ΦΥΛΛΟΡΡΟΕΣ-FYLLORROES, ΕΝΕΚΕΝ, 2013

Ο Ελληνοκαναδός Μανώλης Αλυγιζάκης έχει γράψει τρία μυθιστορήματα, ποιητικές συλλογές, καθώς και άρθρα, διηγήματα και μελέτες στα αγγλικά και στα ελληνικά. Η πρόσφατη ποιητική συλλογή του ‘Φυλλορροές’ απαρτίζεται από υπαρξιακά, ερωτικά και κοινωνικοπολιτικά θέματα, με στενή αναφορά στην καθημερινότητα αλλά και σε σπουδαία ιστορικά γεγονότα. Το συναίσθημα ρέει πλούσια σε όλη τη συλλογή. Εκφράζεται μέσα από θέματα όπως η αγάπη, ο έρωτας, η απιστία, η απώλεια και το αίσθημα του ανεκπλήρωτου, η αναζήτηση της ουσίας της ζωής, τα υψηλά ιδανικά, και η έλλειψη ελευθερίας. Το χαρακτηριστικό ύφος ενισχύεται από τον ήχο και τον ρυθμό, που δένουν αρμονικά με το περιεχόμενο. Μια μελαγχολική διάθεση διατρέχει το σύνολο των ποιημάτων, δίνοντας τον τόνο στην πάλη μεταξύ αισιοδοξίας και απαισιοδοξίας: «…κι είπε -/ θέλω να σπείρω/ τούτο το χώμα απ’ την αρχή/ με μια σοδειά νέων ιδεολόγων…» («Νωχελικό απόγευμα»).

Η γραφή, αν και κάποιες φορές στα όρια του πεζού λόγου, διανθίζεται από ιδιαίτερα ποιητικά στοιχεία. Τεχνικές όπως η επανάληψη και ο διασκελισμός τονίζουν το νοηματικό περιεχόμενο δίνοντας ζωντάνια στη συλλογή. Παρόμοιο αποτέλεσμα επιτυγχάνεται από τις λεπτομερείς περιγραφές, τις πλούσιες εικόνες και τη μουσικότητα του λόγου. Το θέμα της ύπαρξης αναφέρεται στον θάνατο, στο βάρος της ζωής και στο νόημά της, στο γήρας, στο αναπόφευκτο και τη μοίρα, στην παρακμή. Τα ερωτικά ποιήματα εκθέτουν μια γκάμα συναισθημάτων όπως ο πόθος, η χαρά, η θλίψη, η διάψευση, η προδοσία, η παρακμή, η απομάκρυνση του ζευγαριού και η συμβατικότητα της συνύπαρξης. Παρά τον πόνο και την απογοήτευση που συνδέονται με τον έρωτα, ο ποιητής τον θεωρεί το πιο ουσιαστικό συστατικό της ζωής: «…κι αφήνω στη στιγμή την έρευνά μου/ για κάτι ασύλληπτο ή ιδεατό/ και δίχως λέξη βιαστικά γυρνώ/ στο αισθησιακό σου φίλημα.» («Ανακάλυψη»).

Οι κοινωνικοπολιτικές ανησυχίες εκφράζονται μέσα από θέματα όπως ο πολιτικός αγώνας, η αυτοθυσία των συντρόφων και η ήττα, η ιστορία και το σήμερα, η σχέση της Εκκλησίας με τον πόλεμο, προβληματισμοί και προβλέψεις για το μέλλον, η Ελλάδα, η αθλιότητα της ζωής στην πόλη, η καταστροφή, η σωτηρία, η απόδοση δικαιοσύνης, ο ποιητής/η ποιήτρια μπροστά στην πολιτική πραγματικότητα. Στο τέλος κάποιων ποιημάτων ο Μανώλης Αλυγιζάκης θέτει δυνατά ερωτηματικά, ερωτηματικά που μοιάζουν να αποτελούν από μόνα τους τις απαντήσεις: «…Κι αναρωτιέσαι/ κάνουμε άραγε κάτι σωστό/ ή όλα βαδίζουν ίσια προς την κόλαση;» («Ρουτίνα»). Άλλες φορές το κλείσιμο των ποιημάτων παραπέμπει σε σημαντικά ερωτήματα: «…Κι ένας μικρός σπουργίτης/ καθισμένος στο κλαδί/ συνθέτει το πρωινό του ποίημα και/ τα φτερά του ψαλιδίζοντας γράφει,/ αυτά δεν μου χρειάζονται πια» («Σπουργίτες»). Η ποιητική συλλογή διακρίνεται από ευαισθησία για τις ανθρώπινες καταστάσεις και από έντονο κοινωνικό προβληματισμό, στηρίγματα πολύτιμα μέσα στη γενική συναισθηματική νέκρωση και την ακραία βαρβαρότητα που βιώνουμε.

