Read more
Eleni Alexiou was born in Trikala (1980). She studied Philology at the University of Patras, classical guitar and Master of Arts in Education at the University of Bath, England. She has worked as a philologist in Adult Education Centres, Second Chance Schools, the Lifelong Centre of the University of Bath, the Permanent Officers’ School and in secondary schools. As a musician she taught classical guitar in Music Schools and music prep in a private pre-school setting. In 2021 she was appointed as a classical guitar teacher in secondary education. She was a radio producer in the educational-entertainment show for children “The Children’s Hour”. She has collaborated with the Municipal Library of Trikala as a volunteer-mentor of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s philanthropic activities. In the field of poetry, she has a distinguished and remarkable career, as this year her third poetry collection was published after The Flash (2009) and Poems We Wrote Together (2015), entitled Seven Breaths Before (Shakespearean, 2022).
The magazine asked her for a text that connects her present with the city of Patras of her student years.
“TALKING” WITH PATRAS
They say that we “carry” places and people within us. They say we return to the places we love, and to hugs. They say that in our dreams we relive what we long for. They say that an imaginary line connects the past, the present, the future; that an invisible thread unites the fate of men. I say it is so, that we are concentric circles. We live within each other, encapsulated narratives in the great novel of Time.
Such a circle opened when I was eighteen, when I first came to Patras as a student. September 1998 introduced me to the capital of Achaia and since then the city has been in conversation with me in various ways.
My enrolment at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, in the Department of Philology, was the starting point of a journey for which I had consciously prepared myself in my school years out of love for Language and Literature. From the very first classes of primary school, these two fields of knowledge fitted unhindered into my temperament. They were transformed early on from “favorite subjects” into places of personal exploration and fulfillment.
The seed planted on school desks germinated on the benches of the Rio Campus. A core of compulsory courses interspersed with elective courses deepened and shaped my study of the subject-phenomenon Logos. My interest was equally divided among the areas offered for study: Linguistics, Classical Philology, Modern Greek Studies. Later, in my poetry collection Seven Breaths Before (2022) I would write:
alce> salt> sea
language ancient water
to parallel the longevity of water with the continuum of language.
Patras has been generous. Knowledge, friendships, excursions, carnival, sea, summer created the bed for the river of inspiration and creation to flow. The experiences of student life soaked my writings. This created a body of texts, one that as a student I would still trust in the experience and insight of my teacher, Katerina Kostiou. The professor of Modern Greek Literature and critic was encouraging. Her advice to read poetry, to read a lot, was also enlightening. I don’t know if I followed her admonition. After three books of poetry and contributions to print and online anthologies, I still feel like I’m writing… unread.
Of those poems that were either written in Patras, or refer to it as a place of action, I single out: “The Carnival of Joy”, “Vegerra”, “Landscape b”, which are included in my first poetry collection, flash (2009).
The four years of study in Literature were interspersed with activities related to my literary interests. I had the opportunity to participate in two literary competitions announced by the University of Patras Publications, led by the poet Socrates Skartsis. In fact, in the second competition in 2000 I won the third prize for short stories. However, my joy was greater when the texts of the participating students were published in anthologies and presented to the book-loving public of Patras (The leaves and the fruits, Our life naked as an object, 2000). In these anthologies, “Parinesis”, a poem written at the age of 18, was published.
My degree in Literature and the letters of recommendation from the professors of the University of Patras were the key to my postgraduate studies abroad. I had already attended the international conference “Intercultural Education-Greek as a Foreign Language” organized by the University of Patras. The reflection on issues of Interculturality, which was triggered at that time, combined with my personal concerns and interests in the field of education, contributed to my choice of the promotion of Intercultural Consciousness as a field of study and research. After completing my postgraduate studies, I would participate in the same conference as a presenter.
The years have passed like rocks, as the poem foreshadowed, “weightless” yet beautiful. They brought with them the creation of a family, a professional career, my poems that became books and others that patiently are waiting in the archive. In 2021, after 20 years of absence from the city, Patras invited me back. My participation in the 4th edition International Poetry Festival of Patras, organized by the hospitable culturebook.gr and the Poetry Office, gave me the opportunity to reconnect with the beloved city of my student years. And a few months later, on the occasion of the publication of the third poetry collection, I had the honour and pleasure to talk with the dear Melios Katsifara on UP FM-University of Patras Radio.
“With a blue sky and a sparkling sky I have drunk a dewy silver sea… And I sing of my sweet years that I chased them laughing in Psilalonia”, wrote Leonidas Polydeykis in 1938 about Patras. And I wonder: does youth ever end? Or are we in a constant process of transformation, always younger than our older selves? Are we, like the poet, also chasing the sweet years of youth where everyone has lived them? Does what we have lived converse with us and define us, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously? Whatever the answers, in the case of Patras, the dialogue between us is not complete. I have the feeling that it is still going on, and perhaps the most important have not yet been said.
