Saturday, July 1, 2023

XANTHI HONDROU-HILL

 


Poetic Habitat 

 

The poets live

in their poems.

They are born in them

they grow up there

they are raised by the words

in the spaces they breath

they are resting on the punctuation

and even when they leave

they exist in the white of every piece of paper

at the edge of every pencil

and in the infinite possibilities of

expression in every language of the world...

 

Mediterranean waves…

 

Three blue poets fill our life, one singing the blue from the sky

the other the waves of the sea and, the third whispers the wisdom of the wind

 

No matter to which shores the poem takes us, with which clouds we want to travel,

with the wave of a blue scarf, the white sail of a boat, or the wing of a plane

there is always the wisdom of the wind to carry us

 

To reach the shores of dreams, with flowers, pebbles and sea shells as treasures.

The nights were we talked at blue tables with friends or on the phone miles away,

listening to the tide at full moon,

the fun we shared travelling in a rental car without lights

on an island looking to avoid a monastery and

ending up spending the day there in the arms of a Saint,

bringing with us healing oils and sacred water

 

The paintings we discovered in the small museum, in our faces

and on the street corners looking down to the sea,

feeding a foreign hungry artist at the little coffee shop by the seaside

We didn't exchange letters and alphabets like our ancestors,

didn't care if the numbers were Arabic or Greek, didn't even try to find common ground...

 

Because three blue poets, a painter and a musician filled our life

with the waves of the Mediterranean…

 

Seeds Of Peace

 

In the ceasefires

I plant at the four corners of the horizon

where the blood of my brothers blackens in the sun

seeds of peace.

 

In the ceasefires I light candles

to light the paths of the spirit

traced and lived by Gandhi.

 

In the ceasefires I open the door to strangers

to come and share bread, water, roses.

In the ceasefires I build with my hands

the dreams of children

of the whole world.

 

In the ceasefires I touch

the hearts of those around me

to erase the pain of the past,

to join together to become a circle

To become dance, joy, song.

 

In the ceasefires I plant

The seeds of my lyrics

To speak in the tongues of the world

to become an eternal hymn for peace

 

XANTHI HONDROU-HILL

 

XANTHI HONDROU-HILL: Xanthi Hondrou-Hill has studied German and English Literature, Linguistics, Journalism and Public Relations Management in Germany. She has worked as Public Relations Manager at the Greek Consulate in Stuttgart, as teacher for German, Greek and English and is translating poetry from and to all three languages. She is an award-winning Greek poetess who gained international recognition. She is writing poetry since high school and her poems have been published in many international prestigious media and anthologies around the world. She has won in 2022 the first prize at the Gandhian Global Harmony Association and many awards in China, Ukraine, Philippines and Equator. She has been nominated as one of the 30 Stars worldwide in India. She is cultural Ambassador for OXYGEN PEN Sri Lanka, NAMASTE magazine in India and editor for poetry columns at www.faretra.info in Greece and HUMANITY in Russia, as well as co-editor for the international poetry magazine in China. Selections of her poetry have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Slavic as well as in two Languages of India: Hindi and Bengali.

 


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