A respite from our Postmodern anxiety, occasionally I require a few recollections from a simpler past, anecdotes like these inherited from my grandparents, Ray and Louise, at the Arnholt Place, down in the Danville holler, sometime in the 30s.
Through a hole cut in the floor for heat, three brothers, my father, Dan, and uncles, Stanton and Wayne, scrawny little boys all in one bed and quarantined for measles, took turns peering from the upstairs to the downstairs. After a great commotion, Grandma Frye called up, “Meet your new baby sister.” Aunt Jane, red-faced, more from first breaths than bashfulness, looked up to them.
A few years earlier or later, Blubaugh cousins from Canton stopped by the farm on a Sunday drive. Finding no one home, all in good fun, they switched all the upstairs beds and dressers with all the downstairs chairs and tables. It didn’t take long as Ray and Louise owned nothing but each other, hard work, back taxes and a few sticks of furniture.
Downstairs in the kitchen, on most Saturday nights, Ray and Louise played Euchre with Ed and Sally Styers, hour after hour, for “Drink or Smell.” If you won a hand, you drank Granddad’s hard cider. If you lost, you only smelled the glass. Too much winning and cider would ensure your losing again.
Badminton
Reality collided with fantasy when I was five or six or seven. I was the oldest and for a while the only grandchild. In this account, do consider that there was a new cousin, Jimmy, on the scene who seemed to be getting far too much attention for a tedious baby. The transgression occurred at a picnic on the Gambier farm, maybe Mothers’ Day, between Sunday dinner, home-churned ice cream and the evening milking chores. Grandma, the center of all my love (And, of course, I was the object of all her doting.), sat on the front stoop watching the young couples play badminton.
With a racquet, I thwacked her on her head. (There it is; there’s no denying it now.) At the time, this seemed a perfectly reasonable attempt at play. On our new color TV, in Saturday morning cartoons, this violence was customary etiquette, a harmless greeting set to zany music. “Hello there! Good day to you, sir. A pleasure to meet you, Miss.” The racquet would be demolished; however, magically, not the noggin. Occasionally, lumps appeared, but these were efficiently tapped down with a mallet that all the characters carried for just such events. Each recipient got right back up again with a witty retort. Animated conversations continued unabated and without consequence.
Uncles helped Grandma to the couch. I recall an excessive amount of unnecessary yelling. I presume, at some point, I cried, though I was puzzled, confused over inquiries as to the why. In my first formal apology, even so small, I was acutely aware that my future within the family hinged upon an Act of Contrition. (I was new to the confessional, but I realized what transpired also had the potential of sin and so demanded a detailed explanation for Father Fortkamp as well an inordinate assignment of Our Fathers or Hail Marys. I had not fully memorized the longer Apostles Creed and dreaded this possibility.) Years later, an aunt informed me: apparently, there was a trip to Mercy Hospital and thirteen stitches.
1. Eva, your poetry combines the richness of Greek tradition with a contemporary style. What inspires you to maintain this balance between the past and the present?
1..E.p.L . Thank you for this question. In Greece everything is music, from our language to the way we feel or leaving.
Poetry and every art is in our DNA. So I feel when i write that i am opening a door to the past and I go in.
I read many poets and I like when I discover a deep meaning and Many doubts about life in their poems.
I don’t know if i write poetry, but I express my feelings, my thoughts trying to keep my dignity, my respect for my past and share my ideas for the future.
I believe that Poetry will always unites people.
A poet wrote
The Angels they understand each other because they speak with poems..
2. Is there a specific moment in your life that shaped your love for poetry?
2..E.p.L. Poetry is in my life since i came to this world.
I started write words and phrases very young.
There is always an occasion to write wishes in gift cards
and give it to family and friends.
Even if i did not believe that I write something extraordinary, friends told me that my poetry had something divine…and philosophical
3. How would you describe your poetic process? Do you have a particular ritual or technique you practice while writing?
3..Ep.l . I pray when I write.
It’s a connection with what is existing beyond the humanity
I write from my heart and need to have a clean and happy mood, so i can write and express my thoughts.
Words are like energy…
When we put them in the correct order they create miracles.
4. Your poems often explore themes of love, death, and identity. What does love mean to you in the context of poetry?
4..EPL. Love is like poetry.
Death is poetry also
I believe the most important subject in all poems is about love. We get married, we write poems. We fall in love, we write poems.
Sometimes, we can’t share our feelings, we write poems.
We want to have attention from our beloved, we write poetry. Love is energy also.
We have so many words, we can put them all together and create amazing poetry.
In Greece, there is such a beautiful Poem dedicated to love it’s called Erotocritos, and is written in 12 syllables.
He became a song
He became a play theater.
It is really beautiful poem
Love, makes everything existing. We breathe with hope and love.
It’s very important to write about love because we educate also young generations to live with love.
5. To what extent does Greek social and cultural tradition influence your writing? Do you aim to write for a local audience, or does your poetry have a universal tone?
5..EPL. As I mentioned before, Greeks they write. It’s exist in our DNA. We have very important poets from the ancient Greek time,
Sapho the Greek poetess and after Sikelianos, Seferis and Ritsos. I had the opportunity to study them in school and after I discovered and read more poems, but for me by chance, I go inside the universe and my poems are reading by the people in abroad.
My poems are translated in 20 languages and I have cooperation with Vietnam, China, Mexico.
This is the greatness of Poetry.
6. Your work is marked by deep emotional intensity. How do you find the balance between emotion and artistic form in your poems?
6…EPL. I am a very sensitive person. I like truth, justice, honesty .
