THESSALONIKI. Prominent Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos died on Tuesday morning. He was 89.

Overwhelmed by health problems in recent years, he always remained in his ground floor apartment in the Saranta Ekklisies neighborhood of Thessaloniki, surrounded by … poets. Photos of Cavafy and Tsitsanis were displayed in frames on the wall above his desk. 

Christianopoulos (Konstantinos Dimitriadis; b. Thessaloniki, 1931) was a poet, scholar and literary critic. In 1958 he founded the literary journal "Diagonal", which he continued to publish until 1983. The journal acted as a greenhouse for contemporary poets and writers. In 1962 he started Diagonal Publications.

He made his first appearance on the literary scene in 1949 with the poem "Biography". In 1950 he published a collection of poems, "Season of the Lean Cows", which reflects the conscious influence of Cavafy as well as the Hellenistic poets on his work, but also projects his own personal preoccupations.

In the collection "Strangers' Knees" (1954), dramatic intensity is emphasized, either as the result of loneliness or as a confirmation of the fateful conclusion of erotic relationships. The experience of love, at the core of his work, exists alongside a folk sense of daily life.

He has also published poetry collections (e.g. "Indefensible Yearning", 1960; "Suburbs", 1969; "Fresh Water Stories", 1980), collections of stories ("The Lower Promenade", 1963; "Outcasts of the World", 1986) and studies (e.g. "The History and Aesthetic Formation of the Rebetic Song", 1961; "Essays", 1965; "The Sculpture of Modern Thessaloniki", 1969; "Verse from the Army", 1973; "Literary Books and Journals printed in Thessaloniki, 1850-1950", 1980; "With Art and Passion", 1988).