DIMITRIS P. KRANIOTIS: Small Arc

Mount Kissavos viewed from Pineios bridge in Larissa. Photograph Konstantinos Agiannis

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Dimitris P. Kraniotis was born in 1966 and grew up in Stomio, Larissa, Greece where Hippocrates himself spent his later years living and practicing medicine. Dimitris followed in the footsteps of Hippocrates. After studying Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he established his medical practice in Larissa, where he continues to work as a physician specialising in internal medicine. Alongside his life in medicine, he has built a remarkable literary career, authoring twelve poetry books published both in Greece and internationally. His poems have been translated into more than forty languages, reaching unusually wide linguistic horizons from Persian and Korean to Bangla and Telugu. His poems have appeared in books, anthologies, and literary magazines across many countries. In recognition of his cultural diplomacy, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark made him a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 2009. An active presence on the world poetry stage, he has been a guest poet at numerous international festivals, and was the driving force behind bringing the 22nd World Congress of Poets to his hometown in 2011—the first time the congress was held in Greece. He holds a Doctorate in Literature, and serves as Founder and Editor of World Poets Magazine, President of the World Poets Society (WPS), Founder and Director of the Mediterranean Poetry Festival in Larissa, and Chairman of the Writers for Peace Committee of PEN Greece.

Ulises Paniagua

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Small ark

The spoon melts
Famine lost in tomorrow
Even one eye gets angry
The road to nowhere

With hands tied
Behind the back
We count our mistakes
Without a scale

Our life in oblivion
Sails into the night
Fire in our veins
Small ark

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Confinement

Confined in “no”
We filled with timid expectations
Taking care
Of our two-meter distance
Hiding our tears
Behind the mask of threat

Killed kisses
Ηugs butterflies
Τhat fear extinguished
Οur breaths
Got old in yesterday

We only remember now
(Tomorrow angers us)

Experiment without life

To eat the same thing always
To become a human
To become an animal
To remain a plant

To become an experiment
Without life
Without voice
Asleep

To write with a knife
With blood
With poems
Betrayed

To cry for help
To kill
To die