The new poetic contribution by Dimitra Palapani creates a unified poetic world where personal experience constantly meets collective memory. Through images of nature, family, love, and loss, the poet confronts the decay of time, searching for the traces left behind by humans.

In the second section, the writing turns towards the social and political horizon, engaging with war, refugeehood, poverty, and historical memory. The poetic subject does not settle for mere observation but actively participates in a world under trial, offering poetry of responsibility and vigilance.

Despite the pervasive sense of decline and loss, the collection leaves open cracks of light. Hope, memory, and human resilience act as a counterbalance to darkness, transforming poetry into an act of resistance and deep faith in humanity.

ISOLATION

An unexpected crack at the door. You see two feet. Only two feet in black shoes with a small heel. You guess the age, the body, even the eyes. You don’t know where they are going, nor where they come from. You don’t even want to know.

The stories you will create later, late at night with your eyes closed. For now, it suffices to hear the sound of the heels on the street. To see the sway of the calf, the dimple on the left knee. To feel that you breathe a little of others’ lives. To make the breath of the quiet step your own breath, a sacrament of life in the cell of isolation.