Negligence (a collection of separations)

September 2013

They walked up the hill to the house. They held each other lightly as a final goodbye. They had said it already many times; there was no more courage to embrace the moment. No one was aware that it would be the last such one they would have. A someone opened the door, and he vanished behind it.

January 2014

Three in the morning with no sleep. The city had saved its best for today; sunny, loud, vibrant! They said no goodbyes, but set a date for another time in another city. She realised she was full; full of people, of things, of experiences, of memories, of reasons to come back. A few hours later, the plane took off and the city was now an air view from outside the window…

September 2015

There could be no goodbyes with him, no honesty. The unwelcome saviour, delayed and pre-occupied with other affairs, had no tolerance for emotions. Either people were running after him or they were simply fading; usually. She would have loved to be the exception, but his gift to her was to help her stop longing for exceptions. She left the city a grown woman.

November 2015

She hung up the phone, wide eyes to the sea. Her tears touched the ground and she refused to believe. She refused to accept she had just abandoned her, herself being so far away, forever alone in the world. She refused to realise she did not wait for her return, for a last goodbye. Last time she saw her, she was asleep. The lizard was not moving despite the lights and movement in the room. She smiled unconsciously and locked the door behind her.

December 2015

Timing has irony built inside its own essence. When she arrived, a white sheet was covering the bed. Last night he was just going to sleep. She touched the hand that was laying underneath, but left the sheet intact. Afterwards, she took the picture standing on the desk beside and put it back in her bag. Some cats were meowing at the garden.

July 2016

She held her tight, squeezed her tiny body in her arms. Instead of growing her acceptance for the situation after so many separations, it was getting harder each time. She drowned the tears in her eyes and she made the little girl promise her she would go to school. She let her walk away as if it was yet another evening.

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Mira fell asleep tired next to her sister. Tomorrow they would be going to see another house with their parents. They had to leave this place, before it would leave them.

The port was quite now. The arrivals and departures of the day were complete. But its people weren’t. They kept, dreaming or not, making circles around their lives, looking for something inconceivable, even so accidental.

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Έγκλημα στη Σαμοθράκη

Συγκλονιστικές είναι οι εξελίξεις σχετικά με το μέχρι στιγμής ανεξιχνίαστο έγκλημα στη Σαμοθράκη. Η σωρός του Μολδαβού επιχειρηματία βρέθηκε τελικά σε δύσβατο κομμάτι του βράχου Βρυχού, περιφερειακά του οικισμού της Χώρας. Η αστυνομία κάνει λόγο για δολοφονία, αλλά δεν έχει δώσει προς το παρόν λεπτομέρειες για τυχόν υπόπτους ή για τον τρόπο που αφαιρέθηκε η ζωή του θύματος! Ρίγος στην τοπική κοινωνία εν μέσω καλοκαιριού! Θα επιστρέψουμε κοντά σας μόλις έχουμε νεώτερα... Ο αστυνόμος Μακρής έκλεισε το ραδιόφωνο με αργές, σχεδόν θεατρικές κινήσεις. Όχι πως ήταν λάτρης του σανιδιού · μάλλον το αντίθετο. Τον επιβράδυνε περισσότερο η σκέψη της τελευταίας φράσης που άκουσε. Θα επιστρέψουμε κοντά σας μόλις έχουμε νεώτερα... Ήξερε τι σήμαινε αυτό. Το τηλέφωνο θα χτυπούσε σύντομα. Στην Αλεξανδρούπολη επικρατούσε πνιγηρή ζέστη. Ο απογευματινός παραλιακός περίπατος περισσότερο είχε αυξήσει παρά ανακουφίσει τη δυσφορία που ήδη ένιωθε. Βέβαια δεν ήταν μόνο ο καιρός. Στην πρα...

Μετά τα μεσάνυχτα

Κι αν έρθει το φως αργότερα απ' το ξημέρωμα αν έρθει το φως και δεν είσαι εσύ μαζί του, τι φως σκοτεινό θα είναι αυτό; Γενάρης 2025, Αθήνα. Φωτογραφία: Σπιανάδα, Κέρκυρα, Δεκέμβρης 2024.

Solace

The city swirls and swirls undoing itself, in all the ways possible. From this side, the sun warms the skin differently and as I walk deeper in the gardens I am not sure what year I find myself in, or if it matters. I borrow someone else's face as I am allowed and I am confidently another, or maybe many at once, while the square circles me and around me; the only thing that makes sense in the moment. The trees have stored the memory of you, their roots absorbing the pace of your walk, their leaves reflecting your, likewise, many faces. A woman who resembles me stares from the surface of a pond sprouting next to my feet; and she also looks like you, the many versions of you that are all me now. Tavistock square, London, 25 April 2025.

