The Red Poem
I painted red
The sky
Days that I lost myself
And denied myself
Laughing without reason
I lived those
I painted red
The water
I drowned in tears
And saved me
Forgetting my guilt
I cheated myself
I painted red
This poem
With words I erased myself
And resurrected myself
Writing in blood
I avenged myself
(Translated from the Greek by Xanthi Hondrou Hill)
Moving
We ’re naked now
We donned the colors
Undressed words and voices
We ’re blind now
We drank the light
Swam in death
With alcohol and tobacco
In our luggage
We testified falsely
Forgetting who we are
We built our life
On a bird
And we flew again
Simply we moved
(Translated from the Greek by Vassiliki Rapti & Vladimir Boskovic)
In a flash
You violated the borders
Which buried their
Know thyself *
You destroyed prisons
Behind curtains
Turned ablaze by
The spark of your anger
Without cries
Without whispers
In a flash
That simple it was
You gave birth to light
When you embraced
What isn’t told
(Although written)
In darkness.
(Translated from the Greek by Manolis Aligizakis)
(*)ancient Greek philosophical aphorism about self-knowledge
About the Author
Dimitris P. Kraniotis is a Greek poet and medical doctor. He was born in 1966 and works as a physician (internal medicine specialist). He is the author of 10 poetry books in Greece and abroad and the Editor-in-chief of an international anthology in English. His poems have been translated in 35 languages & published in many countries. He is Doctor of Literature, Academician in Italy, President of the 22nd World Congress of Poets (UPLI), President of the World Poets Society (WPS), Director of the Mediterranean Poetry Festival (Larissa, Greece), Chairman of the Writers for Peace Committee of PEN Greece and member of the World Poetry Movement (WPM).
