SOFIA SKLEIDA

 

Self-Animation

 

The world seems so small

to accommodate your concerns

when the moments die

Tonight I thought I'd make

an artistic intervention

by poetic license

Draw what?

I'm not a painter

I am an unknown poet

Α dream lover

My hands are shaking

when I grab the pen and the paper

And yet I withstand

And yet I find

a little bit of courage,

while bending the knees

from sadness,

to get up

To regroup

To lose one’s nerve

and again from the beginning

Between nothing and something

I placate the infinitesimal

What makes you live and hope

Hurt and sympathize

To stay

Persist

and finally to remain a constant supplicant

of our expectations and hopes...

 

 

Senza Partia*

 

Homeland

Sacred word

The soil is holy

Where they lie

the smelly bones of our ancestors

Our children's hands made clay

Cultivated the daily toil

of our compatriots

This is where our spiritual concerns and

our reflections blossomed

Our hopes and dreams were buried

Our calculus sighed heavily

Our misery was amused in various ways

Our guardian angel has sworn a truce

Our foundation was thoroughly shaken

Our shame was mocked with reproach

We were exiled

wanderer and expelled

from the Philhellenic patriots

and the charlatans of the soul...

 

* without a country

 

 

Vigor

 

No…

I will not break down with grief

the infinitesimal moment of happiness

I will not shade with dim light the lustful memory

Now the raindrops on the glass

 don't look like bubbles without breath

The wind, a raging beast in a cage

The lyrics, empty protests

Our words, eternal prayers

The hours, sacrificial ceremonies

Parthenogenesis…

 

Poem awarded in the Literary Competition

of the Educational Association of Milos, 2015

 

SOFIA SKLEIDA

 

SOFIA SKLEIDA was born in Athens. She studied Filology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens where she obtained her BA,MA in Pedagogy,  Ph.D in Comparative Pedagogy and a postdoctoral research certificate . She obtained a certification in the Braille language. Today she works as a teacher in the secondary education. She took part in conferences and published articles in the Greek and international scientific journals, in conference papers and chapters books. She was awarded for her participation in poetry and literary contests in Greece and abroad. Her poems have been translated into Italian, English, Spanish, Albanian , Romanian and Bangla,Her first poetic collection entitled Dream of Oasis (Thessaloniki, 2014), was translated and published in Italy in 2017 (won the second prize in an international competition in Milan). Her first Fairy tale entitled Geometrini was published in 2016 , her second with the title  The Kingdom of Joy in 2018. Some of her published works are the following : Neologisms, Melismos , Ιn the Mediterranean, Poetic Reflections, Cappadocian theological references in handwritten verses, The teaching of classical languages in the Italian secondary education ,Poetic visions in Paintings, Didactic Trilogy: Body-Spirit-Soul, Educational Proposals,  Cor ad Cor Loquitur , A Second Life , Α trip to the country of “the meeting” , Let there be light, Sentidos Spirituales.  She is Vice President- Responsible for the cultural issues  of the Zakynthian Cultural Institute , a regular member at the Panhellenic Union of Writers and at the Association of Greek Writers.