Sons of Camus Writers International Journal 2015

My contribution to the 2015 edition of Sons of Camus Writers International Journal 2015 marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II is this image of the Monument at Lakki in the White Mountains, Crete.

It is printed on the inside of the back cover opposite a poem by Changming Yuan

STANDING, WE ARE UNITED

on the only rock found in this waste land
let's arise, arise high against the sky
by standing on the shoulders of each other
not only to re-find the same and one
language we used to speak in Babel
not only to see further than Wang Zhihuan
after he climbed to another storey, or
than Newton on the shoulders of giants
but to use our own bodies as a totem pole
in honour of the tens of millions of civilians
slaughtered in Nanjing, murdered in Auschwitz
and killed in numerous villages and towns
from eastern China to western Europe

hey, do you see the spectre drifting around
right above Yasukuni Shrine as Abe
and his followers pay tribute to the war criminals?

© Changming Yuan

In Russia during WWII, up to 35 million people were killed. Russian V-Day 9 May 1945.
In China during WWII, more than 20 million people were killed.
Chinese V-Day 3 September 1945.
In both cases, many were civilians, unarmed and unprepared.

You can read more poems by Changming Yuan on his blog yuanspoetry©.

The 200 page journal (ISSN 1705-429X) is edited by Ann J Davidson and published by Rubi Andredakis (email roubi@cytanet.com.cy) from Rubini Publications, Gropius Street No 30, Limassol 3076, Cyprus. Price Euro 9; UK £6; USA $10; Canada $15 (including shipping)

There is a wealth of reading, poems, essays, fiction, reviews in the new volume. Other contributors include Raymond Humphreys, Herbert Kuhner, Neil Leadbeater, John Light, Morelle Smith, Sam Smith, Maureen Weldon and a host more.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

ABC WednesdayP is for Palechora

Paleochora is located in the Prefecture of Hania, on the south-west coast of Crete, on a small peninsula lying in between two picturesque gulfs. The waves of the Libyan Sea lap at it, and it has quite rightly been called the Bride of the Libyan Sea and the Land of the sun. It constitutes the most southerly point of Greece and the most south-easterly point of the European Union. This is where Europe ends.


We visited Crete in 2006 and took the opportunity to see the Southern Mediterranean. The busy streets of Palechora with steep pavement sides weren't designed for wheelchair users but at least no one was travelling very fast.


A poster by the pier was advertising a poetry reading in Greek and English. The white van parked on the pier was our accessible taxi.

For more about our visit to Crete see Crete 2006.

For more information on Palechora see Palechora holidays.

For more P posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: K is for Kournas Lake

The only freshwater lake on the island of Crete, Kournas Lake is home to ducks and eels, water snakes and a rare species of bicoloured terrapin with a patterned shell, the Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemysterrapin).

The Northern end is where you'll find most of the tavernas and pedalos for hire. In the summer, as the water recedes, white sandy beaches form around its edges.

There are two springs on the southeast bank, one of which, the Mati or Amati ("eye"), is visible in late summer. The lake is fed by streams from the nearby mountains and hills, whose underground courses are interrupted by the local bedrock on the way to the sea.

For more information on the lake visit Explore Crete.

For more of my own photographs of the island visit Crete 2006.

For more K posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Friday Bench (16): Hania

A couple of weeks ago I linked to Meditteranian Kiwi's bench by the seafront at Koum Kapi.

It wasn't until she posted A view of the sea across the road from the disused Turkish fountains and mentioned, "The benches in a previous post are to the right of the fort", that I realised I had my own photo of the bench.

I recognised the Santa Lucia Bastion in her post.

My favourite benches discovered last week include Bab's hiding a fountain, Runes's with a charming lady and Dina's stone bench.

ABC Wednesday - C is for Cretan Cats

I contemplated for ages what to post for ABC Wednesday this week. I could have compiled any number of collections of cows or clocks. I could have considered visting Catalina or Chester, Christchurch or Cobh.


