English Language Literature

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Pues sola hay una

Posted on May 12, 2012 by

Ruth Sancho Huerga

Todo lo que hoy escriba
me va a saber a poco.

Describir su sonrisa diaria de amapola
y esas bromas conjuntas de jardin de verano,
sus lagrimas de escama cuando el desprecio hiere,
sus pasos de gorrion
o su dormir de nube,
se me hace muy escaso
o suena a prototipo.

Hablar de sus poderes
y consejos de bruja,
sus estudios de master en “Pocimas de Amor”,
de su orden obsesivo de dicator febril,
su paciencia de Santa,
su entrega transparente como fuerza del rio,
sus rabietas de cria
o lo bien que le sale la comida el domingo
no parece que sean
materia para halagos
o versos de marfil.
Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Literatura Española, mothers-day, Poesía, Spanish |

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Mother’s Day Remembrance

Posted on May 12, 2012 by

Morgan Gabrielle

Gabrielle Morgan

I walked under the old elm trees. It was a cold winter’s day and the air was sharp. There was no one to break the stillness. I was conscious only of the dank smell of wet leaves underfoot and the sheep and cattle grazing peacefully in the paddock across the creek.

At last it was possible to be myself, away from people. My thoughts were in emotional turmoil. Watching death creep insidiously through my mother’s body as cancer claimed her was hard to bear. I tried to grasp the inevitability of losing her. She was noble in her dying, never complained. “Andy’s randy today,” was all she would say when beset with pain.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Essay, Literature, mothers-day |

Tagged day, mother, mothers |

Amulet

Posted on May 5, 2012 by

Rodopoulos Loula S.

Loula S. Rodopoulos

Years pass prise open tomb of migration
Amulet brown roughshod stitched leather
Nestles in palm of aspiration
Flaminia buffeted across seas Piraeus to Fremantle stormy weather

Amulet brown roughshod stitched leather
Loving maternal hands prepared it in sorrow
Flaminia buffeted across seas Piraeus to Fremantle stormy weather
Her son leaves for the antipodes tomorrow

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Poetry |

Tagged aspiration, hands, migration, mountain, soil, tomb |

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A woman’s wig

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

write101

Friday 4 May 2012

This is an excerpt from The Write Way, a weekly newsletter of writing tips, published every Friday since 1998.

Greetings,

There’s a news item that has made the headlines recently and was spotted by member of our Merry Band, Mike, in the Channel Isles:

There has been a story in the in the UK media concerning the murder of a guy who worked for GCHQ (the UK Government intelligence service that listens to ‘phone calls and decrypts emails etc). He was found dead at his London flat inside a large zip-up bag.

There are all sorts of theories about the circumstances of his death and the press are having a field day. Apparently there was a extensive collection of women’s clothes in the flat.

One of the things the reporter said was, “Also found at home was a red woman’s wig”.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Proverbs, The Write Way |

Tagged pilot, runway, woman |

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From Top to Toe

Posted on April 29, 2012 by

write101

by Jennifer Stewart,
Friday 27 April 2012

Greetings,

After meeting all the other life forms that share our journey (quite literally) last week ( http://www.write101.com/W.Tips699.htm ) it felt right to take a closer look at ourselves this week, so I thought we’d re-visit some of the more startling discoveries we’ve made together over the past 700 issues.

Yes, you read that right … 700 times this little missive has winged its merry way through cyber-space to land all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in your In-Box each Friday morning (or Thursday evening …) And to celebrate, you can get a whopping 50% off the price of my modestly named Quiz Book: A Word for Everything!

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Review, The Write Way |

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You’ll Never Walk Alone

Posted on April 27, 2012 by

write101

Jennifer Stewart – Friday 20 April 2012

Greetings,

Are you a social butterfly?

Are you happiest when you’re not alone?

Do you love nothing more than being surrounded by company? The more the merrier?

If you answered “yes” to any or all of the above, then I have some very good news for you! But before we get to that, here’s another question …

Do you sometimes feel that you’re on the inside looking out? I mean when you’re just sitting quietly or walking along a street somewhere. Do you feel that the real “you” is inside, and your body is just the “outside” bits? Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, The Write Way |

Tagged bacteria, biomass, bipeds, carbon-based, human, microbiota, pronouns, singular, super-organisms, verbs |

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Emigre

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis,
Canada

I held my youth like a knife
sharpened by the sun,
by the smooth sirocco
and I cut myself in two Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged betrayal, emigre, nostalgia, statues, sunset |

The Hill

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Translation from the Greek text
by Manolis Aligizakis

Someone had a lot of dead people
He dug the ground he buried them himself
Stone by stone earth on earth
he built a hill
On top of the hill
he built his cabin facing the sun

