The Blood of Dreams

In this study, which features a foreword by Yannis Dallas, the author examines the theme of Christmas in the poetry of Miltos Sachtooris. The study notes, first and foremost, that Christmas, and everything associated with this festival, does not appear in Sachtooris’s poetry as the familiar religious, social and personal celebration of joy, but is transformed into a celebration of death, when the historical context is one of horror and death for humanity and the society in which it lives. Based on this observation, the author then examines the specific causes of this transformation of Christmas in Sahoutis’s poetry, its scope, as well as its intensity and depth. Finally, he examines Sachtouris’s proposal for overcoming this dominance of terror, despair and death on a historical, social and religious level: this overcoming of terror and death lies, according to the perspective of Sachtouris’s poetry, in the redemptive mediation of art, poetry and the creator-poet himself.

THE STRUGGLE On the street of her old neighbourhood Where on a makeshift platform they have played out Christmas, Easter and a wedding There the children’s blood has been flowing since morning without having properly congealed There it emerged metal, unblemished the silence the end of the celebration to whistle.

The Eyes First his eyes he plunged into the blood of joy ― The myth has now changed Antinoüs Antinoüs is the king Then his eyes he raised high And they became two birds that flew to meet her.