ODES
for the lugger “Athina”

by Kostas Gouzelis

Article: Stavroula Papaspirou

A Parian by choice, with a life strongly attached to the sea, the architect Kostas Gouzelis tells us that the dream, freedom, love, the realization of his existence in the universe, “pure like limpid fountain water” came in his adolescent years and rested on a wooden sailing boat, indelibly putting their mark on his route.

Thanks to this boat on which he lustfully ventured his first love-makings, he discovered the beauty and harmony that a human artifact can have. Such are also the qualities of his collection of poems: Odes to the lugger “Athina”, a laudatory description of the construction of a traditional Greek sailing boat, of a “moving ark” created with humble but ingeniously matching materials as was also the case with thousands of caiques which-alas- were lightly led to destruction.

Enriched with his own sketches and with a dvd of original music by Achilleas Persidis, his book was published by the editions “Pontoporos” which he himself set up at Naoussa, enclosing in its pages thoughts, strong sentiments, many travels and a very instructive advice: “Beauty needs practice/ Otherwise it is perpetually washed away by the water/ Like a water colour on a wall/ And it goes away, gets muddled and you curse because you remember so badly/ beauty needs practice”.