Vasiliki Dragouni

The well-known saying of the ancient lyric poet Simonides of Ceos “Poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silens” which translates into, “Poetry is a speaking picture, painting a silent poetry”, runs through the centuries and still sums up in its own way an archetypal coupling. The relationship between the word and the image, a relationship of parallelism, intersection but also opposition, caused various discussions about the priority or dominance of each side and even various versions of their coexistence.

Furthermore, the figurative ontology of poetry attests to this interactive relationship between, oftentimes, indistinct elements. The notion that “poetry is thinking through images” – where indeed images help to interpret the word – was mainly expressed by the Symbolist school, but it also permeated the collective unconscious to a great extent, simplifying the poetic process. On the other hand, even in the formalist criticism that opposed this concept, the role of the image in poetry is not missing, it just becomes different, as modernist imagery rather opposes than reproduces the image of reality.

Given imagination and reality, the images, both pictorial and poetic, keep their internal dialogue open to this day. Their language may change over time, but the issue remains the same: our world and its meaning.
In the endless, adventurous wandering of man in the search of meaning, poetry and painting illuminate the two sides of the inner nature of things, existing in the realm of imagination. The revelatory moments that result from this enlightenment soothe the human soul and reconcile it with the imperfect objective reality. The implication is that beyond the limited aspect of the phenomena there is another world, intimate, harmonious, poetic.

The readers have the opportunity to wander in its inner landscapes and enjoy the high aesthetics of the subjects that spread on the paper, elevate themselves to a meaningful, multi-modal level and move in the direction of their dreams…

Vasiliki Dragouni

Vasiliki Dragouni, born in Athens, Greece, holds a BA in English Literature and a Master’s in International and European Studies. She works in aviation and has contributed to 146 collective works since 2012. Her poetry, translated into several languages, has appeared in international anthologies. Her collections include Flight to the Light, Moon in Scorpio, Landscapes of Being, Red Ink, Phenotype, A Horizon Line, and Prophecies Untold (bilingual Greek-English). Her prose works include Red is Worn Upon the Heart, Convex Mirrors, and Trophy Wife. She also manages a literary blog and serves as the Editor of Writers Edition.