Author: vequinox

BIOGRAPHY Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis) is a Greek-Canadian poet and author. He was recently appointed an honorary instructor and fellow of the International Arts Academy, and awarded a Master’s for the Arts in Literature. He is recognized for his ability to convey images and thoughts in a rich and evocative way that tugs at something deep within the reader. Born in the village of Kolibari on the island of Crete in 1947, he moved with his family at a young age to Thessaloniki and then to Athens, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Sciences from the Panteion University of Athens. After graduation, he served in the armed forces for two years and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver, and stock broker, and studied English Literature at Simon Fraser University. He has written three novels and numerous collections of poetry, which are steadily being released as published works. His articles, poems and short stories in both Greek and English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Australia, and Greece. His poetry has been translated into Spanish, Romanian, Swedish, German, Hungarian languages and has been published in book form or in magazines in various countries. He now lives in White Rock, where he spends his time writing, gardening, traveling, and heading Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company which he founded in 2006 with the mission of publishing literary books. His translation book “George Seferis-Collected Poems” was shortlisted for the Greek National Literary Awards the highest literary recognition of Greece. Distinguished Awards Winner of the Dr. Asha Bhargava Memorial Award, Writers International Network Canada, 2014 “George Seferis-Collected Poems” translated by Manolis, shortlisted for the Greek National Literary Awards, translation category. 1st International Poetry Prize for his translation of “George Seferis-Collected Poems”, 2013 Master of the Arts in Literature, International Arts Academy, 2013 1st Prize for poetry, 7th Volos poetry Competition, 2012 Honorary instructor and fellow, International Arts Academy, 2012 2nd Prize for short story, Interartia festival, 2012 2nd Prize for Poetry, Interartia Festival, 2012 2nd Prize for poetry, Interartia Festival, 2011 3rd prize for short stories, Interartia Festival, 2011 Books by Manolis Autumn Leaves, poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2014 Übermensch/Υπεράνθρωπος, poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2013 Mythography, paintings and poetry, Libros Libertad, 2012 Nostos and Algos, poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2012 Vortex, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2011 The Circle, novel, Libros Libertad, 2011 Vernal Equinox, poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2011 Opera Bufa, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2010 Vespers, poetry by Manolis paintings by Ken Kirkby, Libros Libertad, 2010 Triptych, poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2010 Nuances, poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2009 Rendition, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2009 Impulses, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2009 Troglodytes, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2008 Petros Spathis, novel, Libros Libertad, 2008 El Greco, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2007 Path of Thorns, poetry, Libros Libertad, 2006 Footprints in Sandstone, poetry, Authorhouse, Bloomington, Indiana, 2006 The Orphans - an Anthology, poetry, Authorhouse, Bloomington, Indiana, 2005 Translations by Manolis Idolaters, a novel by Joanna Frangia, Libros Libertad, 2014 Tasos Livaditis-Selected Poems, Libros Libertad, 2014 Yannis Ritsos-Selected Poems, Ekstasis Editions, 2013 Cloe and Alexandra-Selected Poems, Libros Libertad, 2013 George Seferis-Collected Poems, Libros Libertad, 2012 Yannis Ritsos-Poems, Libros Libertad, 2010 Constantine P. Cafavy - Poems, Libros Libertad, 2008 Cavafy-Selected Poems, Ekstasis Editions, 2011 Books in other languages Eszmelet, (Hungarian), poetry by Manolis Aligizakis, translated into Hungarian by Karoly Csiby, AB-ART, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2014 Hierodoules, (Greek), poetry, Sexpirikon, Salonica, Greece, 2014 Yperanthropos,(Greek), poetry, ENEKEN Publications, Salonica, Greece, 2014 Übermensch (German), poetry by Manolis Aligizakis, translated into German by Eniko Thiele Csekei, WINDROSE, Austria, 2014 Nostos si Algos, (Romanian) poetry by Manolis Aligizakis, translated into Romanian by Lucia Gorea, DELLART, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2013 Tolmires Anatasis, (Greek) poetry, GAVRIILIDIS EDITIONS, Athens, Greece, 2013 Filloroes, (Greek ) poetry, ENEKEN PUBLICATIONS, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2013 Earini Isimeria, (Greek) poetry, ENEKEN PUBLICATIONS, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2011 Stratis o Roukounas, (Greek) novel, MAVRIDIS EDITIONS, Athens, Greece, 1981 Magazines Canadian Fiction Magazine—Victoria, BC Pacific Rim Review of Books—Victoria, BC Canadian Poetry Review—Victoria, BC Monday Poem, Leaf Press-Lantzville, BC The Broadkill Review, Milton, Delaware Ekeken, Thessaloniki, Greece Envolimon, Beotia, Greece Annual Literary Review, Athens, Greece Stigmes, Crete, Greece Apodimi Krites, Crete, Greece Patris, Crete, Greece Nyxta-Mera, Chania, Greece Wallflowers, Thessaloniki, Greece Diasporic Literature Spot, Melbourne, Australia Black Sheep Dances, California, USA Diasporic Literature Magazine, Melbourne, Australia Spotlight on the Arts, Surrey, BC Barnwood, International Poetry Magazine, Seattle, USA Unrorean, University of Maine, Farmington, Maine, USA Vakhikon, Athens, Greece Paremvasi, Kozani, Greece Szoros Ko, Bratislava, Slovakia Mediterranean Poetry, Sweden Apostaktirio, Athens, Greece Life and Art, Athens, Greece Logos and Images, Athens, Greece Contemporary Writers and Thinkers, Athens, Greece Palinodiae, Athens, Greece Royal City Poet’s Anthology, 2013, New Westminster, BC, Canada To parathyro, Paris, France Ragazine C.C, New Jersey Artenistas, Athens Greece Deucalion the Thessalos, Greece. Literary Lectern, Athens, Greece Homo Universalis, Athens Greece

