Roula Pollard
The scent of the sea travels with me since birth
countless places I’ve discovered,
people I yearned to meet in time, I did meet
but when I touch you,
a voice like the existence of all beings
awakens from the earth,
like a house opening its destiny to the sun
nearing hope and love
between sound and silence
I am there.
But when silence cries into a lonely heart
when hunger and destruction afflicts the world,
when love is absent … I know the place
I discover what hurts
I understand the cause of pain
When luck, dressed with sadness, changes direction,
when a voiceless expectation leaves a person
lying on life’s beach exhausted, like a swollen whale…
I am there with you.
So, stay with me tonight, like an unfinished story,
touch me again like a galloping horse,
cover me with morning dew,
draw with your lips a rainbow on my heart.
Brighten my shadowy valleys with your sunlight.
My sleep awake with your rays.
Travel my body through your continent of love,
by the intense flame of your eyes.
Narrate the journey of passion to my soul!
Touch me, till darkness exhausts itself.
Chronicle the story of our existence,
the reason for our genesis, heart’s sensitivity explain
to narrate to our descendants
events escaping their awareness.
As the cosmic entrance of understanding opens,
As love gives birth to blueness
the Aegean sea gives back my human face.
Roula Pollard, a poet and writer of Greek origin, was born on the island of Santorini. She studied History and Archaeology at Athens University and obtained an M.A. in Classics at Leeds University. She lived in England for twenty five years and worked as a teacher of Modern Greek Language & Civilization at Wakefield District College ( Wakefield University ) and Joseph Priestley Institute of Higher Education in Leeds, and also as literary promoter. She participated in prestigious English and Greek Poetry festivals.
ACHIEVEMENTS & PUBLICATIONS:
· Three collections of poetry published in Greek: “Presence”, “Points of Silence”, “The Birth of Beautiful Time”. Her 4th poetry collection “Continents of Love” will be published in English in 2017, and also a Greek Poetry collection, in Athens.
· Published literary articles in Greek and English literary magazines on contemporary Greek, English and American poets and artists.
· Translated an anthology of the works of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes into Greek, and presented a series of broadcasts about Sylvia Plath’s Poetry on Athens National Radio ERT, 1987.
· As Literary promoter, she organized poetry readings in English universities, colleges, poetry festivals, writers and international associations for well known English poets in West Yorkshire, 1987 – 1997 (Carol-Anne Duffy, Hugo Williams, Sylvia Kantaris, Michael Horovits, Simon Armitage, Ian MacMillan, e.a ). She has promoted more than 100 poets, writers, musicians and painters.
· Organized painting workshops for children with special needs - Wakefield City Library, 1991.
· Co-operated with painters ( Kathy Lancaster, Angela Bower, John Harrison, David Wright, e.a. ) for the production of sets for Greek music festivals in Leeds, Wakefield, Manchester, 1991.
· Broadcasted about Greek music and Civilization - BBC Radio Leeds and Greek Radio, Manchester.
· Included into “INTERNATIONAL WHO IS WHO IN POETRY AND POETS” Encyclopedia, Cambridge Publications, England (1990-1996).
· Her poems are published in more than 15 Greek and International Poetry Anthologies, 1982 – 2016.
· Organized numerous Poetry readings and presented books in Athens.
· She raises awareness on the return of the Parthenon sculptures and also for the return to Greece of “the Classic Olympic Games“.
· Future Project: in co-operation with the Professor of Astrophysics Xenophon Moussas, Athens University, on “ The Mechanism of Antikythera “.
· She co-operates with Indian and Egyptian professors, French and Australian poets and artists for the establishment of an International Academy.
She is asked to participate in International Poetry Festivals and co-operates with Poetry Associations worldwide.
She is asked to participate in International Poetry Festivals and co-operates with Poetry Associations worldwide.