 

Greek Canadian author Manolis Aligizakis has written three novels, numerous collections of poetry, articles and short stories in both Greek and English. His latest poetry book “Filloroes” consists of existential, erotic and sociopolitical themed poems with clear relation to everyday as well as to historical events. Emotions flow freely throughout the book. They are expressed via images of love, lust, unfaithfulness, loss and the feeling of the unaccomplished, search for the meaning of life, high ideals and the lack of freedom. The poet’s style and idiom are accentuated by his rhythm that is tied harmoniously with the content. Certain melancholy runs through the majority of the poems and underscores the battle between optimism and pessimism: “I want to plough/this ground all over/with a crop of new idealists…” (Saunter).

The style of the book, sometimes resembling prose, is accented by poetic conventions such as repetition, and the striding of verse that bring the poems to life. Similar result is shown by detail descriptions, rich imagery and musicality of the verse. The existential poems deal with death, weight of life and its meaning, old age, the inescapable end, fate, decadence. The erotic poems display a mixture of emotions such as desire, joy, sadness, denial, betrayal, loneliness and the convention of relationships. Although pain and disappointment are imbued in Eros the poet still considers it the most important variant of life: “and I leave my search/for something inconceivable/ or imaginary/and with no other word/I return/to your sensual loving.”(Discovery).

Social-political issues such as political struggle, sacrifice of comrades, defeat, history up to today, relation of the church to war, wondering and vision of a future Greece, the misery of city life, destruction, salvation, justice, the poet/poetess before today’s reality, are subjects of these poems. Sometimes at the end of some poems Manolis poses questions that are themselves the answers to such questions: “And you wonder/are we truly making progress/or careening brakeless of-ramps to Hell?” (Routine). Other times the poems lead to serious questioning: “and the young sparrow/sits on the branch and/clipping his wing feathers writes/no need for these anymore” (Sparrows). The collection is imbued by sensitivity toward the everyday human situations and is filled by serious questioning about the emotional death of today’s social landscape and the brutality we live in.

 

Αφροδίτη Γιαννάκη, ΕΝΕΚΕΝ, 2013/Aphroditi Giannakis, ENEKEN, 2013

 

THE CIRCLE-A REVIEW

by Roxana Necsulescu

Born in Crete, the publisher, poet and novelist known as Manolis moved to Thessaloniki for his childhood, and went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Panteion University of Athens. He served in the armed forces for two years before immigrating to Canada in 1973, where he took classes in English Literature at Simon Fraser University. Manolis now writes in both English and Greek.

Primarily set in Pasadena and Los Angeles, his new novel The Circle features two Iraqi men, Hakim and Talal, who are studying in the United States. The third-person narration follows the relationship of the two men as well as their relationship with the United States, which becomes further complicated when the two of them fall in love with American women. Emily and Jennifer are the wife and daughter of Matthew Roberts: a member of the CIA Intelligence Unit that had a direct role in the decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003.

 

The relationships between the Iraqi men and the American women manage to be both subtle and passionate. Arguably the strength of the story is that Manolis takes care to neither over-emphasize or underplay the importance of differing nationalities.

Manolis’ background in poetry is apparent throughout. When describing the love affair between Talal and Emily, he writes: “Talal sits listening to the song of the wind through the small park where they usually sit, a song that unfolds slowly and methodically like a majestic eagle spreading its wings to the heights of the sky.”

