Responses to American Poetry

The aim of this online space is to host the research work of university students or young scholars as this emerges from larger projects focusing on the American poetry scene. The objective of this initiative is to bring this kind of research activity to the attention of the general public in an attempt to further promote the exchange of ideas with regard to the process of reading, understanding and appreciating poetry writing.

Tatiani Rapatzikou 
(Associate Professor, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Advisor and initiative co-ordinator trapatz@enl.auth.gr)

Angela Candly
 

Sappho’s Solid Ground

Solid ground, where you hunt for souls,
on a wind-stricken rock of Eressos.
There, I first swam stretching my innocent body,
on the dark pebbles I touched your eyes with my arms.
As a teenage girl I could only picture you as melaina,
with bare breasts and feet, lightning-steps,
a magnetic, vibrant density.
An otherworldly queen crowned with purple violets,
no little and not at all rose-made,
not fully-grown;
an aureate survivor of a fading world
that sets stagnant realms in motion.
I see you in Auguste’s frame,
a pellucid image of Hades’ stranger
away from his shadowy veil.
I hear you in the energy of the waves,
in the imagist’s blossoming speech
worshipping you as the most divine flower in her garden!
The other glowing element tortures my mind,
that quaint starlight with which you anoint mortals
with a little divinity.
An outer voice pays a visit occasionally
to stir the feigning emotion of this modernity,
submerged in its own artificial tears.
But your creation is a moving cloud
ready to fill any universal slot,
wash away random and intentional slips
confront nothingness in its worst form.
Oh, high priestess of statuesque presence,
of the skies, ocean tombs and beds
bless my sleep with fervid words!

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