Epitaphios by Yiannis Ritsos Autumn Bulletin ‘Helen Farish knows intimately who

‘Helen Farish knows intimately who she is and her beautiful poems capture the intense sadness of memories recalled as the years pass

A plentitude of tones and forms and linguistic playfulness

28 September 2017

having drunk too many espressos

and possessing the confidence to address experiment in her work

Epitaphios by Yiannis Ritsos Autumn Bulletin ‘Helen Farish knows intimately whoOn 10 May 1936 the 27 year old Greek poet Yiannis Ritsos saw a newspaper photograph of a woman weeping over the body of her son, a Salonica tobacco factory worker killed by police during a strike. Two days later the Communist Party newspaper Rizospastis published a long poem by Ritsos. Dedicated to the heroic workers of Salonika and drawing on the fourteenth century Greek Orthodox Epitaphios Thrinos, the poem combines Mary's lament at Christs tomb