended as a whole.  I think this could be a bet for every poet.

OPA: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? How does it relate to the general history of mankind?

CHRYSSA Oh Poetry is that beautiful useless thing we could not live without. It is the key to express wordily emotions and problems which tyrannize our inner and outer world respectively. This way we could deepen the understanding of our personality and strengthen our passion for life.


OPA Our readers would like to know your own personal experience regarding the importance of literature and poetry in your life.

CHRYSSA I live and communicate through poetry, I bear my solitude through the Arts, I think there is nothing more important than this.

OPA Do you think people in general actually bother about literature in general?  Do you think this consumerist world is turning the average man away from serious literature?

CHRYSSA Yes, literature and science which is the flag of the consumerist world in fact construct our culture together and the one influence the other. There were and there are a few people only who love and understand serious literature, because a few people only can understand metaphor and use their imagination to elaborate images. Serious literature had always nothing to do with majority.

OPA If humanity makes an attempt to understand tradition and modernism, do you think literature can play a pivotal role in obtaining understanding?  If so, how? Again how can an individual writer relate himself or herself with the tradition and modernism?

CHRYSSA I only could say that poetry can empower understanding because “it is only in the Arts where the processes and products of the imagination are encountered and explored in consciousness, where they become objects of inquiry, unlike in the sciences where the metaphors that are used remain hidden” (Stewart and Walker, 2005), only in the Arts a person exceeds the culture by which he/she has been created using the most impressive tool of the human spirit, imagination. All this, considering tradition as the old and modernism as the new view among ideas.

OPA Do you think society, as a whole, has a factor in shaping you as a poet, or your poetry altogether?

CHRYSSA I do not write nor ever I wrote for the public mind, I write for myself, AND again NOT by griping about what happens to me but by describing my substance or juxtaposing it with the substance of others. I LIVE through this, nothing CAN satisfy ME more. So although I am a product of my society, I think my Art helps me keep my Otherness intact.

OPA Being a scientist and specially working in the field of cosmology, can you relate poetry with the cosmic existence of the eternity?

CHRYSSA As a scientist I have been specialized in Space Physics, yes. I understand eternity in its material notion, not of a stable world but of a world which by nature and by chance turns from the nothing to everything, a world which dies and is born completely different again. But the word eternity has been related to religion and souls etc… I’m not so sure, but I doubt about our personal spiritual eternity. I am almost convinced that a human being dies for sure and a new is born, but the dead is dead. I mean I feel we have this little life only. We have our material eternity though, our children, not our own children, all the children on Earth

OPA We would like to know about the influence of Greek Mythology in your poetry and writings.

CHRYSSA It is not only me! The truth is I am immerged in the lake of the Ancient Greek spirit, language and myths through my classical education in Greece, Greek culture’s tradition and through Greek Orthodox religion’s worship which still uses the Ancient Greek language. But furthermore Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization in general and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes. Out of all the mythologies of the world, Greek mythology has had the most influence on Western culture.  Literally thousands of artists and writers have used Greek mythology as their muse--bringing the ancient stories to life through sculpture, painting, poetry, and song. Myth-inspired phrases such as Achilles Heel and Oedipus Complex and stand-alone words like labyrinth and mentor proliferate English language.  Media other than high art use mythological references too.   Businesses and advertising firms use mythology as a selling tool.  Arethusa Plumbing references Arethusa (a nymph transformed into a spring), a diamond necklace is titled a Pandora for its irresistibility, and towering billboards bear the name Olympus.  All these examples show how culturally ingrained Greek mythology has become.  Together with the Bible and Shakespeare, Greek mythology rounds out the Big Three of Allusions.  Any serious student of literature must have a healthy background in these three areas in order to spot the numerous references authors make to them.

Every culture and era has its beliefs about deities and their roles in the universe, but only a handful have been as enduring and influential as Greek mythology.  Our pantheon was neither a religion nor a set of cultural fables, but rather something that landed right between those marks.

I suggest that for modern writers classical mythology offers shorthand that can be called upon when personal or direct language presents difficulties, freeing the poet to explore ideas. The characters and events of mythology are about the eternally important issues of what it is to be human: love and anger, war and the reasons for war or lack of them, identity and loss, complexities of family relationships, justice versus the rule of law, what heroism means, hope, and despair – these are some examples from a long list. The ancient stories are deceptively simple, giving today’s writers the option to interpret events, characters and themes every which way: symbolism and metaphor being two of the more obvious routes that spring to mind. Or a mythological reference can add a layer of meaning bringing interest or a cause for thought. I do the same.

