Patras World Poetry Festival 2021

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4th “Patras World Poetry Festival 2021

13th - 19th of December

LIVE & ON LINE EVENTS

This year, the 4th “Patras World Poetry Festival” boasts a variety of original literary events taking place between the 13th and 19th of December 2021, hosting a total of 70 poets from 20 different countries.

The occasion of a calendar year combining on one hand the memory of the Greek people’s fight for freedom, and on the other hand the contemporary experience of confinement, led us to this year’s thematic center: “CONFINEMENT-FREEDOM-HUMAN REVOLUTIONS”. We bring novel aims and ideas, along with a greater and more essential need for expression, synergy and communication.

For 2021, the festival’s programme will be extended from 4 days to 7, hosting a multitude of events for audiences and participants both Greek and foreign, raising the bar and aiming to establish a tradition of cultural celebration.

This year too, for its most part, the Festival will be held online, a blended programme combining physical and online activities as adjusted to Covid-19 regulations, in a shifting terrain of cultural events during the pandemic.

The events of the week’s programme will take place in three (3) different places in Patras, each one of them a space for hosting cultural events. The events will be broadcasted ONLINE on the website www.culturebook.gr including both main and side events:

Main Events:

  • 15th-18th December 2021

Five (5) Online Poetry Meetings including Readings and Roundtables: There will be lecterns where the guest poets will be presented; their works will be read (in 2 languages). The guest poets will also participate in the roundtables and discuss topics revolving around poetry and criticism.

  • 18th December 2021

Online Award Ceremony for the Greek “Jean Moréas” Poetry Award for 2021: The annual ceremony for the “Jean Moréas” Awards for Greek poetic art and production in its entire spectrum.

  • 16th December 2021

Newcomer Poet Marathon: A night of presentations and readings of new poets, combining physical and online presence.

Parallel Events: (11th -19th of December 2021)

  • Festival Anthology: Limited trilingual book edition plus eBook.
  • Online shows:
  • #meet_the_poets: tributes and interviews online at the culturebook.gr channel.
  • #videopoetry: presentation of video-poetry online.
  • Poetry Set to Singing: music radio tributes to poetry set to singing.
  • Exhibitions:
  • Poetry exhibition: presenting the works of poetry
  • Book exhibition of Newcomer Poets: presenting poetry collection books from new poets; participation from established poets and publishing houses.
  • Art Exhibition: “CONFINEMENT-FREEDOM-HUMAN REVOLUTIONS”
  • Poetry Alley: Presentation of poets and poems (the ones participating in the festival) on a central pedestrian precinct of Patras.

During both the physical and the online events, there will be participation from internationally acclaimed academics, novelists, critics, and representatives of institutions.

The Patras World Poetry Festival 2021 is organized by the “Grafeion Poiiseos” Poetry Foundation, the literary website Culture Book (culturebook.gr), while it is annually held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism*. The festival’s events are supported by the Greek Library of London, the University of Western Macedonia, the Hellenic Open University and many other esteemed institutions, since the festival takes place under the aegis of the Hellenic Republic’s President.

The Patras World Poetry Festival is one of the largest literary institutions in Greece, certainly the largest of its whole region, and it has already drawn attention amongst esteemed festivals internationally. Every year, the city of Patras hosts important figures of world literature and offers a richness of events, including poetry readings, seminars and cultural activities. The festival’s vision is to promote Greek literary expression worldwide and turn this capital of Western Greece into a European center for literary studies. Through its actions, the festival communicates with various departments of Greek literary studies all over the world and it chronicles contemporary poetic expression.

A detailed programme will soon be posted on the festival’s website www.culturebook.gr.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the Scholarly Representatives

Kotopoulos H. Triantafyllos

Chair of the “Patras World Poetry Festival”

Skiathas D. Antonis

Chair of the “Grafeion Poiiseos” Poetry Fountation

---

EVENT MANAGER

Maria Alaniadi

Communication:

poetryfestival@culturebook.gr

grafeion.poihseos@culturebook.gr

Archival content available on www.culturebook.gr 

Andrés Álvarez Arboleda, Colombia

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 Andrés Álvarez Arboleda, Colombia

LIKE A WARY BIRD

WAR

The Poems

THAT SMELL OF DEAD TREES

That smell of dead trees
arrived with midnight:
it was you, the announcement of your lingering
on this bank of the river.

It was you and news of war
navigating through a murky graveyard,
yet without flowers.

Other bodies arrived at the shelter
and all remained nameless.

We would say,
man, aged thirty-four,
–four bullets in his abdomen–
greets the sun with his hands.

We would say,
a hand, just the hand
awaits its owner in that rock.

Rigor mortis:
Magdalena river.

That smell of dead trees
arrived with midnight:
It was you and the collapse of your childhood
asking us for flowers.

But there are no flowers here either.

That smell of dead trees
arrived with midnight:
it was you, the announcement of your lingering
on this bank of the river.

It was you and news of war
navigating through a murky graveyard,
yet without flowers.

Other bodies arrived at the shelter
and all remained nameless.

We would say,
man, aged thirty-four,
–four bullets in his abdomen–
greets the sun with his hands.

We would say,
a hand, just the hand
awaits its owner in that rock.

Rigor mortis:
Magdalena river.

That smell of dead trees
arrived with midnight:
It was you and the collapse of your childhood
asking us for flowers.

But there are no flowers here either.


*


ESE OLOR DE ÁRBOLES MUERTOS

Ese olor de árboles muertos
vino con la medianoche:
eras tú y el anuncio de tu estancia
en este lado del río.

Eras tú y la noticia de la guerra
navegando un camposanto turbio
y sin flores.

Otros cuerpos llegaron a la ramada
y todos se quedaron sin nombre.

Decíamos,
hombre de treinta y cuatro años
–cuatro balas en el abdomen–
saluda el sol con las manos.

Decíamos,
una mano, sola la mano
aguarda un dueño en esa piedra.

Rigor mortis:
río Magdalena.

Ese olor de árboles muertos
vino con la medianoche:
eras tú y la caída de tu infancia
pidiéndonos flores.

Pero aquí tampoco hay flores.


* * * 


WAR

Someone would speak of the empty house
or of the inclined eave
in the swift passing of the bombs,
but some had eyes full of dirt,
others had dry mouths
from cradling litters of dust,
and no one knows the foreign tongue.

Someone would tell the news
           of a country torn apart
to receive the gifts of hospitality,
if the host were not its executioner.

Someone would say something else
but the words would be the words
of a death mouth.


*


GUERRA

Alguien hablaría de la casa vacía
o del alero inclinado
al paso rasante de las bombas,
pero unos tienen los ojos llenos de tierra,
otros tienen la boca seca
por acunar camadas de polvo,
y nadie sabe la lengua extranjera.

Alguien contaría la noticia
                   del país deshecho
para recibir los dones de la hospitalidad,
si el anfitrión no fuera su verdugo.


Alguien diría algo más
pero sus palabras serían las palabras
de una boca muerta.


The Poet

Andrés Álvarez Arboleda (El Carmen de Viboral, Colombia, 1991). Poet, lawyer and university professor. Master of literature. Author and editor of Opinion a la Plaza (online magazine). His poems are collected in the work That smell of dead trees (Ese olor de árboles muertos), and have been published in poetry magazines from Colombia, Argentina, Spain, and Venezuela. 

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