Continue reading →

Posted in Awarded, Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Translation |

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without borders

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

Troaditis Dimitris

living in the bottom
of a dirty rubbish bin
a prosperous life
a promised career
never started
and nowhere finished
unfloating
a tremendous lie
for golden dragons
and wealthy princesses
hurling like a stone
hold by an angry peasant
the future likes
a promise without borders

Posted in Australia, English, Λογοτεχνία, Ποίηση, Literature |

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Acrobatics

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

Troaditis Dimitris

Acrobatics on a stretched rope
you know the world through graves
old paintings are reproducing the blood
of miserable prayers and ordeals
οf jumps and deliverances

The question is if immortality
can release us
from the bonds of necessity…

The poetry of our bodies
is the most perfect
impetuously perfect
multi-standard step…

Whoever doesn’t adhere to this poetry
is buried alive by regimes of disaster
in white posthumous circles
with stones erected in the soul
dying in an unequal battle.

Posted in English, Λογοτεχνία, Ποίηση |

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George Aslanis

Posted on April 12, 2012 by

diaspor5

George Aslanis STIG

To readers of the Diasporic Literature website,

I am delighted to inform you that George Aslanis is exhibiting again at Kirra Galleries along with Crystal Stubbs. The Exhibition Opening is on Thursday 19th April 2012, 6:00pm-8:00pm at Kirra Galleries, Federation Square (enter via Atrium), Melbourne, Australia. Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Awarded, English, Events, Garivaldis, glass, sculpture |

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Rioting at the mist

Posted on March 29, 2012 by

Troaditis Dimitris

Dancing at the moon
trembling as midnight
passengers at a drunk
train
of spooking endings

we try to move
towards an absolute
way of loving
within times
of cantakerous living

rioting at the mist
of a total crisis
putting our passions
into practice
is the most
revolutionary stance
of today.

Posted in English, Λογοτεχνία, Ποίηση |

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Loose ends

Posted on March 29, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

All night long, sleepless
you promised not to cry
to drive to downtown

to the family lawyer
and tie up loose ends

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged elation, erection, kingdom, lawyer, loose-ends, sleepless |

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The Meaning of Myths

Posted on March 24, 2012 by

Karalis Dimitri Dr

Centaur an ancient myth ? by Dr. Dimitri Karalis
same article in Greek here

Myths or mythos for the ancient people was an allegoric vehicle to awaken the soul from its forgetful past for those who were spiritual and sensitive enough to recognise the veiled truth behind it. The Greek word μύθος= myth, derives from the sound‘mou’=murmur, which we produce when our lips are closed and the word Μυστήριο=mystery= inexplicable, adjoins with it. Together they form a secret communicating organ for every soul who is ready to recollect the forgotten experience from their previous incarnations.

Continue reading →

Posted in English, Essay, Literature, Philosophy, South Africa |

Tagged myth, soul, truth |

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Methodical

Posted on March 3, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis,
Canada

He kept his dreams
ambitiously hidden in his heart
placing hope in separate
crystalline vase

along with monotony and at
the time of the longest
shadows he walked

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged ambitiously, aroma, chapel, cove, crystalline, ferryman, iris, methodical, oregano, shadows |

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First Kiss

Posted on February 24, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

Under the scandalous moonlight

her body shone like
a drenched statue of Aphrodite Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged Aphrodite, beauty, body, kisses, moonlight, paradisiacal, scandalous, statue, virginal, whisoer |

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Ecumenical Olympia

Posted on February 21, 2012 by

Δρ Ιωσήφ Ιωσηφίδης

Joseph S. Josephides

Ave archon enthroned above, Olympia,
Compete fairly, based on love, Eceheria,
Reform my soul crystal adamant,
Athlete brave, classic dynamism;
Ecumenical my phone.

Citius, altius, fortius, Olympia.

Continue reading →

Posted in Cyprus, English, Literature, Poetry |

Tagged democracy, ecumenical, Olympia |

After the War

Posted on February 11, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

The houses stayed the same
windows firmly shut
always longing for
a hand’s quiver

inside
a widow always lamented

a mother for her son’s death
in the front line

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Human Rights, Poetry |

Tagged casket, houses, lament, noose, optimism, quiver, thread, war, widows |

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Grieving

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

In your mind
all night long sleepless
promised to go, not to cry

arrange flowers
in plastic vase
fill it with water
from cemetery fountain Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged arrange, cemetery, flowers, fountain, grieving, sad, sleepless, story |

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Chestnuts

Posted on January 24, 2012 by

Rodopoulos Loula S.

