Memoirs of the Mediterranean

First Impressions

The city is so much darker than what I am used to. It’s great actually.

There is an over abundance of stimulating blue light EVERYWHERE in Toronto. What with all the LED’s– Hi-Def this, Hi-Def that. Here in Athens it doesn’t seem so. There is a simple dim lighting everywhere. Though the stars aren’t as plentiful as if you were in a more remote area, you can still see the sky with a little bit more– clarity. Clarity might not even be the word for it, as everything just seems closer. Closer, as if it is possible in reaching the moon with a stretching fingertip. Beyond this, the feel of this place is so relaxed, and very open.

There is life– an open, uninhibited life:

People yelling over dinner, as neighbouring voices echo through the streets. Not back home, isolated voices, as if we speak too loudly we hush up to keep privacy or mannerisms polite.

My two cents, as I stretch out the journey’s trip on the tarrazza–– terracetop — of the building, litteraly to gain some physical mobility after a sleepless and cramped pair of plane rides.

-Athens, August 3, 2017

Brewing Emotions

Today was sleepless. I lay on the bed trickling in cold sweat. Perspiring under the covers while the rhythmic fan oscilates above my body.

Restless, I crack the sliding doors to the balcony. An instant breath of fresh ocean air– so cool and refreshing.

I pace the length of the balcony, I lay again– restless. I pace some more.

Barefoot. I throw on some slippers. Barefoot. I then lay again. Barefoot, I pace once again– Shit, the slippers!

I pace to the bathroom, I urinate. I pace.

I feel hunger, but refuse to eat. I sip some water instead.

I pace and grab a camera, a few photos taken.

I sit, I stare, I prepare for sunlight. I sit. I stand. I sit, I read, I dentify, I write.

Life begins to buzz around me. The stillness of the night transforms inself into the sun-risen movement of what we know as the early morning. I realize how it exists in another country as well– so I am experiencing. Marvelous.

The whispering of winds become more subtle as the ‘deca-octo-oora’ begins its cuckoo. Life buzzes more. The ceaseless bird is now drowned out by slogging coughs, and drowsy yawns, which are are then drowned out by shuffling footsteps that are also drowned out by car doors, and car alarms disarming. More, and more life buzzes as one sound blends into the other and into the drowned out speedy movements of a car, or the trailing exhaust of a speeding moped.

Humanity has succeeded this morning, until the briefest wisp of wind catches my ear in witnessing the very brief momentary lapses of life we associate with silence.

With questionable thoughts,

Littermature.

-Athens, August 4, 2017

Insomnia

I‘s that are wide open

N staring through the darkly lit opaque ceiling

S‘s that are not Z’s. Silence is very noisy

O, is it morning already? I HAVE noticed.

Mmm, I can just eat, and eat, and eat! Will it settle this restlessness?

N Yes, I am still dreaming, but what do you call day dreaming through the night? And what do you call night dreaming through the day?

I, Restless I am.

A? What time is it really, and what time does my body think it is, eh?

-Athens, August 8, 2017

The Old That Lives

14 years time. It has passed since I have been here. The childhood getaway to my family home in the Greek islands was where I would escape to every summer for 2 months until I was 14. I am here now.

After so long, not much has changed. With a lot of the same faces still greeting my presence asking what had kept me away for so long. A question that has no real answer, but rather a distracting excuse.

I feel so alien, like a dream almost. An expression I’ve never really felt before, but an experience I now understand. It feels dream like– faces I remember and talk with as if it were 14 years ago, but with a 14 year gap that is very real.

What depth do I really have to speak with these familiar strangers, I am far more introverted in my adulthood, and it makes things much more difficult. I guess I’ll just roll on with the tide and keep swimming, trying to keep my buoyancy positive in the face of things.

Despite my social inadequacies, I am taken by the nature– by the raw beauty and simplicity in living this ancient Greek island life. That, has preserved so many of these strangers for me to ‘time-travel’ back to.

With reflection, Littermature.

-Ikaria, August 11, 2017

Recover: Know Thyself

Despite being anti-social, I feel a little more sane. I am here in a place where the men are still men, and the women are still women, and everyone is perfectly okay with that!

–Ikaria, August 12, 2017

Gilligan

The sense of community is strong here. Perhaps the isolation of an island surrounded by ocean breeds an immense communal energy in order to persevere, and survive these remote qualities.

-Ikaria, August 19, 2017

Hollowed Love

I reached out to grab you as you let me in. The coy dance that plays the heart’s hand silently plots to explore your body.

We intertwine. A lustful embrace between the rocks and beaneath the moonlight, we dance. Tugging, scraping, touching. Locked inside out, one pair of hips plays the other as you press your breast into my chest.

Our peak brings with it an intense euphoric sadness. As my body’s urges transform themselves into emotional ones, my soul cries as it desparatley seeks an emotional longing for unity.

As I depart from the island, the hollow experience of these solely physical experiences keep my heart still, as it seeks a love that is deeper than the depths below this vessel that has departed me.

-En route Athens, August 24, 2017