Home is where the heart is - Cyprus

“Home is where the heart is,”

and my heart lies with you.

The four seasons’ tide

may ebb and flow

but my devotion to you

is eternal.

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Springtime arrives

as I lay on your lawns,

sincerely tranquil.

Spy a bud

and watch it bloom –

metamorphose into an emblem

of sheer grace and elegance.

Ophrys kotschyi... 

A true child of your soils.

Gaze into your heavenly azure

and fall into a world

of fabulous fiction.

Let loose your solemn breeze

- a whisper in the willows –

and temper my brow

as my mind wonders

into further chimerical creativity.

Give ear to the wind

and the harmonious music it bears.

The dainty call of the jovial lamb,

the content purr of the Aphrodite cat,

the melancholy melody of the pallid swift

and the lyrical chime of the jay.

A symphony – your graceful genesis

and you, the grand conductor.

I merely remain seated

and admire the allure

of your mystic magnum-opus.

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Summer emerges

and I make way to the sea

beyond your golden shores.

Lay back and let loose,

the time of fiesta has come.

I rest my head on your sand,

my heart on your soul

and bathe in your divine light.

Watch now, closely,

the fields of yesterday,

as grass turns to wheat

and wheat turns to hay.

Like lyrics to an aria

and night into day.

A rhyme of unknown origin,

forever with us now to stay.

Your poetry of nature, land and crop

That splendidly you portray.

Embrace the fading light of day –

golden, it slowly fades to black.

Spread-eagle, I lie on your shivering shoreline,

watching an artist at work.

The delicate strokes on your canvas,

the serene cerulean, inclining to indigo,

set aflame with the sinking sun...

A masterpiece I am proud to behold.

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Autumn commences

while I embrace the winds

of the rapidly oncoming spirit.

Travel the long and winding roads

that encircle your mountains so...

Skip stones,

traverse across the streams –

the mere capillaries

of your complex labyrinth of trails.

I stop only to stand in awe

at the hand of Home – your hand,

fully emerged from its grounded slumber.

Commence celebration.

The echo of the trumpets

captivates the crowd

as the Abbey bursts alight

into a utopia of lights and rhapsody.

The jazz has begun

and I take the stage –

sit down at the Grand,

feel the swing of the soul,

the beat of the bass

and find the chords to match.

This one goes to you, my sweet home!

For the Carob, the Citrus, the Grape and the Olive

that endlessly, you’ve supplied us with.

Take a fine glance

at the history of our ancestors.

Men and women who have lived by your side,

just as I do today.

Gaze through the foliage aflame

at the marooned ruins of the east;

- your own beached Atlantis –

at your purifying baths,

fittingly widowed in the west;

at your dual archaic castles,

opposing North and South

and your central citadel of ancient aegis

that unites us all as one.

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Winter appears,

so I plunge into preparation

for exploration of your peaks.

Encounter the first

of the year’s delicate dew;

a simple, subtle shower,

clenching daylight within its grasp.

The two united, a colourful coalescence –

amalgam and apparition

that joyously, I cherish.

Treasure the winter wonderland you’ve constructed

at the pinnacle of all I behold,

the spectacular summit of your dynasty

that I am honoured to be a part of.

Stroke the snow beneath my feet

and grasp its frigid exterior...

Ah, such a seldom show;

I’m truly grateful to have attended.

Relish in the sincere silence -

Omerta has been sworn by all around me.

You and I, alone, in absolute amity...

As I travel the distant roads of solace,

the ashen haze lurking in the air,

I am not alone.

You are always beside me;

in the moist air I breathe,

the crystal waters I drink,

the fauna and the flora,

the light and the dark,

in soul and in spirit,

you are always there.

Through Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...

...and Spring again.

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Oh, home sweet home!

Island of culture,

divided too hastily

by two descendants akin...

yet you never fell from grace.

“Teşekkürler” and “ευχαριστώ”

for all that you’ve helped us through.

“Home is where the heart is,”

and my heart lies with you.