OPA We would also like to know; How do you relate the present literary trends with the literary heritage of your own country?
 
CHRYSSA The glories of ancient Greece and the splendor of the Christian Byzantine Empire give the modern Greeks a proud and rich heritage. The resilience and durability of Greek culture and traditions through times of turmoil provide a strong sense of cultural destiny. These elements also pose a considerable challenge to Greeks of the present: to live up to the legacies of the past. Much of the history of the modern state of Greece has witnessed a playing out of these contradictory forces.

Furthermore the literature of Ancient Greece was so important that it was preserved for millennia and helped form the basis of the modern European culture. The Ancient Greek authors left legacies that included styles and themes of literature, early mythologies and histories that of course words to describe important aspects of language. The Greeks were the first major Europe’s civilization to create complex literature and their works influence us today in many ways. One way is in the style that we write; in other words why do we write History or Philosophy or Comedy or Poetry? These styles were first developed by the Greeks. One of the oldest styles of literature is Poetry. Specifically a big Poetry that uses verse to tell a long story about a hero, the oldest surviving works of a great Greek epic poetry are the Iliad and the Odyssey written by Homer in about 700B.C. The Iliad and Odyssey tell stories that are part History, part Fiction and part Mythology that represent how the Greeks remembered their past and understood the world. These two books are also two of the widely read books in the Modern world because they set standards for storytelling, such as the characteristics of a hero’s journey that influence us to this day. When the ancient Greeks literature reached its height in 5th and 4th century, the era of the Classical Period, literature blossomed and expanded. Several styles immerged that may sound familiar. Let’s start with History. We don’t think about this but History had to have started somewhere. In the 5th B.C. a man named Herodotus wrote a book that was a foundation of historical writing. For centuries rulers were recorded upon invents and singers pass on local legends but Herodotus was the first who systematically researched and collected historic materials and arranged them into a single narrative. Although he was often mixed on mythology and folk stories, this was still the most accurate account of recorded history and started a trend that modern historians still obey. Just as they did for History, the Greeks also turned random jots on Philosophy, Medicine, Arts and Engineering at full length articles that other people could read and research. So a large amount of articles were created which many people could reach and many scholars in the world interacted that way. We could say similar things about Comedy or Tragedy the two styles of theater which were invented by the Greeks and still relate the present relevant literary trends.


OPA Are you a feminist? Can literature play any decisive role in feminism at all?

CHRYSSA Am I? I am a woman for sure. I am a person who believes the two sexes are equivalent for sure. I was always a free mind. I never felt inferior among men. On the contrary I had usually more success than any men around me in whatever I was involved. In science, in teaching, in politics, sometimes in Poetry too. I see woman as a human being and all human beings are allegedly equal, right? Why then I can feel and act as equal in my environment and country when my fellow African woman is slaughtered not to feel the sexual joy with her clit or is kidnapped and remain a slave against her will? Why my fellow Muslim women are taught to believe they must hide their body? Why little baby girls are thrown to the garbage in Asia? Why women are raped and slaughtered like cattle in India and in many other places? Why the woman’s body is exploited as a thing to increase sales of products? Anyway there is still a lot of unright things against women on this globe, so yes! I think I am a feminist.


OPA Do you believe that all writers are by and large the product of their nationality? Is it an incentive or an obstacle in becoming an international writer?

CHRYSSA No each of us is a multicolored being who can absorb everything. Especially in our times that we live in an informative world. So we are taught by our nation’s tradition but we can incorporate no matter what to which we are attracted  and can satisfy us as personalities. Anyway there is a common internal language among all beings, the language of the emotions and Poetry is able to use it eloquently.

OPA What 7 words would you use to describe yourself?

CHRYSSA Mother, Physicist, Poet, teacher, lover, friend, WOMAN.


OPA Is there anything else that you would like to share or say to those who will read this interview?

CHRYSSA Peace and love among people will win. I am a believer. Only this.

The editorial staff of this project: Deborah Brooks Langford, Stacia Lynn Reynolds; sincerely thank you for your time and hope we shall have your continued support.

CHRYSSA VELISSARIOU: Professor of Physics, specialized in Space Physics, candidate Doctor in NT Education.  Prized by the Ministry of Education in Greece. Elected in the Municipality of  her hometown. Published in Greek and English in over 20 Anthologies, internet magazines and two personal books. Activist for Peace. World Poetry Canada and International Ambassador to Greece 2014-2016 for Peace. 100TPC and International Beat Poetry events organizer. She has published more than 3000 poems on her blogs. She also writes in French and German.  

