From Darkness to Light by Maroula Blades

Since the pandemic has taken hold, I have wandered much around wooded areas. To see green and light nourishes me, body, mind, and soul.

As I visited the Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände in Berlin, Germany, where this photograph was taken, I was almost overwhelmed by the suffocating darkness and coldness of the tunnel. It was suppressive and claustrophobic, just like the sensations that COVID-19 gave me when thinking about the virus. It was such a splendid sight to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This light embraced me with warmth and wonder while stepping out from the gloom onto the quaint treelined path. This is what I love about communing with nature. It steadies, revitalizes and motivates one to have hope even in the bleakest times.

Maroula Blades is a multifaceted artist living in Berlin. She was nominated for the Amadeu Antonio Prize 2019 for her educational multimedia project “Fringe.” The project was supported by the Swiss Jan Michalski Foundation for Literature. She was the first runner-up in the 2018 Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award. Works were published in The Caribbean Writer, Thrice Fiction, The Freshwater Review, Ake review, Abridged, The London Reader, Aji Magazine, Newfound Journal, Harpy Hybrid Review and by Peepal Tree Press among others. Regularly, Ms. Blades gives bilingual (English & German) poetry workshops in Berlin schools and high schools. Her multimedia projects have been presented at many international literary festivals in Germany. In 2020, Chapeltown Books (UK) released her flash fiction collection The World in an Eye, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online platforms.