As the novel unfolds, Hakim gains a greater awareness of horrific events that transpired during the American/Iraqi war. He also learns to gradually accept the past and move on. Under the guidance of his wealthy uncle Ibrahim Mahdi, he learns not to be prejudiced against the Americans that he meets in his daily life in L.A. and to avoid punishing Jennifer for her father’s involvement in the war.

The artful writing conveys a sense of humility that all the characters share. Hakim and Talal do not monopolize the dialogue. There is an overarching understanding provided to all the characters. Even Matthew Roberts, the American CIA Intelligence member, is written with a high degree of compassion rather than judgment.

The Circle was conceived shortly after the beginning of the war in Iraq: “It’s a look at war from the point of view of the citizen, what happens to him once the bombs stop falling,” Manolis told Surrey Now.

Learned hatred for a previous national foe is something Manolis knows firsthand. Growing up in Greece, children were routinely taught to hate the Turks, their former occupiers. “When a child hears this again and again,” he says, “you carry it inside you no matter what benign form it might be in, and it comes out eventually.”

Driving a cab in Vancouver in the 1980s, Manolis once picked up a fare who asked him where he was from, and in return he asked the passenger his country of origin. When the man answered Turkey, Manolis said the intensity of his reaction to the man shocked him, especially as he was in his 30s and an otherwise mature, rational person.

Nothing passed between the two men, but it did inspire a story that was published in a Greek magazine, and that story has provided the context for The Circle.

ISBN 9780978186524

BC BookWorld, winter issue, pg 33

www.abcbookworld.com

UBERMENESCH-A REVIEW

Poetry, EKSTASIS EDITIONS

Ubermensch, by Manolis Aligizakis is the most difficult and most philosophical poetry book I have come across. And rightfully so since it is identified with Nietzsche’s “Ubermensch” so much in the plot as much in the concepts. The poet “toys” with the various conventions as he firstly relates Ubermensch to true dimension given to him by the German philosopher and secondly to the misinterpretation given to the concept by the German ‘national-socialists’ with the horrible results that followed and affected the whole world.

Before we describe Manolis Algizakis’ Ubermensch, let us quickly look at what Nietzsche anticipated from his treatise. In simple words Nietzsche posited man opposite his abilities and responsibilities which should he had used wisely, he could overcome every obstacle. With the right use of his logic and his instinct as his primal levers man can live in a free and just society where everyone is master of himself. Nietzsche, of course, never described the moral dimension of Ubermensch, as the author claimed, as he appeared to fill the void created by the lack of authority and the Death of God. Ubermensch therefore is a redeemer, defender of morality but at the same time uncontrollable, as far as it concerns his ulterior plans for the world that remain vague…

This book published in both Greek and English consists of three parts and the style of writing is closer to prose than poetry. In the first part “Red Dawn”, man being free from all religious obligations decides to walk the earth based on his strength and wants to get rid of his ties to the system. In a collapsing society and in a family that loses its primal meaning a person needs to accept human futility and if successful man will then recognize the importance of simple things such as nature and the innocent moments of childhood, the weight hidden in a word, in a compliment, in a gesture worthy of praise. The defenseless, before death, man waits languidly for his “resurrection”, without any effort to rid of his narcissism and irresponsibility. Thus, away from his God and his beliefs, man was led to his oblivion. But with ignorance as his point from where he commences his charge he can achieve greatness and he can excel.

How then can man change to the better? With self-knowledge, with paying attention to the importance of everyday events, with the right reflection of the positive and negative parameters that influence his life. At this point the appearance of Ubermensch among the people is announced who with the people’s devotion, again he sprang out of their self-consciousness. By trying to prove to him that they’re knowledgeable and can endure hardship they succumb to his preaching. And Ubermensch—the tyrant (as the poet calls him) opportunist as he is started to fully control their fearful consciousness. Smart, demagogue, witted he was the only one who could sense the human mistakes and him alone could subjugate them. Never punishing and never asking for something in return, known to forgive, he preached morality and balance. The first part closes with the people’s declaration of obedience, event that satisfied him to the fullest…
In the second part, “Fiery Highnoon”, Ubermensch begins the true preaching of his ideology. In fact he starts to reveal his true self. The poet presents before the eyes of Ubermensch and his followers a series of men letting Ubermensch unfold his philosophy to the world. Among these men are: a beggar, an old miser, a jester, a decadent king…