CHRYSSA VELISSARIOU

CHRYSSA
VELISSARIOU


WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

How far do I wish
to be heard? But I just need
to talk openly!

I really want to
touch no soul , I just repel
my odd loneliness

I try to share with
you the inherent human soul's
emotional strength

I make a research
so the inborn greatness inside
me to discover

So then maybe I could
through you love and hug my being's
internal Chaos


*
ΤΙ ΑΝΑΖΗΤΩ

Μέχρι πού θέλω
ν' ακουστώ; Μα απ' ανάγκη
μιλώ φανερά!

Δεν επιθυμώ
κανένα ν'αγγίξω, τη
μοναξιά απωθώ

Μοιράζομαι απλά
την εγγενή ανθρώπινη
ψυχική αντοχή

Προσπαθώ το εντός
μου εκ γενετής ωραίο
ν' ανακαλύψω

Το χάος του είναι μου
να μπορέσω μέσω υμών
να συμπαθήσω

(c)ChryssaVelissariou2014




CRYSTAL SOLITUDE

I brutally cerebrate looking
to a bluish sea snail
on the iridescent bottom, as
the frozen foam
of the winter coast
is kissing sensually my feet ...
In memory of our separation.

The cold wind has replaced
the daring embraces
during our promenades
although I still pray
the spring purple lips
to turn into crystals
tightly clasped.

The shuffled curls
of the long hair in the breeze
are reaped by the Slayer north wind,
which recalls that times
prevent old age from
approaching erotic irregularities,
as they did in their youth .

Transparent presence, however,
of tears in glass eyes
can not define
the crispy, brutal silence
as the icy consequence of
an enforced absence.

**
ΚΡΥΣΤΑΛΛΙΝΗ ΕΡΗΜΙΑ

Στυγνά διανοούμαι, κοιτώντας
ένα γαλαζωπό κοχλία,
που ιριδίζει στο βυθό, όπως
ο παγωμένος αφρός της
χειμωνιάτικης ακτής μου
φιλά ηδονικά τα πόδια...
Σ' ανάμνηση αποχωρισμού.

Την αγκαλιά στις παράτολμες
βόλτες έχει ο ψυχρός άνεμος
αντικαταστήσει, όσο κι αν
δέομαι να 'ταν κρύσταλλα
σφιχτά ενωμένα τα χείλη
της άνοιξης τα πορφυρά.

Τους μπερδεμένους βοστρύχους
μακριών μαλλιών στο μελτέμι
θέρισε φονιάς, ο βοριάς,
να υπομιμνήσκει ότι οι καιροί
αποτρέπουν το γήρας απ' την
προσέγγιση ερωτικών,
ωσεί νεανικών, ατασθαλιών.

Διαφανής παρουσία, ωστόσο,
δακρύων σε γυάλινα μάτια
δεν μπορεί να εξηγήσει
την τριζάτη, ωμή σιωπή
ως παγερή συνέπεια της
επιβεβλημένης απουσίας.
(c)ChryssaVelissariou2015





THE MEDUSA

The old man,  with wrinkles like
fish scales, grabbed my hand,
looked me in the eyes and smiled
sardonically ...

His white long hair and
beard waved in the wind.

"You have the smile of the snake's mother"
told me, "bland but also a trap;
if I had youth and urge,
you'd lie down on the sand with me
for a night ... "

His eyes, greedy, investigated
my bosom and flanks.

I had a tendency to run, but my legs
was trembling, bolted to earth, and my heart
was beating, like the small deer's after
hunt. I saw that he was reading me ...

He pulled his tongue and licked his lips,
caressing lewdly my thighs with his free hand .

"You're wet as a deep dark lake"
he said, "and your body a rough sea,
your hands and your feet, have been doubled,
they stick their suckers around his body
and he suffocates ... He'll escape away ... "

"He can Not withstand Medusas ..."

***
Η ΜΕΔΟΥΣΑ

Ο γέρος, με ρυτίδες σαν
λέπια ψαριού, μου άρπαξε το χέρι,
με κοίταξε στα μάτια και χαμογέλασε
σαρδόνια...

Τ'άσπρα μακριά μαλλιά του και
τα γένια ανέμισαν στον άνεμο.

"Έχεις το χαμόγελο της μάνας του φιδιού",
μου είπε,"μειλίχιο μα και παγίδα'
αν είχα νιάτα και ορμή,
θα σε πλάγιαζα στην άμμο για μια νυχτιά..."

