November 2014
I live on the side of Black River in a colony of old tall trees, part of the Hacklebarney State Park, here in central NJ. I teach and coach at Cornell University and other organizations. REDRAWING BORDERS-2010 and BLUE HERON ON BLACK RIVER-2014 are my first two books published by Finishing Line Press. My third collection THE WINDOW THAT FACES SOUTH was a quarter finalist to the 2014 Mary Ballard poetry Chapbook Prize by Casey Shay Press.My poetry has also appeared in on-line venues such as Princeton Public Library Podcast (https://archive.org/details/BasilRouskasFourOriginalPoems)
How I Took That Picture
Inspired by a photograph of Athens circa 1920
by Fred Boissonnas
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In the Attic air, there in the narrow cobblestoned Plaka street, I spot them blurred between light and shade; two street vendors on their rickety wooden-wheeled carts. On the left, an acacia tree vaults a yard. A gas fixture hangs over weathered doors in a mottled white mud-brick wall. On the right, balconies crane their necks weighted with freshly watered basilico. And in the Parthenon that crowns the street, I see my parents the day they arrived here from their villages. Everything’s clear — |
©2014 Basil Rouskas