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Greece My Love

My New Year's Resolution

By Patrick M. OhanaPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 4 min read
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Greece My Love
Photo by Hello Lightbulb on Unsplash

How can one relax and even sleep during a raging pandemic? To be extra careful in order to stay very safe depends on many factors, some of which are difficult if not impossible to execute and ultimately control. To be or not to be adopts a different disposition that may feel or at least seem new in a world still keen on living as if the all clear had sounded on Mount Olympus and on every other peak.

My love affair with Greece began during the pandemic, when I read some unusual poetry by Anthi Psomiadou, a Greek writer here on Vocal, and imagined Goddess Athena accepting to take me for her mortal mate. I am not sure which event occurred first, but I was also led to write about Greece and invent my own Anthi, a character which has become my principal topic since February 2021.

Writing medical reports at home for a living before the pandemic had continued with catlike commitment during this global malaise, but had acquired, almost imperceptibly, a need to turn my fiction into some reality. I decided to move to Greece and live next to new sources of relaxation and better sleep. Both Hypnos and Morpheus were beseeching me to sail to their shores, but I settled for a few flights.

I flew from Montreal to Athens in October 2021 for 17 days and nights; a long time haiku of discovery and joy, which could have culminated within the past glory of the Parthenon if not for a Greek woman who filled my chest with love and longing. I left them, Greece and Athena, only to return in mid-December for an undetermined period of time with my novel one-year renewable visa.

I sleep and awake next to a garden of lemon trees and other wonderful plants frequented by feline familiars and ancient air. The Gulf of Aegina is less than 500 metres away, waving to me while I write. Greece my love, I ponder incessantly as I kiss Athena from every possible angle. I dismiss Rome—I always did—for Greece. By Zeus has replaced By Jove, though Shakespeare will always lead my literary part.

...

Every Rose Is Blue: An Anthi Sonnet

Every rose is blue, even the red one

Yellow, white, pink, orange, peach, you name it

It is blue inside in view of the Sun

In the firmament, as it knows to split

Its essence between sheer reality

Intertwined with blue soulful behaviour

While sailing across the Aegean Sea

Searching for an Olympian Saviour

Patrick beseeched before impending end

Statue after statue for Athena

M followed him to Athens, story-penned

Discovering his Anthi Kanéna

Both fell in love with a woman, by Zeus

But M feels his Anthi within his Nous

...

Greece Versus Rome: Acrostic Alexandrines

Give me your words so I can rape them forever

Rome was my bloody name and me you never left

Every path and bridge to me you cannot sever

Enveloped in time I cannot become bereft

Cancel the past and you only cancel yourself

Embrace the present and leave your fate on a shelf

...

Remember we will always your renowned torment

Overbearing by your sword and lack of fancy

Meandering through centuries of discontent

Ensuring your mean success by theomancy

...

Greeks will never repudiate their history

Resolve will always traverse our mythology

Engendering what you uttered in poetry

Enclosing each thought you ever deemed ology

Cocks will continue to call you by your namesake

Eventually giving Greece its rightful stake

...

Hooked on Kronos*: An Ode to Greece

One night weekly we stay on a planet

Named Kronos by the Greeks not Rome

That did can it

As they introduced their syndrome

Of copying the complete Greek gamut.

The victor may clepe all that he sees fit

Howbeit the truth wins

Counting the sins

When a republic cannot ever quit.

...

Anthi leads the way at first by a foot

‘Tis bare and beautiful to see

Her sinciput

At the other extreme is key

To comprehend my cardiac output.

I hold her hand cock-a-hoop and convex

We sit within a ring

On a blue swing

Looking at each other and the apex.

...

Kronos calms my chest except for my love

That cannot cease to envelop

Anthi above

Anthi below to develop

Further our contact with Kronos thereof.

Astral luminance circles her talent

Of capturing my glee

With her to be

Rendering me inherently gallant.

...

* The original Greek name of Saturn.

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About the Creator

Patrick M. Ohana

A medical writer who reads and writes fiction and some nonfiction, although the latter may appear at times like the former. All my stories (over 2,200 pieces) are/will be available on/via Shakespeare's Shoes.

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