Loula S. Rodopoulos

chestnuts brood in embers of cynicism
hiss their anger

weeds engulf railway lines
supplanted by unfinished road works
lone cinema hotel closed
denuded shops plastered with yellow For Rents signs
hospital staff unpaid closure rumoured

decaying rural properties entice foreign takeover
austerity measures elderly recall famine
hooded masses protest politicians grovel to EU
youthful gloom lines coffee bars overlooking
the bay of Nafpaktos

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Awarded, English, Literature, Poetry |

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Lives Momentarily Entwined

Posted on January 21, 2012 by

Rodopoulos Loula S.

Loula S. Rodopoulos

lives momentarily entwined

construction of fountain – Harmony Square

Athens hub – celebratory memorial – end of Civil War 1951
brimming escalators link underground railway station

commuters in peak hour crush

roaring motorbikes – cars – buses
ceaseless merry – go – round

scurrying shoppers ignore buskers

beggar squats on footpath
traces her soul in nicotine ash

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Poetry |

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Date

Posted on January 19, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

A blind date
is set for you
by fate
to meet your
Death
this morning

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Poetry |

Tagged agony, blind, date, death, lips, tighten, voyage |

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View

Posted on January 4, 2012 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

Panoramic view
through your eastern window

toward the plaza where
the naked statue of Eros Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged eastern, erection, Eros, orgasmic, Panoramic, plaza, statue, unstained, view, window |

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Four Poems on Verse

Posted on January 1, 2012 by

Garivaldis Iakovos

TO MY VERSE

You have uttered some nonsense,
to be fair,
a lot of nonsense.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Costas Montis, Cyprus, English, Garivaldis, Literature, Poetry, translation |

Tagged poet, verse |

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You Dawn

Posted on December 21, 2011 by

Ruth Sancho

(From Tayrona National Park. Colombia)

The Tayrona dawns from under your skin,
Through each one of your mango kisses,
With the tingling of your fingertips
walking the subtle paths of pleasure
transporting the green sighs of your freshness.

It dawns within your eyes,
Where the night fireflies are hidden,
From the inner tide of your look
carrying me out
with the swell of your blink
to the deepest bed of a blissful ocean.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

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The City

Posted on December 17, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis,
Canada

You said: “I’ll go to another land, to another sea;
I’ll find another city better than this one.
Every effort I make is ill-fated, doomed;
and my heart —like a dead thing—lies buried.

How long will my mind continue to wither like this?
Everywhere I turn my eyes, wherever they happen to fall
I see the black ruins of my life, here
where I’ve squandered, wasted and ruined so many years.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry, translation |

Tagged Cavafy, city, doomed, escape, ill-fated, neighborhood, ruins, sea, wasted |

Promise

Posted on November 30, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis
Canada

I know it well—he said
that no one will come
to greet me I know it
for the words I spoke
bounced hopelessly off their ears

the children’s innocence
became today’s concern
struggle for a breath of air
how to pay this month’s rent

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Epic Poetry, Poetry |

Tagged death, innocence, kernel, leaper, promise, reveal, secret, sheath, struggle |

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Paniaras’ ultimate sea

Posted on November 22, 2011 by

diaspor5

Kostas Paniaras

by Yiorgos Veis

Over a career of fifty-five years, Kostas Paniaras has developed a rich code of media and moves from painting to sculpture and special installations, freely adopting various materials through which he gains access to the illusion of the new image.

In the process of his quest for the truth, artistic acts/reflections of an undefined inner self and memories resurfacing from a remote past take part in the constant game of the alternating presence and absence of ‘subject’ as well as in the various possibilities for the final verdict of his temporally-and above all spatially-displaced work.

Continue reading →

Posted in English, Essay, Hellas, Study |

Tagged painter, painting |

Red Wind

Posted on November 21, 2011 by

From Kings Canyon
Outback. Australia. (Oct 2006)

Ruth Sancho

In the Sacred City of LuritjaMen
The Wind twirls in concentric circles
and it is placated, in its streets, its rocky tail.

The Wind twirls
Twirls the Wind
Twirls.

