Christos Dikbasanis: Selected Poems

Selected Poems of Christos Dikbasanis

I FEEL YOUR COMING

You come from the Universe
Inside a golden box
you bring me the gift of life
You reverently place her in my hands

I feel your coming
I feel you next to me
I hear your breath
You smell vanilla and basil
Your fingers are wet from interstellar travel
You tenderly caress my dreams and desires
You carefully collect the drops of my sweat
You gaze upon the firmament with your piercing eyes,
urging me to come up there with you
But I have so many obligations
and so many regrets down here on Earth
I don’t have time for travels

You hold a bundle of yellow ears of corn in your hands
You took them out of the field of things I didn’t do
or didn’t get to bring to life
You wet your hair with the foam
of the early summer sea
You open one last bottle of wine
with a rich flavor from the passage of centuries
which were irretrievably lost
Above us a bright sun
it blows my mind

You come from the Universe
tenderly show me that our common future
isn’t here on the Earth but beyond in the stars,
in the deep embrace of infinity
We belong there,
me and you my lonely star,
first love of my life

ALL THE STARS

We loved too much what we lost
in a night of fire and carnage
From our childhood
we only kept the roots
of the tree that raised us,
the ancestors we adored,
because they had in them
lots of rain, blood, passion
Now to the other land
we will plant the seeds
of new dreams and expectations
We’ll make a bet
with our burnt selves
how when we become adults
we will carry on our backs
all the stars of the Universe
in the new soils of our salvation.

MY BURNING HEART

My silence became inevitably comfortable
under foreign eyes
The fire of my unforgettable homeland
it stuck in my mouth
my last wishes
which had been nailed down by profane years
like prayers in the depths of heaven
Now I watch through the cracks of time the escape
of life-giving light
through some smiling stars
I observe my days
to walk backwards through my diary
Who thinks that will be saved after all
my burning heart?
My hands remain frozen
in an uncertain world

BIOGRAPHY

CHRISTOS DIKBASANIS is a poet, writer and scholar of religions. He was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he graduated from the Theological School of the Aristotle University. He holds a Master’s Degree from the Theological School with a specialization in Religious Studies. It has also been included in the “Great Encyclopedia of Mondern Greek Literature” of Haris Patsi publications and in the “Who’s Who” of journalists. He has been honored with many national and international awards for his poems.