If a single phrase can express the poetry of Yannis Varveris, it should be that of Fernando Pesoa about the man who had the wisdom to remain a spectator of life. It enraged his compatriot, Jose Saramago, when he first came across it, but it is the most fitting motto for Varveris' poetry.

The collected edition of his poetry allows us to confirm the 'tactics of the spectator' which he elucidated over seven poetical collections, spanning a crucial yet creative twenty years (1975-1996), with the collection Ο κύριος Φογκ being the high point of his achievement...

Still, Varveris felt an intense need for a renewal of both his way of writing and of his topics, and so in 1993 created the persona of Mr. Fog, and through him tells, in contemplative tone, of a tragic 24 hours in the life of a man who is confined to a wheelchair. Fog could just as well be a hero of Samuel Beckett for the way in which he stoically observes the end of the story, 'fortified' behind his own inability to move others or to be moved himself. Here the 'spectator' will find full justification for this stance, as he sees the world which he so passionately denied cannot be changed anymore by the ideas of Rennaisance man but rather by faceless technology.