Author Archives: Stefanos Christoforos

“One of the unconfessed pleasures of lying on a tree-shaded beach in the afternoon is falling asleep in the company of adults. It is one of the few times when we allow ourselves to be so vulnerable in the presence of strangers, and for that reason it is perhaps so enjoyable and liberating. It is […]

“In the poem Auden talks about what makes for a good dinner party. The list includes the ‘authentic comity’ of a smallish gathering (‘six lenient semble sieges/none of them perilous,/is now a Perfect/Social Number’), the kids off to bed, and a mix of well-mannered guests who are not bores. Men and women who relish good […]

“We were impostors. Smoking or religiously tending ivy or re-writing until the early morning had nothing of the inevitable single-mindedness and the impoverishment of everyday life that ensues when the self becomes wholly identified with the object of one’s hunger.” Stefanos Christoforos Breach of Close By Stefanos Christoforos ATHENS Greece—(Weekly Hubris)—5/13/2013—Ileana arrived at Martha’s tea with […]

“We are not always ready for the things we buy. Some are better suited to a lifestyle, income or body that is beyond our means to acquire. Others require more skill to use or capacity to enjoy than we can muster. It’s almost as if they were bought by or for someone else. And in […]

“I was asked by a friend to read at an evening of poetry he’s organizing. I said yes. He’s paired me with a young Greek poet who will be reading in translation the poems that I will recite in the original. One of the poems we will read is Emily Dickinson’s ‘Ample make this bed.’” […]

“Among the objects Matthew would retrieve from the hidden excess of our possessions were small-scaled replicas of museum objects: a Cycladic figure, a collared jar, a small statue of Apollo with his lyre, a small silver icon, oh, and yes, the stone bird. Like the rest of the things Matthew strewed around the house they […]

  “Coming out is hard, and we each do it in our own way. I respect Rogers’ courage and admire the public manner in which he shared this with his fans and the rest of the world. There are countless gay teenage athletes, girls and boys alike, in whose lives this statement will make a […]

“That day–the day of the lesson–my teacher asked me to stay after school. For a chat, she said. I sat through the rest of the afternoon anxiously wondering what I could have done wrong to warrant detention. But it turned out she wanted to talk about recess.She told me she’d noticed me playing jump rope […]

“A rejected suitor doesn’t need to know he’s not at fault; he’s already convinced he is lacking; his question ‘why,’ this jagged ore of hurt and want, is rhetorical. He poses it not for the answer but simply for the opportunity to hear the other’s voice again, in the hope of discerning the uncertain wavering […]

“I could almost see David sitting bravely at the table, eating up the bad meals his mother made, not making the slightest grimace or protest. It wasn’t hard to imagine him as a child—I just pictured a smaller version of the gentle sprite of a man that he now is. Like a beagle that never […]