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In
his second book from Ekstasis, the Greek emigre poet Manolis switches
effortlessly from the real to the dreamlike, the observed to the imagined,
composing poetry that is both gentle and piercing. Like a chamber orchestra
he plays the abstract qualities of language against its sensuousness and
materiality. Triptych is a remarkable follow up to his previous
volume Nuances, presenting poems that are seemingly simple but
are truly beautiful and dislocating.
What
is fascinating in Manolis’s new collection of poems is that he presents
a landscape where words are deeply rooted in the metaphoric content of
his experience. They are engendered by a primal force that weaves meaning
out of emotion, memory, and a cultural history that ascends the marble
depths of his reason. There can be no rescue in such a landscape: only
expression. The reader is left with an unyielding sense that the singularity
of his life is re-created and celebrated through the sacrament of being
swept away in images charged by his imagination. Ultimately we are all
servants of our words, but Manolis has managed to decode the joy, elation,
and despairing gaze that as poets we all share. His work in this collection
gathers and defines all the voices in all our nights.
Ilya Tourtidis
Manolis was born on
the island of Crete in 1947. Educated in Greece with a degree in Political
Sciences from the Panteion University in Athens, he later served in the
armed forces for two years, and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973. After
working as an iron worker, a train laborer, a taxi driver and a stock
broker, he retired in 1998. He lives in White Rock where he spends his
time traveling, gardening and writing. Late in 2006 he founded Libros
Libertad Publishing Ltd., an unorthodox, independent publishing company. |
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