Οι συκιές γεμίζουν το μάτι,
η ελιά μας δίνει ζωή,
η ροδιά χρωματίζει
το γιασεμί ευωδιάζει
η θάλασσα θεραπεύει

Ο Ήλιος χαμογελά,
καλωσορίζοντας την Σελήνη
Οι φιλίες καρποφορούν,
δημιουργώντας χαρά και έννοια

Θετικές σκέψεις μας καθοδηγούν 
στο μεγάλο ταξίδι
 


Fig trees fill the horizon,
olive trees life-giving,
pomegranates color,
jasmine’s fragrance;

Helios smiles,
welcoming Selene;
Friendships blossom,
creating joy and meaning

Positive thoughts,
guiding us on the great voyage

ΟΜ

 

α.
Mάτια λαμπρά,
ή ζωή καλωσορίζει 

β.
Παιδικές χαρές,
μπλεξίματα εφηβείας,
αντιδράσεις, εμπειρίες 

γ.
Απαιτήσεις σταδιοδρομίας, 
έρωτες και αγάπες,
μάθηση σφραγισμένη

δ.
Μεσ´το λούκι 
οι εξαιρέσεις λίγες 
άντε να προκόψεις

ε.
Υπό του ρολογιού τη σκιά, 
ταλαιπωρία προς το άπειρο

ζ.
Ξελάσπωμα ο στόχος,
η επώαση τελειώνει  (ή συνεχίζει;)


Η καλή μέρα από το πρωί φαίνεται

ΟΜ
2019/20



a.

Bright eyes,
life awaits

 b.

 Children's travails,
 adolescent entanglements,
 reactions, experiences

 c.

 Career expectations,
 eros and love,
 course of study sealed

 d.

 In the rat race,
 few exceptions,
 good luck breaking out of pack

 e.

 Under clock's shadow,
 hardship towards infinity

 f.

 Breaking free the goal,
 incubation over (or continues?)
 

 Good day begins in the morning..

 OM

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO GAVE..

A journey to Trader Joe's usually involves sampling the latest end-cap items, picking up things you did not have on your list, and friendly staff.  The unexpected greeted me yesterday, as I went to pick up some non-essentials.

Walking down the frozen appetizers section, I noted an older man with a hat that had "WW2 Veteran" on it. 

"What theater of operations were you in?" I asked.

Bernard Weiss was a breath of fresh air, a tribute to the nonagenarian spirit.  Having been assigned to the Seventh Armored Division in Europe, he was relocated, much to his consternation, to the Pacific theater of operations, where he saw bloody action in Guam and surrounding areas.  I asked him whether taking Japanese prisoners was the exception rather than the rule.  "Absolutely," he replied.  "We would secure islands where the army needed to build air strips; we captured very few Japanese, as surrender was considered shameful."   He spoke at length about his experience, at one point pulling out his wallet, from which he took out a black and white photo, taken in 1945, where he is pictured with a smiling Japanese POW.  "Why is the prisoner smiling,"  I asked.  "Because he is alive, and I let him keep his wedding band,"  replied Bernie, who had no problem communicating with the prisoner, as the latter was originally from California, having gone back to Japan before the beginning of the war.

Proudly awaiting his ninety-third birthday, Bernie told me that he married Ingrid, a former German diplomat stationed in Washingon, in the 1980s, and that they travel to Munich often. 

I thanked him for his sacrifice and for sharing his life with me.

My day was ever more enriched, as was my life.


Odysseus
May 24, 2012 

Σάβανο φύσης
γεμίζει το μάτι
Συμβίωση ζωηρότητας και ψυχής

Nature’s tapestry
filling the eye
Symbiosis of vibrancy and soul

Light of Apollo,
breeze of nymphs;
Muses dancing,
celebrating Persephone’s return 


O M
Abeliona
April 11, 2023


Η ψυχή χαλαρώνει
στην παρουσία Περσεφόνης 
και χαρά Δήμητρας

Άνοιξη,  
καλώς μας ήρθες,
μας εμπνέεις


The soul relaxes
at Persephone’s presence
and Demeters joy

Welcome Spring,
you inspire us

The child’s smile made my day; 
simple things make us happy
 

 
Patience
 
It is not always evident
Family, work, stupid people
all add up to make us edgy
(Think not of the uncoordinated drivers)
Stress of thought, stress of living
can we not deal without it?


 
Friends
 
Difficult at first to ascertain
they are there
Sorting may take time
But when all is said and done
friends are something
we respect and are thankful for


 
Voyagers
 
Our lives
so different before
now intricately interdependent
Recharging of soul
of spirit
We take on the world
and enhance our happiness

Roots of nourishment,
washed away by intellectual erosion;
 Naïveté and ignorance,
toxins of cultural illiteracy;
Ethnic identity compromised
at annual church festival

Odysseus

15 III 2023

POSEIDONIANS
by Constantine P Cavafy


The Poseidonians forgot the Greek language
after so many centuries of mingling
with Tyrrhenians, Latins, and other foreigners.
The only thing surviving from their ancestors
was a Greek festival, with beautiful rites,
with lyres and flutes, contests and wreaths.
And it was their habit toward the festival's end
to tell each other about their ancient customs
and once again to speak Greek names
that only few of them still recognized.
And so their festival always had a melancholy ending
because they remembered that they too were Greeks,
they too once upon a time were citizens of Magna Graecia;
and how low they'd fallen now, what they'd become,
living and speaking like barbarians,
cut off so disastrously from the Greek way of life.

“Gyro, Mousaka, Ouzo, OPA!”

Birds are singing, 
Helios is smiling, 
as are some humans;
Mesmerized by warmth,
love, continuity, beauty

Trees,
deciduous and not,
blossoms at hand;

Why are some
lacking life?
Nutrients of nurture, 
empathy and soul,
not fermenting;

Birds communicating 
rhythmic patterns,
sine wave chants
Humans would benefit 
by observing

Trajectory continues, 
extending to the warmth,
friends, energy, surroundings
awaiting


O M
8 February 2023