Prologue

        We live in a time where realistic values and ideas are prominent. There is no room for emotions or for the passions, except in the bedroom. But the heart is what makes us human. It is this organ, which gives us our individualistic beauty and makes us all creative in our own ways. We are still animals in the scientific realm, but it is our compassion and our spirit that makes us human. Our heart, not the organ that beats inside of us, but that secret place, which holds the dreams, fears and our secrets. Our hearts are a mystery and they have been pushed aside. Our minds are the leaders now and our hearts seldom speak to us nor do we listen.

It is a shame that we have abandoned our greatest aspect of ourselves. Love, Compassion and creativity have taken a backseat to Greed, Hatred and the community identity. It has been our history to destroy that which is different and does not meet the status quo. Belief in something is in the heart not in the mind. Our creativity is also from the heart or from inside of us. I have changed in many ways, I use to follow the outline of what a person should do with their life, but I was still lost. My poetry also suffered. I could not write, no matter what I tied, and I found that nothing came out, it was because I stop listening to my heart and my dreams. But all that changed and I found myself thinking that we have only one life to live and to live it for others, even if they are loved ones, is wrong. We stop seeing the beauty in life and we start to turn cold to our emotions. This is a crime, because it is our emotions that make us individuals. So I stopped and took the ultimate jump. I followed my heart. I had very few supporters and even now they still think that when the time is tough it is time to return to the "normal life".   But I have found many things that I have been looking for, in myself, in my surroundings, in life. But it comes with a price and it is difficult. Yes there are days in which I sometimes think about giving in, but I don't. What friends I had are gone, and I find myself alone, but it is better in a way. I think of who I am and what makes me happy. Yes, of course I miss my friends, but if they are not supportive of me doing what makes me happy, well they were not really that good of friends, but I miss then none the less.

Poetry is an expression of someone's inner self. Some people draw, some sing, and some write. The Greek God, Apollo was the God of the ancient muses. These Muses were the expression of the arts. Our English word "Museum" comes from this. Poetry like a beautiful picture can touch hearts. Even the greatest poets wrote of love and unrequited love, Ovid, Shakespeare, Hemmingway and many others. Poems unlike books or novels give us glimpse into a world where the heart is the speaker. Even the coldest heart can feel something. Love is the most powerful and strongest emotion. It is harder to love than to hate. That is why love, although it is difficult to obtain and keep, can wipe away hate, it takes a great amount of love to wipe it away.

Why am I writing this? These poems deal with love and the difficult struggle for it. Some one who chooses to love rather than to hate, can be seen by the outside world as foolish or stupid, but it is noble to love something even if it is absent from ones life. The courage is in the heart to keep on loving even though the rest of the world thinks that hate or forgetting is better. A dreamer and a fighter can use love and win. Ovid once said,

                                          "So chuck it, anyone who thinks love's lazy
                                          Love's for a dashing soul who dares the most"
                                                         (Amores, 9.17-18)

Many of these poems speak of not just the love, but of the journey for love, the journey to find one-self and ones heart. There will always be pain accompanying the journey for love. It is this that often stops us from accepting love and from allowing ourselves to love. The pain is greater and more threatening than any other pain you can experience for there is no pill to take it away. But to die without love is a greater fear for me.

With each poem you read there is a story. And there is heartbreak at the end. As of the writing of this book, the ending has become happy.

I must explain about the person, who has inspired these poems. He is a man, who could calm me and fill me with peace just by his presence. I had loved him for so long. He was the person I saw when I woke up and the person I thought about before I slept. I loved him more and haa been hurt by him more than any other.   But it mistakes and my fear that destroyed the possiblity of us. I had tried to make amends but without success. But I still love him .

You may wonder why many of these poems are also in Greek, since these poems have all been written while I live in Greece, it is only right that they be translated and incorporated in this book. My heart is Greek, if not my nationality.

Will this book change the world or make it a better place? No. This book was written strictly for the heart. A way to allow my heart to speak the words that needed to spoken, even though the listener was absent. It is a gift of love. But I am also hoping that people may read the words and allow their hearts to speak out also. Maybe, if enough hearts speak out and people are honest with themselves and with others that they care about, the world may become a little bit happier. Which is better, to hear the truth even though it may hurt, or to always live in wonder and mystery. The truth is always better in the end. To hide from the truth by running away or avoiding it, is only the beginning of a greater pain. To love someone is to look at them and speak the truth. Even if it is to say, "I love you and I know that you do not love me. Good bye" The pain will be less in th end, than if the heart does not have a chance to speak. The greatest tormentor is, "What if…" and "If I had done/said that…" Why make someone you care about live through this. Allow them to speak, if your heart is truly sure about what it wants, nothing they say will change it, and at least they do not have to go through their lives with the tormentors. It is a great gift of love to be kind and gentle to someone. Love is no just giving, it is also accepting. You show your love when you accept something that is from someone's heart. But truth and honesty are also a gift of love. These things are all about the heart and it is from the heart that we hear love, so allow someone you care about to speak what is in their heart, it is a great gift that they give you. For it is very difficult to open your heart up and to let it speak when we do not really know what the outcome will be.