Safe place

What it feels like to watch the ferry sail from ashore an island remote urged to absorb and write about all; the smallness of the houses the vastness of the stars the firmness of the mountain and the thriving sun the stove warmth the cricket songs the raven flights the goat bells from within the heights; what it is like looking for the winter in the uncanny light of the dusk and wanting to stop, eat up the day, and again start. Once, I walked at night in the dark crossing the ancient forest and ever since I walk, the forest every night. Samothraki, November 2024.

Στοές

Μια σπάνια παχύρρευστη ησυχία κουτρουβαλά τα σκαλιά της παλιάς πόλης · σα μουσική που δεν ακούστηκε ποτέ. Μόλις τελειώσουν οι γιορτές και πήξει το σκοτάδι θα πέσουμε στη χειμερία μας νάρκη. Και θα βλέπω πάλι σκιές γνώριμες να ξεπροβάλλουν από υπόγειες διαδρομές, και να χάνονται πάλι μέσα τους. “ Δε φταίει ο χειμώνας. Φταίει ότι στο τέλος του έχουμε ήδη μεγαλώσει.”* Κέρκυρα, Γενάρης 2025. * Ευριπίδης Κλεόπας, Ατέρμονη θάλασσα (2020), εκδ. Μελάνι.

Iranian auras

As the eastern sky fills with explosions and smoke I try to reach you, my dear friend, through interrupted phone lines and networks cut off, at times unsuccessfully. I try to mark your last known location on the map measure its distance from the latest bombings and conclude that you are far from this all, far enough for me to pretend I sleep at nights. The weather warms up fast and in my uneasy sleep I dream about planes crashing and bombs hiding underneath our feet. I wake up upset in the middle of the quietest night; Iran is 30 minutes ahead of Athens summer time, still no word from you. June 2025, Athens. Picture: Cloud formations above Ch ó ra, Samothraki; May 2025.

Μικρό καλοκαίρι

Ι Η υγρασία της θάλασσας σκεπάζει τη στεριά αντικριστά και μπαίνει μέσα μου. (Βρέχει ανεπαρκώς.) ΙΙ Τα δρομολόγια των πλοίων φεύγουν κανονικά μα δεν επιστρέφουν πια. ΙΙΙ Ο βραδινός ουρανός διαστέλλεται το ίδιο και η κόρη του ματιού · κάθε νύχτα ο ορίζοντας τρώει λίγο ακόμα από τη στεριά και κάθε ξημέρωμα η θάλασσα μας έχει κυκλώσει λίγο περισσότερο. IV Βουλιάζουμε. Σεπτέμβριος 2024, Σαμοθράκη.

Where the world ends

I drag my senses, exhausted and washed up, to the furthermost shore as the horizon turns for the last time until the windy air tastes like salt and my mind is confused enough to let go. The waves return every time like a promise of what's yet to come, but don't make it close enough. Sometimes this place feels ready to collapse right into the sea - as if this is the only rational sequence of things. The chirps of the evening birds stand out in the deafening wind coming from where the mountain starts rising somewhere far behind; an observer of the scene. Surely, the birds will fly away and won't be devoured by the sea; unless they decide to change their songs. May 2025, Kipoi – Samothraki.

The desert island of Samothraki

Samothraki, a remote island in Northeastern Greece... 3 days without electricity as a result of the supply station in the mainland across having been damaged by the fires blazing across the East Macedonia &Thrace Region (now known to be the largest wildfire recorded on European soil in years). There used to be an independent electric station on the island which 20 years ago was closed down on the grounds of the island's population reducing. Since then, the electric supply on the island has deteriorated. Evidently, it is harder for people to remain or move to an island were electricity is not a given. See how the circle goes? 3 days with restricted access to telecommunications due to the local antennas being electrically powered. On the first day, large parts of the island had no access to water due to water pumps being electrically powered. On the first day, and while Samothraki had been for days on Amber alert for fire hazard, the sole ferry connecting t...

Composition

I Irregular images go by quite naturally. II A pull deep inside the wave plunges before the shore. III A procession of doors shutting firmly behind me. IV A further pull the water mumbles far from the shore. V Gardens how in their beauty spread in front of me. VI Hooded crows paired in the skies time-travellers alike. VII Stairs beneath my feet rise in rambling buildings. VIII A single white feather by the wind carried across horizon deep. IX The train with all its nine coaches drags in tunnels stoically. X Sky creatures bizarrely by me undisturbed in the same sea. XI Words of use written or spoken lavishly, kindly. XII Thick shadows of the olive trees for a moment still unnaturally. XIII In a bookstore’s poetry section we speak for ten minutes then never again. XIV All the sounds finally surrender to the eyes’ silence. Summer 2024, London – Samothraki. Picture: Tavist...

Poetic Movements

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