Το μάτι του, λαίμαργο, ερεύνησε
τον  κόρφο μου και τις λαγόνες.

Είχα μια τάση να τρέξω, μα τα πόδια μου
έτρεμαν, βιδωμένα στη γη, και η καρδιά μου
χτυπούσε, σαν του μικρού ελαφιού μετά από
καταδίωξη. Διέκρινα πως με διάβαζε...

Έβγαλε τη γλώσσα κι έγλειψε τα χείλη,
ψαχουλεύοντας με το ελεύθερο χέρι του
ασελγώς τους μηρούς μου.

"Είσαι υγρή σαν βαθιά σκοτεινή λίμνη",
μου είπε,"και το κορμί σου ταραγμένη θάλασσα,
τα χέρια και τα πόδια σου, άλλα τόσα,
κολλάνε τις βεντούζες τους γύρω στο σώμα του
και τον πνίγουν... Θα φύγει..."

"Δεν αντέχει τις μέδουσες..."




INNUMERABLE MONTHS
Irremovable as centuries.
Chaotic the seconds.
What a Martyrdom!
I will never know when
really the deadline expires.
End will come,
when it won't make
any sense at all
to know about it.
Yes, I wish the first end
to be my own at least...
I was thinking about it
since I was a child.
But my wishes become never real.
I live and others are leaving
I live and you will leave me.
I just live.
copyright 2012 by Chryssa Velissariou

ΑΓΝΩΣΤΟ/ UNKNOWN
Αναρίθμητοι οι μήνες.
Αμετάθετοι ως αιώνες.
Χαοτικά δευτερόλεπτα.
Τι Μαρτύριο!
Δε θα μάθω ποτέ όμως πότε
η διορία άραγε λήγει.
Τέλος θα 'ρθει,
και δε θα 'χει πια νόημα
να το αντιληφθώ.
Ναι, το πρώτο θα ευχόμουν το τέλος
το δικό μου τουλάχιστον να' ναι.
Το σκεφτόμουν από παιδί.
Αλλά οι ευχές δεν θα πιάσουν.
Εγώ μένω κι οι άλλοι θα φεύγουν.
Εγώ μένω κι εσύ θα μ' αφήσεις.
Εγώ μένω.





AT THE END OF THE MONTH
I  won't have enough money  to feed
My children
Everyone abandoned me
They believe I'm insane
because I'll fight
In a rotten world
With a political establishment
Rubbing hands
Taking advantage even
when I use
My ultimate weapon
I feel weak
and misfit
Even you spat on
my face You
Never believed in
My benevolent intentions
However back there behind
The eyes of a Young person
Are staring at me with a
New spark of hope
And I the weakest link
The traitor for many
I was born to struggle
And maintain such sparks
So I dare to say still
Such a struggle is worth ...

-- Στο τέλος του μήνα
Δε θα'χω να ταΐσω
Τα παιδιά μου
Με εγκατέλειψαν όλοι
Με θεωρούν παράλογο
Γιατί ν' αγωνιστώ
Σ' ένα σαθρό κόσμο
Μ' ένα κατεστημένο
Που τρίβει τα χέρια
Να επωφελείται ακόμα
Κι από τη χρήση του
ύστατου όπλου μου
Αισθάνομαι αδύναμος
Κι απροσάρμοστος
Ακόμα κι εσύ μ' έφτυσες
Κατάμουτρα' ποτέ
Δεν πίστεψες στις
Αγαθές μου προθέσεις
Όμως εκεί πίσω πίσω
Τα μάτια ενός Νέου
Με κοιτάνε με μια
Σπίθα ελπίδας
Κι εγώ ο αδύναμος κρίκος
Ο προδότης για πολλούς
Γεννήθηκα για ν ' αγωνίζομαι
Και να συντηρώ τέτοιες σπίθες
Γι' αυτό τολμώ να λέω ακόμη
Τέτοιος αγώνας αξίζει...

 (cc)
ΧΡΥΣΑ ΒΕΛΗΣΣΑΡΙΟΥ

(c)
ChryssaVelissariou
2014

CHRYSSA VELISSARIOU: Professor of Physics, specialized in Space Physics, candidate Doctor in NT Education.  Prized by the Ministry of Education in Greece. Elected in the Municipality of  her hometown. Published in Greek and English in over 20 Anthologies, internet magazines and two personal books. Activist for Peace. World Poetry Canada and International Ambassador to Greece 2014-2016 for Peace. 100TPC and International Beat Poetry events organizer. She has published more than 3000 poems on her blogs. She also writes