O to live on the wild isle of Crete
In a house by the Aegean sea
Find sleep to the waves in their sighing
String verses to the beauty of thee.

From Chania to Sitia is a long road
Past the sun-dappled sea all the way
Past the snow-kissed Mount Psiloritis
Where the gods plot their intrigues and play.

To walk the long gorge of Samaria
Is to find a lost faith and a cure
Is to remember again all that’s holy
Glimpse an art within nature that’s pure.

At the fête of St. John you were dancing
With a smile on your face as sublime
As the joy in your steps like a prancing
Love struck me again through their rhyme.

O to dance on the wild isle of Crete
‘Cross the stones of a square by the sea
Find the love in your eyes full entrancing
String these lines to the beauty of thee.

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Alexander Lowell has published poetry and fiction in the U.S., England, Scotland and Cyprus. In 1978, he was a finalist for the Virginia Prize in Fiction. In the 1970s he reviewed dance, music and visual arts for newspapers in Chicago, San Francisco and Boston and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. Among other jobs, he has been an editor and freelance journalist specializing in food, wine and travel, publishing more than one hundred articles in the U.S. and Cyprus. He has five books available on Amazon: two novels of a mystery series featuring a Greek Cypriot amateur detective (Roll Away the Stone and Blind Faith); a collection of poetry (The Look of Love); a book of dramatic works (Three Screenplays & A One Act); and Stowell’s Guide to the Wines & Wineries of Cyprus.