Mid November marks the uprising by students of the Athens Polytechnic against the military junta in 1973. The uprising started on 14 November and was brutally suppressed by the regime three days later.
Here’s a tribute to the student rebels by the poet Niikiforos Vrettakos:
Small burial mound
(17 November 1973)
Without rifle or sword, the sun shining on your foreheads,
you were both heroes and poets. You are the Poem.
Stretching out, my hand can’t reach the spot
where the wind of virtue carries in procession
your bodies, beautiful flowers, o my children!
In the face of this Poem, silence is the only worthy response.
wordscene 