Yannis Ritsos Poems

Ritsos was a poet who lived in
chaotic but exciting times, and like
Odysseus, was fated by the gods to
take the scenic way home. I am awed
by the integrating expanse of his gaze
and by the process of his mind that was
able to distinguish between reality and
its representation... and also by the sense
memory in things he projected – things lost
– but still things yet to be gained. He was a
poet who survived the enchantment of rival impulses,
as well as a poet who celebrated the sacred
return of the imagination out of the deep ocean
that contained him.
– Ilya Tourtidis, M. Ed.,
University of Victoria


Ritsos is always Ritsos. He suffered much personal and
public violence, in the autocratic Greece of the 20th century,
but his poems resist judgment. They flower with the force of
humility and pathos. We readers are his brothers and children
and comrades, under the hot sun which is and is not a god,
beside the “endless sea.” Love trumps Death. Every object is awake.
“Every hour is our hour.”
– John Wall Barger, Lecturer at
St. Mary’s University, Halifax


Each poem is a snapshot of a place in time, of a moment in a life,
of a story being told. The reader is invited to browse through
a truly amazing anthology of observations, both personal and
public. This collection reflects a depth and vastness that must be
savoured and digested, revisited and reviewed.
– Cathi Shaw, Ph.D., Communications
Instructor, Okanagan College

YANNIS RITSOS
POEMS
SELECTED BOOKS
Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science
at Panteion Supreme School of Athens.
He served in the armed forces for two
attended Simon Fraser University for
non-degree program. He has written
collections of poetry, which are slowly
appearing as published works, various
driver, and stock broker, he now lives
time writing, gardening, and traveling.
Surrey, British Columbia with the goal
POEMS SELECTED BOOKS