In most of his poems, Kounoupis avoids punctuation as though he wants to let time flow on its own pace.  He often uses words without modifiers as if to let them adapt to the rhythm of nature, and especially “to the power of the mountain and the soul”— and thus transform themselves.  His stark language is fittingly laconic; the rest is to be said by the awesome mountain, domesticated through the centuries and now the protector of the villages. The language of Kounoupis’s poetry is the power of the place, its spiritual, communicative and regenerative power. The combination of earth from the mountain and the valley, and the water from the river symbolize the new birth and perhaps the ritualizing  nourishment of the heart coming from the mountain’s embrace. It is what the poet discovers his father’s greatest happiness was, in spite of their extreme poverty: The happiness of the heart, which also marks the accomplishment of the son’s quest.