He Rode Tall

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Excerpt

Tanya
The Circle H Ranch
Willow Springs, Montana
It had been a full week since he had been to a meeting, and Joel
was thinking that he needed one. Both he and Harry had
worked hard with the horses all week. Joel’s ankle had healed
after a couple of days; not enough that he was doing jumping
jacks, but enough that he was able to saddle up and ride. By now,
both Joel and Harry had all of the horses out riding in the hills
and he could tell that the animals really loved it. Buddy the Border
Collie was also getting a great workout accompanying the
horses on the rides. With things going as good as they were, Joel
figured that he and Harry could give the horses a day off. They
turned the horses out into the big meadow of flowing green grass
and declared the day a holiday.
Watching the horses lazily graze in the lush meadow, Joel
thought that, for the horses and for himself, this was probably as
close to heaven as he could be on this planet.Unlike the surrounding
harshness of the hill country that was parched from the constant
rays of the sun and the whipping of the winds, the meadow
was protected on two sides by some of the biggest trees Joel had
ever seen in this part of the world. Oaks, he thought. Flowing
through the heart of the meadow and contributing to its lush
appearance was Paradise Creek, with its headwaters in a spring
that was back in the hills. As he stood there and watched the
dozen three-year-olds make the most of their holiday, the shrill
call of a meadowlark serenaded Joel

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

Kariotakis-Poludouri, The Tragic Love Story

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Doubt
The young man you expected
won’t come tonight.
What would you had told him? Why?
Let futility vanish
sever the unfortunate sprout.
Don’t let the endless
cunning desire
fool your heart
a secret sadness flows
over this spring evening.
Yet you don’t listen to advice
enchantment has strong hold on you
he’ll never come tonight
and tomorrow will turn
even more painful.
Absence will shine
light into his darkened eyes;
with reserved ardor
a secret grief
will kiss his awkward hands
that I shall see spread
timid in victory
sweet as if they can
caressing waves to pull me
like a pebble into the depth

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763459

Orange

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Lass
Sorrowful night dew
between two legs
shameless moon splashed
emphatic nakedness
of the female youth: untouched
crisp, not bitten peach
spread under the light sheet
lonely like the barn owl or
cricket fighting gleam
of the night and
on the back of the chair,
her bra longed for daybreak
when it’ll embrace her little breasts
like a mother protecting
her two little daughters

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763750

Entropy

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Workshop of Dreams
We hang between time and space
fleeting concepts
mysterious genomes of ecstasy
pathfinders of transformation we weave the chaos
of our origin
in the uteruses of life and death
nothing is saved and nothing dies
in the infinity, we build the revolution
of a prearranged dream

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPCRLJC6

Constantine Cavafy – Poems

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The Horses of Achilles
When they saw Patroklos dead,
who was so brave, and strong, and young,
the horses of Achilles began to cry;
their immortal nature was outraged
at the sight of this work of death.
They reared up, and tossed their long manes,
they stamped the ground with their hooves, and mourned
Patroklos, whom they felt was soulless—devastated—
lifeless flesh now—his spirit gone—
defenseless—without breath—
returned from life to the great Nothing.
Zeus saw the tears of the immortal
horses and felt sad. He said, “At the wedding of Peleus
I shouldn’t have acted so mindlessly;
it would have been better if we had not given you away,
my unhappy horses! What need did you have to be
down there among miserable humans, playthings of fate.
You whom death cannot ambush, who will never grow old,
you are still tormented by disaster. People
have entangled you in their suffering.”—But
for the endless calamity of death,
those two noble animals shed their tears.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1723961833

Red in Black

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Mission Accomplished


The huge banner fluttered
on the deck of the aircraft carrier
might of a nation on drugs
impresses the unimpressed peons
as the commander in chief
of the free western world stepped
on board, paroxysmal smile on his face
resembling his unnatural joy
Frankenstein’s bride before a mirror.

