'I remember caresses, kisses, touching each other's hair. We had no sense that anything else existed' - Elena Penga, 'Heads' 'Nothing, not even the drowning of a child Stops the perpetual motion of the world' - Stamatis Polenakis, 'Elegy' Since the crisis hit in 2008, Greece has played host to a cultural renaissance unlike anything seen in the country for over thirty years. Poems of startling depth and originality are being written by native Greeks, emigres and migrants alike. They grapple with the personal and the political; with the small revelations of gardening and the viciousness of streetfights; with bodies, love, myth, migration and economic crisis. In Austerity Measures, the very best of the writing to emerge from that creative ferment - much of it never before translated into English - is gathered for the first time. The result is a map to the complex territory of a still-evolving scene - and a unique window onto the lived experience of Greek society now. %%%"When there is less to go around, people fight, grab, get tough. Lately, Greece and the Balkans have been living with more than their share of less . . . Poetry, though, is one thing there is more of. Much more"- from the Introduction "At night I have a great time smashing fascist heads" - Jazra Khaleed, 'Refrain' Since the crisis hit in 2008, Greece has played host to a cultural renaissance unlike anything seen in Southern Europe for over thirty years. Poems of startling depth and originality are being written by native Greeks, emigres and migrants alike. They grapple with the personal and the political; with the small revelations of gardening and the viciousness of streetfights; with bodies, love, myth, migration and economic crisis. In Austerity Measures, the very best of the writing to emerge from that creative ferment - much of it never before translated into English - is gathered for the first time. The result is a map to the complex territory of a still-evolving scene - and a unique window onto the lived experience of Greek society now. "I told the days to stop whirling" - Kyoko Kishida, 'Kleine Nachtmusik'