Neil Carpathios, Malone’s writer-in-residence, has always used writing as a way to be present in his everyday life.
“I’ve always written about family, about being attentive and present, and I find that a lot of spiritual themes surface unconsciously along with that idea of being awake to the world and to myself,” he said. “Poetry has been a tool to hone my attentiveness radar. I like to share it and publish it and read it aloud, but at its core it’s for me. It helps me to be a more complete person. I view it like meditation or prayer or exercise, whatever helps someone live their life more fully. It has always been more than putting words together to play around or entertain; to me it was always a deeply important thing.”
For the past three years, Carpathios has been able to witness that love and discovery of writing which has been present in his own life in the lives of Malone students.
“I’ve loved watching the students experiment and approach writing with an open mind. In the same way I did, they have journeyed to find their own voice and style,” said Carpathios. “There is an energy here at Malone. Our students try to help each other in a good spirited way. Writing programs can be very competitive and cut throat, full of jealousy and ambitions, but that’s not the case with Malone students.”
While the work of being a professor and helping Malone students find their artistic voices has been a mission of great joy for Carpathios, he has remained focused on his own writing as well. Two forthcoming publications are indicative of this.
“My full length poetry collection called Lifeaholics Anonymous and a book of aphorisms called The Lost Fragments of Heraclitus will both be published sometime in the spring of 2023,” he said.
As he has done in the past, Carpathios’ newest collection of poetry focuses on the beauty of the everyday, that which can be lost on the unattentive.
“The collection is similar to and an extension of what I’ve been writing about in my last few books; being attentive to the everyday, ordinary, and small miracles of life. Sometimes, especially lately, it's harder to do because of the political climate and social unrest of the modern age. The poems in this book are about being addicted to life, which I am, while still admitting certain things that go wrong, like violence and prejudice,” he said. “A crux of the thought, of this addiction to life, is embracing a love of life, but knowing that doing so will intensify subsequent pain of it being taken from you.”
His new book of aphorisms, however, is a departure from what Carpathios has done in the past.
“I wrote it mostly during the pandemic. I was frozen and disrupted like a lot of people, and I couldn’t write very well. In the introduction I talk about giving myself permission to just write anything instead of putting pressure on myself to write important or great poems because nothing was coming,” he said. “So I started writing these little fragments and ended up with over 300 little aphorisms.”
As with his collection of poetry, the title of the aphorisms collection carries great import for the work.
“Heraclitus was a famous Greek philosopher, and I've always loved his aphorisms and his stoic philosophy. At the age of 60 he died, it was my 60th year during the pandemic, and he came from the region of Greece that my father and mother came from,” said Carpathios. “So I say that I channeled his philosophy and wrote my aphorisms, claiming that my aphorisms were co-written by him in a way.”
Carpathios’ newest work of poetry is already being lauded by contemporary poets, described by some as “perceptive, clear-eyed, and passionate,” and others noting the remarkable ability of the collection to “humanize a bread crumb and make you care about it.”
Even with praise and recognition, Carpathios simply continues writing, remaining diligent and allowing his work to take him where it wants to go.
“I have no huge ambitions really, just to keep writing poems. If something else, like those aphorisms, comes along that requires a different form or treatment then I’m open to it. It's what makes me happy.”
Original source can be found here.
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