New Poetry from Christopher Deliso, August-October 2023

Since August, several new publications have brought out a retrospective of some of the author’s poetry, going back to the year 2000, and interacting with themes of Byzantine history and the Mediterranean.

These poems, long left in the to-do box, were finally dusted off and published on 14 August here, on the Mediterranean Poetry website, based in Sweden, with contributors from around the world.

These historical poems include ‘Manuel Consults with the Astrologers,’ (about Emperor Manuel Komnenos, and his failed campaign to retake Italy); “Manuel II at Twilight” (taking place late in the life of 15th-century Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos); and “Sphrantzes in the Tower” (about a historical episode in which the diplomat George Sphrantzes was kidnapped in the Peloponnese and extricated himself from his tower prison).

Also, on 8 October 2023, I was honored to have my poem, “No Second Photius,” selected for Last Stanza Poetry Journal’s issue 14, available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle. The issue brings together poems from 100 different poets. While my new poem (written in September 2023) also bears some Byzantine allusions it has other aspects of meaning that give it wider application to a general poetic reading than a simply historical one.