The Black Sea: poems

In this third collection of poems Papadopoulos addresses the historical subject of the Pontic Greek massacre in the 1920’s in a series of “sonnet-monologues” that link cinematically to create a very specific, semi-fictional account of a group of people living within this particular historic context. His own Greek family is of Pontic and Cretan origin, and he traveled the black sea extensively while writing these poems, but the abstracted landscapes and the slightly “grotesque” characters that inhabit these poems lead anyone, regardless of his/her knowledge of the region, into a new and intimate relationship with this volatile and tragic story.

"The Black Sea won’t be for everyone. The subject is unrelentingly dark, rarely leavened by humor, and the history involved is known to few Americans. But it is a superb book, ambitious without being verbose. His opening poem meditates on the role of the poet in history, and in this subject alone he has plenty of company among Greek writers like Cavafy and Ritsos. The texture of cultural allusion in some of these poems is quite rich, yet the book dispenses with footnotes and leaves us to find our own way. Most of the poems can be read as little dramas in which vital characters have everything at stake. " David Mason, The Hudson Review

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