Greek Poetry Now....

                                     
                                                  Photo taken in Plakias, southern Crete, 2018.

Like most writers and poets, Greece has always been a first port of call, particularly for an Irish modernist writer, or at least one writing in that particular literary tradition;  well, I am one of the few alive writing in the same tradition as Beckett and Joyce in that I am following their Viconian correspondence-connection... at least, explicitly so! ( Phew! enough about that already..)

Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Heraclitus... to name but a few..

But, what about Greek writers and poets today? With the economic crisis hitting the country particularly hard over the last twenty years, you would imagine that a lot of the nations intellectuals would turn to writing, and you would be write!

I first had the incredible pleasure of visiting the country two years ago, holidaying in a small fishing-tourist village in southern Crete and, like countless generations before me, I was totally taken in by the people, the place, the culture of course, and the FOOD & DRINK...

However, it was only after returning to the country the following year, we went to Corfu, that I started engaging with some of the locals who told us about their current hardships, bearing it with stoic dignity. They are currently paying 60% tax, your average citizen...

Think about it?....

Most of them have to hold down two or even three jobs merely to get by... its disgraceful, but there you have it.

Poetry is born of suffering, everyone knows this. That is not to glorify misery, not at all. But when you have it so bad, it simply means that you become very aware of the things that are REALLY important. Here is a site devoted to contemporary Greek poets and poetry. Check it out, you will not be disappointed.


  http://www.greekpoetrynow.com/