Joseph S. Josephides Poems

Most people run, either hunting or being hunted.
I, Stelios, as a boy in Paphos used to run barefoot.
Τeenager in Limassol the British colony wanted me
to run and glorify them in the Olympic Games. I run
...

Transformed as a star
through skylight I enter
into your sheets
...

Alexander flattered the Persian ambassadors
stole from them secrets about their army,
the Fund, paths leading to conquest of Asia.
Didn’t suspect the young Alexander’s plan
...

I honour you for the brave deeds you deliver to us all,
Cyprus mother, based on no one’s law, but on yours,
on the beneficial one of the State and of the Heaven;
you who concerned of lacking people, pardoned rivals,
...

Here he is, with money, in concerts, fast as lightning,
in movies, airplanes, mansions and vessels,
with platinum disks, girls fainting whenever appears;
all in his service, delivered around his boots.
...

While a girl, when dining I often had a vision.
I thought I was the dove of Argo that passed
through Sympligades after it immobilised them.
...

There, all mothers of Keramidia:
newly married, middle-aged, old-aged,
ripping their veils with the fingers,
all day long lamenting deeply
...

Amundsen bitterly confesses to us, his crew:

'I don’t mind if I become a winner or one they hate, *
whether Scott will burn my diary, my only sample,
...

They search where and how my death was done:
as they say, Vizier Aye hit my head with a hammer
while I was sleeping, for I was too young to be a king.
Did General Horemheb kill me, so as to rule alone?
...

Halley lowers down and threatens.
The rich people in aristocratic wagons
run in panic to their mountain villas.
The poor ones on the pier of Larnaca
...