artwork by ralph murre after a photo by (of?) george seferis
George Seferis, a Greek poet and diplomat
born in Smyrni (now Izmir ),
Turkey
the 1963 Nobel Prize for Literature
Seferis’ Houses
by Stella Pierides
The houses he had owned
by Stella Pierides
The houses he had owned
they
took away from him.
Seferis
carried his home
on
his back like a tortoise.
Iron
beds in empty hotel rooms
rang
through his lines,
and
the sounds of loneliness–
the
silent screams of souls
left
to themselves
in
the dark.
The
houses he had owned they
took
away from him.
He
used his poetry,
he
strung words from the stars
stared
at them from afar.
Flowers
of Agapanthus
he
nailed on his lines,
and
crickets, beating time
for
the machine.
Only
briefly did he go back to Smyrni.
For
he knew. Seferis knew. He knew
you
have to talk to the dead.
Hades
is full of whispers–
the
house is always watching.
And
waiting.
~
appeared in Gathering Diamonds from the
Well: London
(New Gallery Books)