From the January/February 2023 issue of @up magazine
Eleni Alexiou was born in Trikala (1980). She studied Philology at the University of Patras, classical guitar and Master of Arts in Education at the University of Bath, England. She has worked as a philologist in Adult Education Centres, Second Chance Schools, the Lifelong Centre of the University of Bath, the Permanent Officers’ School and in secondary schools. As a musician she taught classical guitar in Music Schools and music prep in a private pre-school setting. In 2021 she was appointed as a classical guitar teacher in secondary education. She was a radio producer in the educational-entertainment show for children “The Children’s Hour”. She has collaborated with the Municipal Library of Trikala as a volunteer-mentor of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s philanthropic activities. In the field of poetry, she has a distinguished and remarkable career, as this year her third poetry collection was published after The Flash (2009) and Poems We Wrote Together (2015), entitled Seven Breaths Before (Shakespearean, 2022).
The magazine asked her for a text that connects her present with the city of Patras of her student years.
“TALKING” WITH PATRAS
They say that we “carry” places and people within us. They say we return to the places we love, and to hugs. They say that in our dreams we relive what we long for. They say that an imaginary line connects the past, the present, the future; that an invisible thread unites the fate of men. I say it is so, that we are concentric circles. We live within each other, encapsulated narratives in the great novel of Time.
Such a circle opened when I was eighteen, when I first came to Patras as a student. September 1998 introduced me to the capital of Achaia and since then the city has been in conversation with me in various ways.
My enrolment at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, in the Department of Philology, was the starting point of a journey for which I had consciously prepared myself in my school years out of love for Language and Literature. From the very first classes of primary school, these two fields of knowledge fitted unhindered into my temperament. They were transformed early on from “favorite subjects” into places of personal exploration and fulfillment.
The seed planted on school desks germinated on the benches of the Rio Campus. A core of compulsory courses interspersed with elective courses deepened and shaped my study of the subject-phenomenon Logos. My interest was equally divided among the areas offered for study: Linguistics, Classical Philology, Modern Greek Studies. Later, in my poetry collection Seven Breaths Before (2022) I would write:
alce> salt> sea
language ancient water
to parallel the longevity of water with the continuum of language.
Patras has been generous. Knowledge, friendships, excursions, carnival, sea, summer created the bed for the river of inspiration and creation to flow. The experiences of student life soaked my writings. This created a body of texts, one that as a student I would still trust in the experience and insight of my teacher, Katerina Kostiou. The professor of Modern Greek Literature and critic was encouraging. Her advice to read poetry, to read a lot, was also enlightening. I don’t know if I followed her admonition. After three books of poetry and contributions to print and online anthologies, I still feel like I’m writing… unread.
Of those poems that were either written in Patras, or refer to it as a place of action, I single out: “The Carnival of Joy”, “Vegerra”, “Landscape b”, which are included in my first poetry collection, flash (2009).
The four years of study in Literature were interspersed with activities related to my literary interests. I had the opportunity to participate in two literary competitions announced by the University of Patras Publications, led by the poet Socrates Skartsis. In fact, in the second competition in 2000 I won the third prize for short stories. However, my joy was greater when the texts of the participating students were published in anthologies and presented to the book-loving public of Patras (The leaves and the fruits, Our life naked as an object, 2000). In these anthologies, “Parinesis”, a poem written at the age of 18, was published.
My degree in Literature and the letters of recommendation from the professors of the University of Patras were the key to my postgraduate studies abroad. I had already attended the international conference “Intercultural Education-Greek as a Foreign Language” organized by the University of Patras. The reflection on issues of Interculturality, which was triggered at that time, combined with my personal concerns and interests in the field of education, contributed to my choice of the promotion of Intercultural Consciousness as a field of study and research. After completing my postgraduate studies, I would participate in the same conference as a presenter.
The years have passed like rocks, as the poem foreshadowed, “weightless” yet beautiful. They brought with them the creation of a family, a professional career, my poems that became books and others that patiently are waiting in the archive. In 2021, after 20 years of absence from the city, Patras invited me back. My participation in the 4th edition International Poetry Festival of Patras, organized by the hospitable culturebook.gr and the Poetry Office, gave me the opportunity to reconnect with the beloved city of my student years. And a few months later, on the occasion of the publication of the third poetry collection, I had the honour and pleasure to talk with the dear Melios Katsifara on UP FM-University of Patras Radio.
“With a blue sky and a sparkling sky I have drunk a dewy silver sea… And I sing of my sweet years that I chased them laughing in Psilalonia”, wrote Leonidas Polydeykis in 1938 about Patras. And I wonder: does youth ever end? Or are we in a constant process of transformation, always younger than our older selves? Are we, like the poet, also chasing the sweet years of youth where everyone has lived them? Does what we have lived converse with us and define us, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously? Whatever the answers, in the case of Patras, the dialogue between us is not complete. I have the feeling that it is still going on, and perhaps the most important have not yet been said.
From the January/February 2023 issue of @up magazine