John Stathatos, Poet and Photographer

John Stathatos is a poet I enjoy re-reading, largely on the basis of a pamphlet collection, "Maps and Tracings" (Oxus Press, London, 1976), and his translations of George Seferis (see Labrys 8, which John guest-edited). 

As I sat here listening to the radio, with my leg in plaster (some form of blue fibreglass material these days), I came across his poem "Dog Days", on the subject of Cyprus, August 1974.

Here's an extract:

"Through the long fag-end of a London summer
I nurse a leg in plaster in this darkened flat.
Bone's slow to heal. Day in day out
the radio blares its constant litany of disasters...

Each day
the plaster sets more tightly round our actions,
a limestone shroud."


In those days there was no internet to add to the litany of bad news and disasters.

Although he was based in England for many years, he apparently lives on Kythera now. Lucky fellow (whatever Baudelaire imagined).

See his website.