"The Oxen," by Thomas Hardy: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53215/...

We actually got some Calenda singers this morning! (In Greece, on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Epiphany Eve, kids go around with triangles singing a special carol, and are given money. Seems like a positive sign, somehow!

2025 was a turning point when solar and wind power began to elbow fossil fuels out of the electricity market after 23 years of record growth, and electricity is fast elbowing fossil fuels out of transport, heating and cooling. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

Elefsina Caryatid and I, for scale. (Her kidnapped sister is at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, little noticed.) Photo credit: John Psaropoulos

Doing this soon!:

This year is the 400th anniversary of the death of Sofonisba, but ‘it seems that not a single exhibition is being held to mark the occasion. So, if you want to see Sofonisba’s paintings, you will have to do a good deal of travelling and pick them off one by one.’ Nick Trend provides an itinerary

Lichens are some of the most amazing organisms on Earth: symbioses of fungi and algae. One provides structure, the other food via photosynthesis. They're also *incredibly* resilient, thriving in deserts, tundras, even space, withstanding intense cold, heat, drought, and radiation.

OK, today teaching at Melissa, meeting friend for lunch, holiday shopping. Minimal doom scrolling. Coffee!

I am terribly pleased to announce that my book of sonnets, Glosses and Ligatures, will be published by Sagging Meniscus Press in the autumn of 2027. @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social

This Edwin Morgan poem ("The Computer's First Christmas Card") is from 1968, but seems wittily to anticipate AI, and slop:https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/computers-first-christmas-card/

My third collection, Landscape with Question, will be published in June 2026 with @carcanet.bsky.social. It started out as a biography in verse of Nano Reid, then became something else entirely. 🌔🌊🏙️🌱 www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017561...

This man was shot twice during this incredible, selfless act of courage. We can stand up for each other. We can care for each other. We can be neighbors. www.news.com.au/national/nsw...

Alex Karp is a card-carrying fascist. Holy cow:

This is bonkers and disturbing:

International entries welcome. School and undergraduate students are eligible.

Well this is awful:

Tulips and Snail with Dog and Hare Border, folio 7 (verso), from Florilegium (A Book of Flower Studies), 1608. France. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Students! Have you written a poem about math or a mathematical concept? There is a contest, and it is free to enter. Deadline January 20th: www.ams.org/learning-car...

I did this radio interview a couple of years ago, but for some reason, it has only just been released! I daren't listen to it myself at this point, but post in case of interest to others: www.ualrpublicradio.org/show/arts-le...

Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program

New discovery: A late Archaic marble head of a Kore discovered at Vulci represents a rare instance of Greek statuary found within Etruscan territory. uni-freiburg.de/freiburger-u...

Janet Lembke (whose translation of Virgil is, I feel, overlooked)

OK, today I am going to zap something to an editor if I can get my chaos ducks in a row. Some translation, some pleasure reading. Coffee!

One theme here is the speed of American institutional collapse. “It took Erdoğan 15 years to do what Trump did in 100 days. If [Americans] do not accept the fact that this is a long game, and it will be brutal, I think you won’t have the patience and stamina to bear it.”

D'oh! This should say Thursday 11th December. Join us!

My 16th Century mouse prototype finally arrived at the Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg museum in Germany today to start its two year exhibition. It will be shown alongside a one of a kind suit of armour from the period that was built for a dwarf. #jeffdeboer #mousearmour

I would like a replica set of these, please:

Reminder! Online Launch: Thurs 12 Dec Join us to celebrate the latest issue of MPT, The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus With Phoebe Giannisi, Brian Sneeden, Dimitra Kotoula, Maria Nazos, chaired by issue editor Jessica Sequeira. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launching-...

TODAY! A free online #webinar from @englishassociation.bsky.social at 4.45pm. Calling all #English #teachers! Come and join us to talk about close reading and what we can do with a #poem... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/adventures...

John Lucas obituary: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Christmas boat is up:

OK, today turning in a big project (I think, if I can get my chaos ducks in a row), and translation. Will try not to get too tangled up in the scrolls of doom. Coffee!

The scene in the Georgics where the bull, who has lost the fight for the beloved cow, goes off in the wilderness to train for his revenge fight is hilarious--should be set to Rocky music.

A bit down in the dumps (December blues? Scrolls of doom), but will try to work on translation and an introduction today. Coffee!

In the summer of 2000, the Hoffmans abandoned England’s bustling urban economy for village life in Agios Germanos, at the extremity of civilisation on the Great Prespa Lake, a Balkan borderland shared among Greece, Albania and North Macedonia. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

With current trends, Greece faces an annual climate change bill in the billions by the end of the decade. That is one reason why it is decarbonising faster than most EU members. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

A bit under the weather with a cold (and maybe just travel exhaustion), so low-key day--coffee with a friend, admin, laundry, pleasure reading.

Oh my goodness! Read this. Literature for the win:

Well, back in Athens from two weeks of very busy teaching/lecturing/participating in Oxford, and unpacking, and of course have now come down with a cold! Tea.

Καλό Μήνα!

During WWII a German vessel fired upon sailors floating in the sea after the Greek vessel Peleus was sunk. The officers were tried and convicted in the Peleus War Crimes trial.

Ellen Bryant Voigt, Poet With a Musical Ear, Dies at 82 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/b...

Goodbye, Oxford. See you in January!

Village life near lake Prespa:

What??

Last push! Timing out the sections of the lecture. All the coffee!

Doing this very soon! Arrghh!

OK, so (evidently) this lecture is not going to write or organize itself. Coffee!