Wednesday 15 March 2023

Κορόιδο της Τύχης

 

Ξημερώματα ˑ η ώρα που ξυπνούν οι ανεκπλήρωτοι πόθοι

Γίνονται λέξεις που τραγουδούν μάτια, χείλη και σώματα

Μαζί με ένα «σε θέλω» να αιωρείται ανάμεσα στο συνειδητό και τ ’ασυνείδητο

Κι άλλες πόσες, βαθύτερες, που τελικά δε μοιράζονται

Μπλεγμένο κουβάρι στο στήθος ˑ κι ένα αχ στην καρδιά

Αχ για τα όλα όσα

Παλιά, τωρινά και μελλούμενα

Αιωρούμενα στο χρόνο

Και ταυτόχρονα παγωμένα στο άπειρο

Το σύμπαν με εμπαίζει ˑ αυτό είναι σίγουρο

Κορόιδο της τύχης, μου ψιθυρίζει, κι εγώ, οριακά, διασκεδάζω.

Sunday 5 March 2023

Master Prompter

The pen feels strange in my hand; I dismiss the feeling and tighten my grip on it. The words will come eventually to me, they always do.

Soldiers are afraid in the face of battle, and yet the put on a brave face, draw their swords and march on. I do the same; I press on and write nonsense for a while. Sometimes my brain refuses to cooperate and it’s all nonsense, true. There are times though, that nonsense turns into proper thoughts, and somehow these thoughts find their way onto the paper, and word after word after word they start to make sense, and my mind clears, and the noise finally dies down and it’s just me and the story.

And as I go deeper and deeper into it, and people and faces begin to form, my writing gets messier, almost incorrigible, because my hand cannot keep up with my brain, but who cares, I am finally writing again and that’s what matters: damping my frantic thoughts on a piece of paper, hoping that they still make sense the day after and that I will not lose my nerve and share them.

Because my head is full of clatter; so much unimportant stuff taking up space, leaving little room for the things that really matter. 

Do I even care if people are interested to look past the clatter? For when I write, I am the realest version of me, because I can "hide" myself in the stories. Everything I am and everything I am not is on my pages.

Every hope and dream, every fear and terror is on there, sometimes subtle, sometimes not so much. I can be a romantic realist; I can be vulnerable and scared and brave, all at once; I can be naïve, yet wise in my naiveté; everything goes because the page is a very bold stage suited for shy people.

Authors have many voices, but still, they are only master prompters, reminding themselves the lines not yet uttered.

But who I am when I am not writing? When I am using only the voice that's mine and mine alone?

I am insecure and clumsy and awkward and humour is my safe space, and yet somehow I still manage to make sense.

Friday 17 February 2023

A poem

After a very long hiatus, and a series of life-changing events (we'll talk more about those on a later post), I am back, sharing the most personal piece of poetry I have written to date.

Why?

Because it's time.


 A poem

I wrote a poem

        to you.

        For you?

            It’s unimportant.

My past self,

    long begone,

I love you.

Now

    Finally

        At long last

I stopped feeling the need to run away

    from you.

From us, really.

        I was you

                and you were I.

Complicated,

            Yet so simple.

Truth is, I couldn’t run away

            and neither could you.

I am who I am now

because of whom you were back then.

Had it been any other way,

I would not exist.

So, I accept you

        and myself.

Faults and all;

I keep the lessons and move forward.

Until the next upgrade

            to version 3.0.