THE AMULET
“Everyone succumbs,” you said suddenly, “to this
indefinite age, without baggage,
without a destination, almost without sorrow.
We are no longer threatened by unfulfilled
youth, by its restlessness and its yoke.”
You found yourself unprepared on the brightly lit
streets; the long-standing loneliness scattered
the remnants of a clipped memory
whose sole comfort was an ancient
whistle of a childhood Christmas night.
The world has thinned out; all that remains is a photograph
with frayed edges, timid gestures,
and a vase with short little hands ending
in the most enigmatic rustle. Yet you have no doubt:
the inhabitants of wondrous secrets still exist.
Author:
Kostas Bournazakis
Pages:
56
Dimensions:
16.3 x 23.5 εκ.
ISBN:
978-960-572-109-1
Publication:
2016
Categories:
Literature, Books, Poetry
Kostas Bournazakis, on the occasion of his latest poetry collection _Faces and Trials_, met with Vangelis Boubakis from _Extreme Ways_ and together they analysed all aspects of his distinctive work.
– Extreme Ways"...'Kontomari, Chania, 2 June 1941’ [from the collection _Faces and Trials_] is a vigorous historical poem with a strong philosophical undertone, precisely because it rises above the specific event, into the ‘absolute’ according to Aristotle’s definition. At the same time, it is a tender elegy, a difficult work of art. Aeschylus’s anonymous biographer reports that the dramatist went into self-imposed exile from Athens when the poem he composed for the Marathon warriors was judged inferior to that of Simonides, because “the elegy must possess much of the subtlety of the sympathetic”, and this requirement was alien to Aeschylus’s art. Kostas Bournazakis’s poem, on the other hand, does indeed possess ‘much of that delicate sensitivity associated with the sympathetic’...’.
– M. Z. Kopidakis, The Greek Report
"...Bournazakis chooses the path of free association with a character that transcends the usual poetic anthropocentrism. Within a universal logic, he associatively transports the audience into a world of inner anguish with a philosophical dimension that captivates the senses through his surreal visual imagery."
– Dimos Chloptsioudis, Tvxs.gr"...The ‘characters’ in Bournazakis’s work, shaped by defining life experiences, with consciousness, passions, adventures and insight, but also with the unknown nature of beings (which is the eternal theme of poetry), are presented in their authentic form, that is, with the pure receptivity of the senses, the liberation of their subtle faculties, and with questions transformed into introspection and a projection of the phenomenon of life. These are not ‘staged scenes’, ‘inventions’ or ‘discoveries’, but apt and complete realisations that substantially enrich contemporary Greek poetry."
– Atalanti Michelogiannaki-Karavelaki, Diastixo.grKostas Bournazakis
Kostas Bournazakis, poet, translator, scholar, and literary editor, was born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1961. To date, he has published the following books: Poetry: Archipelago (Ikaros, 1997), Faces and Trials (Ikaros, 2016), Amidst Suns and Moons (Ikaros, 2020), Images(Ikaros, 2025). Translation: John Keats, Seven Odes (Ikaros, 1997). Literary Editing – Studies: Angelos Sikelianos, Letters, Vol. I (1902–1930), Vol. II (1931–1951) (Ikaros, 2000). Angelos Sikelianos, Antidoro (Ikaros, 2003). Angelos Sikelianos, Meter Theou (Ideogramma, 2003). Angelos Sikelianos, Kerygma Heroismou (Ikaros, 2004). Chronography of Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951) (Ikaros, 2006). Angelos Sikelianos, Letters to Eva Palmer-Sikelianos (Ikaros, 2008). Anthology of the Work of Pantelis Prevelakis (Vikelaia Municipal Library, 2010). Stylianos Alexiou & Zissimos Lorentzatos, Correspondence (1967–2003) (Vikelaia Municipal Library, 2010). Anthology of the Work of Giorgis Manousakis (Vikelaia Municipal Library, 2012). Angelos Sikelianos, Interviews and Conversations (Vikelaia Municipal Library, 2013). Angelos Sikelianos, Memory Here Has Neither End Nor Beginning... Anthology (Ekdoseis Kathimerini, 2014).