Drilling the stone,
Aboriginal sediment,
It creates painting caves
where the Myth stays
Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Poetry |

Tagged Australia, dust, outback, wind |

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Coaxing

Posted on November 14, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

Anywhere I go I carry him along
that my soles firmly attached
to gravity and earth’s bosom Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Canada, English, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged bosom, cemetery, coax, death, earth, grave, wedding |

Listen

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

Nick N. Trakakis

Her life was so sad that it was almost too beautiful to be true.
- Katherine Hattam

Listen:
this could all be false, I know
the brilliant light in the park
on that Saturday
no promises, not today
stranger things we could not say
but you could see
the hand that held you
Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Poetry |

Tagged light, listen, park |

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La-Z-Boy

Posted on October 31, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

Body dives in La-Z-Boy
wine glass in hand and remote
control flickering scenarios

idly looking for
meaning in a football game

or the old movie its trivia
mesmerizing your mind
belly button ready to explode

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Human Rights, Literature, Poetry |

Tagged battle, belly, button, control, emptiness, flicker, football, game, remote, soldiers |

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Space

Posted on October 21, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

Whisper
over song silking through
maiden pubic hair
its lust searching for
tender vulva

Whisper
over rhythmic resonance
its kiss of fingers
in their excitable hunt for
youthful consummation

Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Literature, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged eroticism, impelling, leg, raised, resonance, rhythm, silk, space, tender, whisper |

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Daybreak

Posted on October 11, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

You always get up first
light rustle of bed-sheet
you walk to the bathroom

I stretch my leg to feel your warmth
outline of your missing body
I feel your heartbeat

Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Canada, English, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged daybreak, demolish, harmony, heartbeat, hotel, rustle, warmth, whisper |

Four Poems on Poetry

Posted on October 5, 2011 by

Garivaldis Iakovos

POETRY

Is there such a word or isn’t it
I will write it anyway
whether there is such a word
I will write it.
I have no choice.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Costas Montis, English, Garivaldis, Κύπρου αφιέρωμα, Literature, Poetry, translation |

Tagged poetry, sense, verse |

Κάλεσμα λευτεριάς – Call for freedom

Posted on October 4, 2011 by

Pechlivanidou Evangelia-Aggeliki

(με την ευκαιρία της Ημέρας των Ζώων – 4 Οκτωβρίου)

Ευαγγελία – Αγγελική Πεχλιβανίδου

-Έλα μαζί μας εδώ
στο κάτασπρο βουνό
Ψάξε και βρες τις φωλιές μας
μέσα στα δέντρα.
Τα χνάρια μας δε σβήστηκαν
πάνω στο χιόνι
το απλωμένο στην άγρια φύση
που τα σεβάστηκε.

Continue reading →

Posted in English, Greek, Hellas, Λογοτεχνία, Ποίηση, Literature, Poetry |

Tagged calling, freedom, σκλάβος, Άνθρωπος, χιόνι, βουνό, ελευθερία, ζώα, κάλεσμα, Man, mountain, slavery, snow |

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Scandalous

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis, Canada

He stops shaving razor floating in air
hand absentmindedly creates a circle in mid-void
like a bird stilled by camera lens
her scandalous vulva visits his mind
from days of that August Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Canada, English, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged eroticism, island, Lucifer, moaning, orgasm, scandalous, scortched, vulva |

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A tribute to Costas Montis

Posted on September 26, 2011 by

Garivaldis Iakovos

Costas Montis, the man and his poetry that touched my life like no other, the undercelebrated and overshadowed Greek-Cypriot poet of the 20th century is hereby offered a minor compensation by Diasporic Literature. So minor that a history of his remembrance should never really mention it. For his memory should remain pure like the words in his verse, unbiased like the letter in his thoughts, benevolent like his love for virtue. Poetry loves a placid existence.

Continue reading →

Posted in Costas Montis, English, Garivaldis, Literature, Poetry, Review, translation, Writer Tribute |

Tagged freedom, justice, translation |

A Tale of two Loves

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

diaspor5

“Mortals call him fluttering love,
But the immortals call him winged one,
Because the growing of wings is a necessity to him.”

Plato, Phaedrus

by Edward Spence

Apollo dates Aphrodite?

Tinafto pou to lene agape Socrate, what is this thing called love Socrates, asks Diotima, the mystery woman from Mantinea? I haven’t got a clue, is Socrates’ reply. If the man declared by the oracle of Delphi as the wisest among mortals doesn’t know, what chance do the rest of us have in answering that question?

One way to approach this stubbornly difficult question is to look at it from two seemingly opposed and irreconcilable perspectives that we’ve inherited from Greek Mythology: that of Aphrodite and Apollo – the two extreme ends of the spectrum or should we say, kaleidoscope of love.
Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, English, Literature, Philosophy |

Tagged love |

Awareness

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

Aligizakis Manolis

Manolis Aligizakis

Serene eyes lacking
rapid eye movement
sun-bleached creamy curtains
light warmth in your mind Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, English, Human Rights, Poetry, Romantic Poetry |

Tagged absence, body, breath, creamy, curtain, dunes, eyes, last, mind, pebbles, r.e.m., serene, underworld |

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