Dino Siotis was born in Tinos, Greece, in 1944 and studied Law at Athens University and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. A poet, novelist and literary critic, he lived in California, New York, Boston and Canada for 27 years where he edited and published eight literary and/or political magazines in English and Greek.
He has published twenty books of poetry and fiction in English, French and Greek. His poems have been translated into nine European languages and in Chinese. In 2007 he received in Athens the State Prize for Poetry for his book “Autobiography of a Target”.
He writes book reviews for newspapers and magazines. He is the director of the Tinos International Literary Festival, president of Poets Circle in Greece, editor of (de)kata and Poetix and in charge of Global Communication for World Poetry Movement.
On this side of the Mediterranean
Unfamiliar terrain
Washes our dreams
Emails replace the news
And the framed photographs on the piano
Are happy to see us
Only sometimes
When we brush our teeth or mix the salad
A matchless afternoon arrives out of nowhere
Carrying foreign parts
And a soul with many uses
Evidently
Just as we need to be in intensive care
To strike a new deal with the local repairman
We learn something different about our land
About those we love and the things they love
That’s when we take the boat
And sail for the other side of the Aegean Sea
To make up new dreams
Boston, July 9, 2000
Poetry in this post: © Dino Siotis
Published with the permission of Dino Siotis