Ubermensch, familiar with the human passion preaches his beliefs and presents his preferences. He likes for example those who live with no goals, meaninglessly, who disdain everything, who don’t sacrifice themselves for anything, those who with their acts bring him closer to his dominance, the ones who amass money and land which he’ll at some future day take from them, the ones who pretend they are not afraid, those who chase an unaccomplished morality, those who forever carry their wounds deep inside them, those who use the power of God to solve their problems, those who because of their deeds and decisions are led to their destruction. And all these, whom “he likes” hover over the heads of his followers, his followers who without religion stand opposite the chaos they brought unto the world; those who foolishly and without reservation accepted him into their houses; those dreamers, the self- absorbed, the loners and the arrogant. Those who forgot where they came from and they fell innocently in the pangs of the new leader. However their wholehearted joy for him, who would change the world, soon disappeared when they sensed that everything around them was ruined and again the lie was dominant. Finally they understood that again they were the ones who fought against themselves while contributing to the creation of their own hell thus empowering Ubermensch.  

In the third part of the book, “Conflagrated Dusk”, an evaluation of what transpired in the people’s lives while they lived along the Ubermensch takes place. Men had decided to hate everybody and become the bridge upon which Ubermensch would pass in order to achieve his goals. They were left naked and they witnessed the masses to be overtaken by greediness and dissolution. They again came across a world that didn’t like to change and only kept on following false leaders who promised hollow rewards.

The last journey with Ubermensch takes place before certain men who are chosen because of their attributes: an Eparch, an undertaker, a teacher, a painter, a general, a poet, a potter and a dancer. Each of them is to a certain extend an Ubermensch, because of what they create in their fields and because of their abilities while others are incapable of becoming Ubermenschen because of the weaknesses.

The poet, Manolis Aligizakis, tests human endurance and bounds. He underscores concepts that leave the reader with questions and why not, with an awakening. Everyone can be an Ubermensch in his field as long as he can rely on his own strengths and skills. Even the supporters of Manolis Aligizakis’ Ubermensch, at the end, rejuvenated by what they lived through experience, they decided to wake up and never to become again victims of the system. The poet underlines that the distance between the opposite polarities is very small: between a truth and a lie, between a belief and atheism, trust and suspicion, life and death. “Everything” is we as long as we understand our true self and we live in relation to that. Therefore every one of us can be an Ubermensch when we fight with all our strength for something higher and at the same so does the one who acquires (quite unjustly) power from the weakness of others and leads the rest in the wrong path (for example the German social-nationalism).

In conclusion I would like to underscore that from the moment I received and opened this book I understood I was before a truly great accomplishment. And for this I owe a big “thank you” to Manolis Aligizakis, the poet, for his trust in me. Manolis Aligizakis, a Greek—Canadian citizen, proves that Greek literature outside Greece is of the highest quality.

Example of the Manolis’ writing is the following poem:

 

Epode

 

We the leaders and we the followers

the blind killers and the blind victims

 

I the atheist and I the pious

the filthy rich and the despondent

 

We the egotistical and we the humble

the allies and the enemies

 

I the knowledge and I the ignorance

the palatial and the squalor

 

We the dreamers and we the dreamless

the forever roamers and the domesticated

 

I the important consonant and I the vowel

the wide ocean and the secluded cove

 

We the princes and we the beggars

the bigots and the altruists

 

I the hero and I the traitor

the serpent and the eagle

 

We the sheep and we the lions

the socialites and the hermits

 

I the free spirited and I the fanatic

the man erectus and the worm

 

We the anthropocentric and we the anthropoid

the autocratic and the marionettes

 

I the child of God and Devil’s cousin

the arduous worker and the tedious

 

We the initiates and we the initiated

the ropewalkers and the Übermenschen

 

 

Alexander Akritidis—Writer, University Graduate with a Diploma in Humanities

http://apostaktirio.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=28&Itemid=57