Rendition

poetry by Manolis

Excerpt

Clown
Your theorem filters sun rays
behind your mask of guilt
like veiled greed
your dream succumbs to anger 
 
Now on the wet sandbar
moon walking to mark your path
a limping crab
young osprey laughs at 
 
like sun that backs into clouds
behind your shadowed thought
and bandaged hatred
entombed hope aching for Easter 
 
Now on the wet sandbar
you outline your path nervously
crab moon-walking
at whom a young osprey laughs
Sixth Paradox
The numbing kiss of north wind
bores through your skin like  
comfortable suburb monotone
gouging down your dream slow 
motion buss of axiom
honeybees construct a 
tumult before they dive
in honey pot  grayish fraying 
shroud dresses your goal
a piece of anthracite not quite 
splendor of diamond  substitutes
epiphany with temporal myth 
druggie cycled in
masochist escapism
Moonscape
The van and its red crescent emblem
siren squeals life's worth
adrenaline tattooing
memory's eardrum
in a desert wilderness 
pieces of flesh picked up and
packed off in burlap 
leftovers from a human tempest
scraps of
woman child 
these are a fighter's ribs
houses lock their doors
windows shutter while
intense silence smolders
the imam climbs slowly to the   
globe apex of the minaret
moment right
to call the faithful to prayer
God is generous
some faithful for some bombs.
"It's a journey in and out of life and death–and of all the places in between.""
– Luisa Maria Celis

About the Author

Manolis was born in the small village Kolibari west of Chania on the Greek island of Crete in 1947. At a young age his family moved first to Thessaloniki and then to Athens where he was educated, achieving a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science at Panteion Supreme School of Athens. He served in the armed forces for two years, and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked in several different jobs over the years.

He attended Simon Fraser University for a year, taking English Literature in a non-degree program. He has written three novels, a large number of collections of poetry, which are slowly appearing as published works, various articles and short stories in Greek as well as in English. After working as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver, and stock broker, he now lives in White Rock where he spends his time writing, gardening, and traveling.

Towards the end of 2006 he founded Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey, BC, with the goal of publishing literary books.

More on Manolis Aligizakis

Praise

"Mirrors let the supernatural invade reality. While the moon watches, the wind takes you away and changes everything in a world contained in a relentless search for meaning, for reasons to live, for reasons to die. It all happens in July and in the spring that followed the winter of lost things.

In this world, flowers, birds and ladybugs are symbols of hope and contemplation. This is a vast landscape and the music in the words carries you to distant times and places with non-assuming honesty.

It's a journey in and out of life and death–and of all the places in between."

– Luisa Maria Celis
author of Arrows in the Sky

"Delving into Manolis' Rendition takes one on an emotional adventure of heartache and joy guided by the steadying hand of Nature, herself. The images are raw and infused with the blackest of humanity's pain juxtaposed by the brightest joy of life. The images are vivid and startling, speaking to one's very soul. Raw sexuality is intermingled with the most tender of emotions: a true kaleidoscope of life moments woven together beautifully. The mystical and the mundane skip through the pages to rest in the fullness of being. Rendition is as vivid as a painting, brightness and darkness intermingled in a story that tells the very core of life experience itself."

– Cathi Shaw
PhD Candidate in Education
Simon Fraser University