Skorda's Seaside Taverna: commentary by Nikos Xydakis in the Kathimerini

Skopelos and Virgin

-by Skorda

Swallow that campari moon
when first you see it
across the water,
rising round and new above the mountain.
Open your mouth and swallow
while youth holds its roundness near,
and you are running fearless in the dark.
Hold it inside, it is still warm
and you will need its light,
there, inside you.

Down the road of time, somewhere
after you’ve aged, traveled,
Explored, discovered.
And the dust around your doorway
has been pounded hard and smooth under your feet.
When you find yourself growing weary and bored,
when your eyes see only ruins,
and your heart is empty.
You may believe, in your exhaustion,
that this is truth, at last.
That the mystery has unraveled,
leaving no wilderness to explore or tame.
All secrets have been shared,
the frontier has dissolved.
Know then, with these thoughts,
you have been swallowed.

The warm belly of the beast
comforts with confining darkness
and lulls with rhythmic sounds
Murmuring to you,
Curl up and sleep,
just go to sleep.

Shake your head,
stretch your legs,
do not sleep now.

Remember what you know.
You swallowed the moon,
you hold it inside you.
Not as a magpie hoarding shiny things,
or wearing the moon for beauty
or bartering the moon for wealth.
You swallowed the moon for this moment.
When you will walk to the water’s edge,
open your mouth, release the moon
and let its light build you a pathway
across the wine dark sea.
©Skorda 2008

Friday, April 25, 2008

commentary by Nikos Xydakis in the Kathimerini

An opportunity for reflection

By Nikos Xydakis, "Kathimerini"

The emptier Athens gets, the prettier it is. It reclaims its shape, traffic is lighter, people are visible.

Only a few enjoy this view of the city. Most leave, heading to the countryside, to their places of birth, to adopted islands, to their in-laws or friends. Many celebrate the Resurrection of Christ abroad, in the Middle East, in Istanbul and in European capitals.

Anywhere they go, they will find a Christian Orthodox church – it may be the elegant San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice, the Phanar in Istanbul, Saint Stephane in Paris or Saint Nicholas in Cairo; any church will do. Increasingly, the ceremony includes Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Romanians, Serbs and Bulgarians; the Resurrection happens for them all.

In every part of the world, Greeks welcome the Resurrection and spring, as they have done since the times of Adonis and Orpheus. It is a wonderful opportunity to take another look at themselves and at their homeland. It’s like coming back from abroad and seeing with clearer eyes what it is that makes our lives difficult, ugly.

Easter presents an opportunity for Greeks to see Greece again outside the limits of its cities, to smell the aroma of freedom, to feel the beauty of the hinterland and to reflect on what they have before them, in their hands. They hold the future in their hands. For better or for worse, we are the land.

The peal of a bell, an orchard, the stony ground, a mountain peak, the light playing on the surface of the sea, the poppies growing at the roadside, a forgotten song, these are the land and the question they ask is: Do you feel for your land? What are you doing for it? What are doing for yourself and the generations to come? One moment is enough. To reflect.