Disintegration
‘Yannis Antiochos knows what great form means; he can move masses of meanings and images with an intuition-enriched dexterity.’
Giorgos-Ikaros Babasakis, Lifo.gr
Giorgos-Ikaros Babasakis, Lifo.gr
OBSCURUS
The weather vane spins round
The whole planet explodes
Submerged in the ashes
a dark full moon
look, it beckons to us, ruined
on this final night
One plunges the knife
the other feels the pain and knows
that the world does not forget
and that the mistake bears witness
He raises his index finger like a pistol
killing false love
Tonight the poet dies
for the truth of a lifetime
he leans slowly, his eyes dim
a breeze blows and closes them
On the earth he lies dead
his dark love
- Pages: 104
- ISBN: 978-960-572-144-2
- Publication: 2017
- Dimensions: 17 x 24
- Categories: Literature, Books, Poetry
"...Yannis Antiochos’s pair of books _Inhalations_ – _Exhalations_ is followed by _Dissolution_. Whereas in the previous two works Yannis Antiochos poetically explored the way of living and dying, often with harsh and violent imagery, _Dissolution_ seems to poetically cement the inevitability of decay; it comes as a resolution, as an acceptance of the human condition’s limits. _Dissolution_ is ultimately a book of limits: it took the baton from the two previous works and now, somewhere, passes it on: inhalation – exhalation – dissolution. If one wishes to read Antiochus’s work, one must view it solely as a relay race."
– Mary Kligatsi, litart.gr"...Philosophical thought remains persistent and in this book guides Antiochus’s hand, propelling him into the dialectic of past/present/future, into a measured opposition to decay and death."
– Giorgos-Ikaros Babasakis, LIFOYannis Antiochos talks to Lina Rokou at Popaganda about the books of his life.
– PopagandaA musical setting by Takis Grammenos of Yannis Antiochos’s poem ‘Spring Sonnet’.
– Takis Grammenos"...A key feature of Yannis Antiochos’s poetry is its power to leave a lasting impression on the reader. Amidst its darkness, it compels the reader to read it, evokes intense (and sometimes uncomfortable) emotions, invites them to reflect, and ultimately draws them back time and again.
– Christina Linardaki, literature.gr"...Yannis Antiochos’s poetry is a consciousness open to the pulse of the world, a poem that has no boundaries and needs no beauty, yet carries it within... The inner ‘dissolution’, an internal descent that leads straight to paradise, and yet there, too, the pain of human fate is never absent nor silenced."
– Katerina Tsitsikli, StigmaLogou"_Dialysis_ is undoubtedly one of the landmark books of this year, 2017. And by that I do not mean to imply that it is just another ‘good book’, that we have yet another collection of ‘good poems’. Antiochos’s integrity lies in the fact that he delivers to his audience what he is duty-bound to deliver as a poet who has now published enough books so that, on the one hand, he does not dawdle in a supposed search for a personal style and, on the other, he does not ramble on, imitating himself in tried-and-tested forms. There is development, and there is also method."
– Angeliki Korre, Well"...A combination of free-verse poems, fifteen-syllable verses and sonnets. All tightly woven and melodic, with a strong internal rhythm. It is, moreover, interwoven with various musical pieces, ranging from pop song lyrics to lyrics or references to classical compositions."
– Eirini Papakyriakou, Slus.gr"...And even if this book deals with decay and its acceptance as inevitable for the human condition as a whole (and not just human nature), it does so with vigour, with the aggressiveness of youth and the clarity of maturity."
– Christina Oikonomidou, diastixo.gr"...what Antiochos achieves is unique and lofty in our literature. From the ashes of his Dissolution, a new voice springs forth, one that is fully submissive to and respectful of both European and Greek tradition. Everything is assimilated to give form to a grand work of unique art."
– Gerasimos Dendrinos, Fractalart.gr"...Yannis Antiochos, with _Dialysis_, continues his own line of work, the origins of which can be traced back to _Inhalations_ and _Exhalations_. Wild and austere, battered and exhausted, the poetic subject, as the theorists say, wanders among the ruins of a life growing old in the darkness. ‘Disintegration’ lives up to its title in every respect, as his poems are a bouquet of burnt flowers, scorched by the flame of the desire to remain alive in the present."
– Dimitris Athinakis, Kathimerini"...Sensual writing, lyrical, ‘physical’ I would say, with a strong sense of memory or the anticipation of touch. The body, the human body, tormented, aching, weeping, takes centre stage in the poetry of the doctor Yannis Antiochos, who with careful strokes, like well-balanced movements of a scalpel, cuts and stitches together moments, sensations, nostalgia, without a trace of sentimentality but with the combative demand of solitude, where experience is fermented in oak barrels of poetic art, seasoned with Byzantine sounds."
– Konstantinos Bouras, Diavasame.grYiannis Antiochos
Yannis Antiochos is a poet and translator. He was born in Athens in 1969. He grew up and lives in Piraeus. He holds an MBA and an MSc from the Medical School of the University of Athens, specialising in Intensive Care Units.
With Ikaros, he has published the poetry collections *He, the Lower Sky* (2019) [2020 State Poetry Prize], *Dissolution* (2017), *Exhalations* (2014) and *Inhalations* (2009).
He has translated works by T. S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton and Anna Akhmatova, and has contributed to various literary journals, publishing poems, essays and translations (ANTI, Index, Poetry, Dekata, Delear, Mandragoras, Poetix).
