This was my view for the two weeks I spent on the island of Thasos, having gratefully received funding from the Arts Council of Ireland in order to attend Writing Workshops in Greece and study poetry with the amazing Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

This picture looks out over the peninsula of Aliki, where the remains of a temple dedicated to Castor and Pollux—brothers of Helen of Troy—can be found, as well as an ancient marble quarry.

When we arrived, our course director Christopher Bakken warned us that ‘this place has a way of breaking you open’ and was proved, in my case at least, eerily correct. Hopefully the poetry that will eventually come out of my time on Thasos will speak for itself.

For now, here is a poem of Aimee’s from The Atticus Review.

At the Drive-In Volcano by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

St Lucia

I am a very different wife.
Sulfur & ash fill my nose

until both nostrils are beige,
my hands hot & webbed

with steam. My new husband
urges me closer to the center

of the steaming caldera
for a picture until I am up

against the rail. Our guide
tells us of a rasta man

who once fell in
& survived. His entire body

turned smooth as a candle.
Come with me, Husband.

Put down your backpack,
your camera—let us

be remarried in fire.
One by one the stars go out.

Even in this darkness,
there is so much light.