The huge banner fluttered
on the deck of the aircraft carrier
for the success of the free world
that freed the five thousand old
country of its devastated history
and stayed attention
as if paying their respect
to the thousands killed.
Mission accomplish

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1771713208

Beat Dinner

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2.
I am one of you, seeking a path
between pleasure and decency,
voting for miracles,
hoping to be saved and by travelling,
sometimes on the road,
sometimes beside it…
I cast my vote for the first cross,
for God is dead, and who else could I
compare myself to? I have seen,
I have experienced fear,
the omnipotence that
blows your mind clear.
I cast my vote for the realm of scents,
for the fragrance that is followed by a smile,
for your gesture that implied
this journey is not over, yet
what is yours, you must get
pointing to those unparalleled constellations
where all theories are abolished
on existing or never existed creation,
illuminating the simplest of relation
we had never known before.
I cast my vote for my ancestors
forever on the road,
who stepped from the wet pavement
into the ever-changing afterlife,
preaching
the immediacy of history.
I cast my vote for the loneliness of cities,
where souls caged by four walls
pray for a hellish peace,
slipping away in ease,
leaving nothing behind,
from behind of a mirror they dream
of a touch or perhaps the touch
that might redeem
the never ending, monotonous sparks of weekends.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763742

Marginal

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Impression
You drum your fingers
on the table
your coffee cup still brims of heat
anxious moments
no one listens and you tap
your fingers talking
to emptiness
rhythmic impression
happy mood
the nostalgia of your hand
touching the cold table
unbearable ache
the loneliness you try
to drum away from you

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1771715987

Savages and Beasts

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excerpt

encounter in life are shared by all only to a different perhaps
level of intensity from one to the other ultimately to be left with
that Pandora’s gift to the universe: hope. And upon this hope
one commences all over, like a new Sisyphus pushing his rock
towards the hilltop.”
“You speak of very wise things, Dylan, and I don’t hesitate
to say that I enjoy your philosophical views,” Anton smiled at the
old Irish man.
Anton’s side view caught Migizi with a young girl coming
towards them. When they neared Anton and Dylan the youth
introduced his sister Miigwan to Anton.
“My sister,” the boy said proudly and his cheeks turned
red as much as his sister who lowered her eyes and didn’t say any
word.
“Good to meet you Miigwan,” Anton said to the girl who
whispered something, which only her brother Migizi heard.
Anton realized that it wasn’t meant to hear what the young
girl said and who continued to look at the ground and kept silent.
Her brother smiled at Anton and Dylan, pulled his sister
by the hand and walked away. Soon they were among all the other
children who walked around the grounds in bunches of two or
three, until the school bell was herd and Father Nicolas who was
on duty with Mary gathered them. They were put in rows of three
and slowly walked into the school for their morning porridge.
“Another day in Paradise,” Anton thought and smiled. Yes
another day to work in the laundry with the old Irish man.
The skunk was buried today while the sun played hide
and seek with the ones who looked up high and noticed, those
few who had perceptional vision of that kind. The skunk died
and took along with him the stench of those days, bad days as
Dylan named them; yet were today’s days different and if so in

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763602

He Rode Tall

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Excerpt

help but think that he should have done a better job of shaving that
morning and, yes,maybe it was time for a haircut. But this was the
way he was for now so he just had to run with it.
As he entered the office, Joel walked up to the counter and was
met by the smiles of five ladies of various sizes and ages working
at their desks on the far side of the counter. The one thing that
they all have in common, Joel realized, was that they must love
working at the auction yard. Joel could not remember ever seeing
an office where everyone was wearing such big grins. That Roy
fellow who ran the yard did seem to be a nice guy, but boy oh boy,
he must be doing something special to create this kind of happiness.
One of the ladies, an older woman with blue hair and
black-framed glasses, volunteered in a light, almost giggly, voice
that “Cindy will be out in just a minute.” Funny thing is that Joel
couldn’t even remember asking for Cindy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955