The Black Sea explores the historic "Great Catastrophe" of the Pontic Greeks of Asia Minor through a series of "sonnet-monologues" or voices from the past. Priests, prostitutes, soldiers, and a bizarre cast of characters move through this poetic rehnagining of a tragic chapter in Greece's history. Based on the author's own family history, as well a fictitious retelling of scenes from the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the poems in this book jump from the tragic to the humorously absurd, and focus on the very human folly of war, suffering and exile. Intrigued by the idea of an "inherited memory of war" and a series of old family photographs, the author set off on trip of the southern Black Sea, exploring the old Greek villages and monasteries of the Pontic Greeks and travelling across the same landscapes still inhabited by the ghosts of Strabo, Xenophon and Alexander the Great.

Contends

The Poet
Melanthe Speaks to God
Voices
An Oval Photograph / An Oval Photograph
Rain Over Trabzon
Aristotelis' Jeremiad
The Circassian Whore
The Dead Speak to the Passing Traveler
Alekos
The Pasha's Lament
The Black Sea History
The March from Harpoot to Malatia
Amisos
Savas on the White Horse
The Poet in the Harbor
Aristotelis Sings his Testament
Melanthe Speaks of Marriage
The Brothers Long March
Old Aristotelis Speaks from the Cafe
The Burned Fields at Samsun
Melanthe Speaks of her Long March
Alekos Remembers Smyrna
Stavros, Couturier
The Ghosts of the Open Fields
Postcards from Russia
The Pasha Can't Sleep
The Circassian Whore Recounts her Dream
Walking to Sebasteia
Captain Markos
Roads
The Pasha Summons the Circassian
The Lost Armies
Thalassa
Brothers
Alekos and the Pilgrimage to Sumela
The Monk Visits the Abandoned Monastery
The Widow's Song
The Admiral Visits the Circassian
The Refugees
The Caterpillars
The Farm Ghost
The Admiral Recalls
Captain Markos Stays Behind
Stavros, Pater Familius
Melanthe Peeling Onions
Aristotelis on Love
Stavros in Paris
Aris
The Pasha's Last Days
The Garden
Epilogue