Eleni Alexiou was born in Trikala, Greece in 1980. She holds a Bachelor degree in Ancient and Modern Greek Language and Literature from the University of Patras, Greece and a Master degree in Education from the University of Bath, UK. She teaches classical guitar at the Music School of Trikala.
She has published several poems and short stories in magazines and on-line. Her first poetry collection, “The flash”, was published in Greece in 2009. Some of the poems included in the collection were awarded Second and Third Price in the InterArtia Poetry Competition held by the International Art Society in 2009. She has also received several prices from national Greek competitions.
She takes part in various artistic events, such as the 22nd Global Conference of Poets (Larisa, Greece, 2010), Codepoetry@AthensPlaython (street festival on poetry, Athens, 2013) etc. Books, nature, bike rides and her two children are what she loves best.
We buried the last insect
in the ancestors mausoleum
stomach butterflies
bees of Eros
spiders of death.
We washed our flyswatter
and had some coffee.
Unregretful conspirators.
Inconsolably silent.
We had no other relative to lose
but each other.
Poetry by Eleni Alexiou
© translation by Manolis Aligizakis
Published with the permission of Eleni Alexiou