All Things Pass
We forgot our heroic argument with the Eumenides
we fell asleep they took us for dead and they flew away
shouting
“Yiou! Yiou! Pououou…pax!”
cursing the gods who protect us.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096TTS37J
George Seferis
Day: 02/06/2026
Swamped
excerpt
Chapter XII
A few more days went by with Platinum Properties continuing to do
well, up-ticking every day, trading lots of shares in every session, and
reaching the low two dollar level. Eteo kept a steady eye on it, and
although he took some profit for a few clients, he didn’t advise any
of them to sell everything they had. Golden Veins remained steady
around 60 cents, but there were regular purchase orders and Eteo encouraged
his clients to just go, which most agreed to do. Eteo sold
his stock slowly, always using a different firm than his own to keep
Richard off his back. Meanwhile he kept on buying shares of
Wheaton, which was steady around the dollar mark. He also fed the
market with the real estate deal that had always been on the loss side,
advising his clients to take the loss and invest their funds in other
things and suggesting Wheaton in particular, a good company and
with a good group behind it, as he assured them.
He met Ariana daily for their seawall walk and felt closer and
closer to her as each day passed. He made his feelings clear to her
every time they were together, either during their walk or when they
had supper together or when they made passionate love. Eteo told
her about his invitation to the football game and asked her to come
with them.
Neo-Hellene Poets, an Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry
TENDRIL
To the maple tree that gazes down on it
and shelters it with shade
at evening and at dawn
the flowery clematis says:
“Oh, proud tree, whose leaves and
branches rustle in the wind,
do you suppose this earth’s too small?
Do you imagine that you fit among the stars and clouds?
Water flows tirelessly by your roots
while you suckle on the mist
and you, the beast, feel jealous of me
because I suckle on the moistened bit?
What do you want of me, my maple tree?
Keep your shade away from me.
I am so small my flowers freeze.
Let the sun come and warm them.”
“My little blonde tendril, why are you afraid of me?
You always want to crawl alone
and stay alone the whole night long
and for your pillow to have the earth and stone.
Let your flowers match my strength,
become a queen and I your throne,
steady yourself upon my body
and all flowers will envy you in my embrace.”
The wild maple fooled the clematis
and amid its branches it consumed it.
Pity that you traded your blonde virginity
for only a little height more.
He Rode Tall
excerpt
…to encounter. Turning on the lights in the kitchen, he was met
by Tanya. “Cougar!” she yelled. Joel reached for the rifle in the
hallway closet—the cougar may be after his horses. Flying out
the door with his rifle in hand and Tanya racing behind him,
Joel almost collided in the dark with Harry. “Back in the hills!”
Harry yelled as they climbed into the half-ton and hurled
toward the pasture. Reaching the fence, Harry jumped out,
opened the gate for Joel to drive through and then jumped back
into the truck as Joel accelerated forward. Where to look? At
least there was almost a full moon in the sky so they had some
visibility at three o’clock in the morning.
Stopping for a moment, Joel turned off the motor to listen. All
he could hear was the pounding of hooves of the band of
broodmares and foals fleeing toward the safety of his truck.
Thank God, Joel thought; they could drive in this pasture with all
of its hills and gullies forever in the middle of the night and still
not find the herd. But here they were, the horses knew the three
people inside the truck were there to protect them.
Jumping from the truck, Joel and Harry each with a rifle in
hand and Tanya standing at their side were ready to guard the
mothers and their babies. Joel and Harry scanned what they
could see of the surrounding country in the deep darkness of the
night as Tanya tried to count the mares and foals the best she
could. Moving quietly through the nervous, milling horses she
twice came up with the same number. If her count was correct,
they were short one foal. Then as if to confirm her count, a bay
mare called out whinnies from the edge of the herd, but her whinnies
went unanswered.
With their adrenalin running high, none of them could sleep
so all three stood guard over the herd the remainder of the
night. Later, Tanya offered to go back to the ranch house and
make coffee, but Joel didn’t want her to be walking the hills
alone with a crazed cougar on the loose and Harry suggested
that it wasn’t a good idea to be without the headlights of the
truck just in case something else happened.
Hellenic Canadian Literature 