In the end, while browsing through files, I came across these three photographs of Cretan cats I'd created for the Cypriot magazine Creature Features. One of the photos appears in issue #16 along with three poems of mine on the subject of dogs.


For more C posts, visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday - X is for Xania

Xania aka Chania aka Hania is a city in the West of Crete. For an explanation of how it comes to bear three names see this post on the excellent blog A Lemon Tree Of Our Own.



I've already posted a series of sixty photos of Crete at Crete 2006
and a different series of thirty photographs on my photoblog Sithenah beginning with Landau in El Venizelou Square, Chania, which is the location of the first of these four charcoal renditions.



This one shows my wife, Christine and I comfortably seated behind Georgious.



A mixture of ancient and modern walls in Xania.



and finally the lighthouse at the entrance to the Venetian harbour.

ABC Wednesday - U is for Umbrellas

ABC Wednesday - U is for undressed upside-down under unusual umbrellas.

The original can viewed here

The Sons of Camus

Singapore heat;
government buildings tower
above clean streets

artwork & haiku © gerald england, 2007.

This haiku and charcoal is one of five such contributions by me to the latest issue (#5) of The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal.

A substantial 190 pages it has poetry, artwork, prose. I especially like the Chinese drawings of Suki Humphreys. As I only got my contributor's copy a few days ago I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet.

Other writers include Raymond Humphreys, Herbert Kuhner, John Light, Les Merton, Morelle Smith, Ouyang Yu, Marina P Zografou and several others.

The journal is edited by Ann J. Davidson and published by Rubi Andredakis in Cyprus. The price CY£5, €9, UK£6, US$10, CAN$15 includes shipping. Contact the publisher on roubi@cytanet.com.cy. Submissions for the next issue [only from writers over the age of 55] will be considered from January to March 2008 and should be sent to scwijournal@earthlink.net.

As well as the Singapore charcoals and haiku, I also have a haibun and three poems about Crete published in this issue. Here is one of them:

HAWKS

hawk
on a hot tin roof
stares over hotel roofs and pools
at yachts sailing the blue Mediterranean

silently
a second hawk flies in
from the mountains

the first lifts off
shows the white underside of wings
and the two are away
together

© Gerald England

You can see a photograph of one of those hawks on my photoblog Sithenah and one of the yachts from the same vantage point on Crete 2006.

More photos of Crete

We visited Crete in September/October 2006.

I posted information and a series of 60 photographs on my site at Crete 2006.

I've now started posting a different series of thirty photographs on my photoblog Sithenah beginning with Landau in El Venizelou Square, Chania.

on balance

on balance
dance is all about
timing

words & photo © gerald england, 2007

in response to the "balance" theme at One Deep Breath.

These dancers were entertaining us outside our hotel room in Crete.

holiday dream

holiday dream
asleep in the midday sun
anyplace

words and photo © gerald england, 2007

the photograph is from Crete 2006
the words were prompted by the sleep theme at One Deep Breath

Stillness

Cretean morning
in a house near the beach
mice may play

words and photograph © gerald england, 2007

I thought this haiga, based on one of my photos of Crete 2006, might be appropriate for the stillness theme at One Deep Breath.

Eria Resort

It hardly seems like to just a week since we came back from Crete.

We stayed at Eria Resort



Our room was on the ground floor so we had a view of part of the pool area.

The first floor rooms had this view towards the village.



My report on the hotel has just been published on Trip Advisor

I hope I haven't been too harsh with my criticism there.

(29th Oct: I've just had a strongly worded email from the hotel manager objecting to my report)

We had lovely weather, around 28 celsius in the day and 20 at night.

On our last morning we had a tremendous downpour but it cleared up soon after.

We've just heard now that there has been torrential rain and flooding in Crete with roads washed away and damage to crops &c.

Curious Cat

Pamela has been posting photos of cats on her Secret Tenerife site, so I thought I'd show you a cat.

This one was spotted in the village of Lakki up in the White Mountains of Crete.

Pamela looked after Hyde DP whilst I was away and was the winner of a caption competition involving cats that I did back in July.