Acropolis, March 2007

A walk in my neighborhood park, in downtown Athens. Enjoying the view, the peace, the silence.
James Corsi

Wake-Up call

Slogan on the wall in Dafnomili street:

"Can we not wake up?
must we eternally, dear friends
die in our sleep?"

Phileon Café at corner Skoufa / Lycabettusstr, Kolonaki

There you were sitting,

Reading, waiting, thinking

Insofar as I came but did not arrive

As I was gone already before I came

And so I programmed my terrible loss

Only felt when you, my love, no longer

Are sitting there but I, hungry for news,

No longer read newspapers but my heart

Beating away always listens to your heart

Now so far away but still I listen for faint sounds

Reminding me of your presence once sitting there.

Hatto Fischer

Lykabettus stairs

Stairs cast in magical light,

The dog waiting there

While the shadow seems to peer

Who may descend besides Nothingness

As if Duchamp’s naked beauty

Had vanished in the Athenian maze

No more to be seen once she left

The dream at the top of the stairs

Wondering if Vermeer’s blue

Would make her return one day

To the Lycabettus hill in search

Of her own self having gone astray

In some other light and glare

Of a man becoming a woman

To outpace her destiny

Fixated at the bottom of the stairs

And still waiting in the Phileon café

In expectation of the book

To have been completely read

So that life could begin again

By climbing up to greet the sky

Finally coming down to words

Saying nothing more, nothing less

Then desire for love on this very day

Is needed foremost and not alone.

Hatto Fischer

KERAMEIKOS cemetary

Kerameikos cemetary is one of Athens' most beautiful, historically wealthy and impressive sites, yet it is also highly underrated. My first visit there was a nocturnal one, in August on the night of the full moon, when (every few years) the municipality bestows us with the opportunity to experience the magnificence of the ancient past - and its juxtaposition with the present - in a silvery light. The photos in this blog are from a very recent visit I made with a friend, who as a resident of Plaka, also had always intended to visit but never yet been. We were both delighted by the walk through the Spring-explosive nature that surrounds the marble (funerary) sculptures . The museum there is also very well-maintained, nicely laid-out and modern. The site is located at the bottom of Ermou Street. Entrance is 2E.