I like to show my real personality in my poems.
I like to inspire people
I don’t find the balance.
I stay true in my life and in my Poetry.
A poet is an artist but is a human being so I choose to feel free and put all my love and hope in my poetry.
7. Many of your poems address the theme of death. How does your personal philosophy of death reflect in your written work?
7…EPL. I started to write more poems after the death of my father. My father was my best friend and my inspiration, he was always very proud of me and telling me to follow my dreams no matter what is coming in Life.
When he died from cancer, I tried to heal my pain, writing poems and dedicated to him.
I still write poems for my father and I feel close to him.
I don’t believe that people are dying and disappear.
I believe that the souls exist in light, in a parallel world and they love and protect us
I am a Christian and I respect our custom about dead people. We have a Life with meaning but we must have a decent death also.
POETRY can heal pain and has the power to give us strength and also open our mind to several ideas and thoughts, just by reading a Poem.
8. How do you perceive postmodernism, and do you believe it has an impact on your poetry?
8..EPL. I consider my poems as surrealistic or spiritual poetry
I read poetry in several languages and I like Rumi, E.E Cummings and Jane Austen. Also, I like Kerouac and Beatnik poetry. I am inspired from life and the quotidian life, but I have my own rhythm and opinions about life.
I don’t think that we find anything similar to postmodernism.
I like to spread messages of freedom and peace in my Poetry.
9. In the contemporary world, how do you think poets can contribute to social change and be engaged in their communities?
9..EPL. Poets, they must be free from any political party.
We need to have solidarity and respect each other.
Only through respect and love we will contribute to prepare a better future.
It’s sad that in my country, literature and poetry are not inside the schools anymore.
I strongly believe we can create a person with open mind and with dignity only by art and special, poetry.
So, we must engage by ourselves and create circles or forums where we can read and discover more poets.
I believe in plurality in literature and in justice.
Everyone has something to write and he can share his personal experience and give a solution to a problem.
We need to act with poems.
10. What are your future literary projects, and what can you share about them? Is there a particular theme you’d like to explore in the future?
10..EPL. I have been contacted by a Polish person who has asked me to support his project.
So I became a Global Ambassador of the Rosetta Voice project, we try to translate the Polish Lokomotyawa poem in several languages and i am really excited about this.
I started also my second literary online magazine with Pakistani friends and I continue to support and publish poems from all over the world, with my project POETRY unites people, a project that I have created since 2010 and the goal is to unite people through Poetry.
My project is based in respect to whole culture and publish the poems from several countries so we can discover more thoughts and ideas on how other people see life.
I promote Peace and happiness.
And of course, i will continue to write poems…
Thank you so much for this interesting interview and your support
Wishing you success and happiness
EVA Petropoulou Lianou
Official candidate for Nobel Peace Prize 2024
International poet
Founder of the project POETRY Unites people
Presidente, Mil Mentes Por Mexico association International
Global federation of leadership and high intelligence
Is justice an utopia? Yes, it is an elusive concept. Both power and money can play a decisive role to achieve it. Without which, justice remain beyond the reach of the poor. What about the poets? How best can the poetic languages dive deep into the abyss of the moral dilemmas and ethical challenges that justice raises? How can one preserve an optimal balance between mercy and punishment? And the eternal battle between injustice and justice! I want to curate all these observations and the insights of the poets around the world regarding this elusive concept of ‘Justice”.
Yes, the theme of the OPA Year Book 2025 is JUSTICE!
Please send only one poem written on the theme, “Justice” along with your short BiO with Country of Origin written in 3rd person narrative. All in English. A recent profile picture of the author is necessary, without that no poems will be published.
The email address of the poetry submission for the upcoming OPA Year Book 2025 is: opa.anthology@gmail.com
Last Date of Submission: 30th April 2025
Probable Date of Publication of the OPA Year Book 2025: 10th July 2025
*** .pdf document or file will not be accepted!
We congratulate the first 60 poets participating in this year book, whose poems have been selected for publication.
Some people say that mathematics is a difficult subject, while others find it boring. However, in reality, mathematics gives us hope that there are solutions to problems in life, just like the examples in mathematics. I also have to say that mathematics is the greatest motivator for people because the numbers in mathematics start from 0 and go to infinity.
To those who say mathematics is difficult, I would recommend that they try to engage with this subject a little more sincerely. Some young children may struggle to learn mathematics because of textbooks. For example, in elementary school, it is taught that a smaller number cannot be subtracted from a large one. However, in higher grades, it is taught that a smaller number can be subtracted from a large one, but the result will be negative.
Moreover, we can say that some current textbooks are also becoming complex. I find that some mathematical topics and examples reflect human interpretations. Parallel lines never intersect, and in this, I see people who, no matter how many hours, months, or years pass, will never be together. Tangent curves, on the other hand, intersect only once and then part ways for life paths as if nothing had happened. In solving trigonometric equations and inequations, we are given an interval, within that range and discard the unnecessary ones. I compare this to making decisions in life.
However, our faces, fingers, hands, feet, and body structure -all of these are based on the “golden ratio”. The golden ratio is not typically covered in textbooks, but I will explain it briefly and simply. If you pay attention, you`ll notice that people tend to sit not in the exact center or the very edge of a bench, but somewhere between the center and the edge. This is the first example of the golden ratio. Another example is your face: if you observe closely, the distance between your nose and eyes your eyebrows and eyes, and the length between your two eyes, and the length between your two eyes are all proportional to the golden ratio. In general, I can say that life is mathematics, and even the simple things in our lives are mathematics.
