21st of November Another Sunday. Headache. Too many cigarettes. Smoke. The windows don’t open. I don’t have but a week of rain and shells of cracked almonds. The faint light through the window; six pieces of ice. The wick of the lamp, I don’t know, looks like inverted silence. I count the squares of the blanket. All day long I think that a basket of bread is nothing but a basket of bread. I contemplate on this though I can’t believe it because, why the buttons of our shirts get loose and when the nights walk out in the roads, how do we find the nails of the stars in the holes of the washrooms every morning?
III Shadows of the living dead calligraphically dangling from the turrets of the castle tortured aspirations hanging from the insignia of palaces groans hymned by untamed heroes in the sunless dungeons into which the brave becomes braver and the weak become weaker. Choir and its antiphony, two opposing rivulets yet both trickling to the same river merge into the most accepting ocean. Kneel and forever fear me, the day’s command laments kneel and forever fear me, the greediest ghetto decrees kneel and forever fear me, the ancient symbol commands kneel and forever fear me, decrees the greediest headmaster with his golden tiara and the gleaming chasuble.
Perverted Passion Someday I’ll remember something so nice; it’ll be autumn in that narrow side street with the glass shops, where father sold dream books after he went bankrupt — since then I never got out of the dream, although I was cold; at least I could fall back onto my perverted passion: melancholy or crowding. Because, let’s be honest, I never loved anybody and this tender glance of mine was just for personal use like the immortality of the poets.
VII From the badly stuccoed walls of twilight the oil, the kitchens of the poor houses, the orphanage, the groomed village boys of the stars, life never stops coming like heavy rain of flags and wheat. Our glance, a fish with excellent memory swims in the tight veins of the sky. You love the marble, the clay, the old freedom of the trees, all the elements and their combinations all the geometry of the stars — you love not to love but to carry your love further. You love life. You love motion, a blind insect, an animal from the other side of time that has lost you, you love all the dirt path we’ve passed together. You love man. You love sadness, a spring that widens the contour of lips, two gnarled, forgotten hands, you know and love man so that you will gather drop by drop seed after seed stone after stone an act after an act his true self scattered amid the pollen and rivers lost amid the furniture and movie theaters. They run, they run with a few sobs in their embrace to get satiated by the leftovers of the wind to fool the cold with their rags of truth — no I’ll never be able to see the fluid metal of his enclosed hands in every man again a life overworked by life. We must march on.
Poetry 1948 this season of the civil war is not time for poetry if something is written it is as if it was written on the other side of death announcements for this reason my poems are so sad (Besides, when weren’t they?) and they are especially just a few
Christening The parents remember the long faces of grandfather and grandmother and they feel guilty how can you call Adeadatos instead of Theodoros and Precious instead of Diotima as if the godparents were demons and pagans?
Silence Invincible silence in side streets abandoned, unprofitable factories complacency that prepares the nation for war force of universal good the leader said they represented blonde hair shone in the gleam of sundown, purple dusk vein severed from logic undoubted silence of mass media isolated incidents of violence reported anchor concentrated on the divorce of famous cinema power couple nation preparing for another war its rightful right, being the force of universal good
II Child When I started growing up the trees horrified me, why do you smile? Did your mind go to spring that is so rough for children? I liked the green leaves a lot I think I learned a little at school because the blotting-paper on my desk was also green the roots of the trees tormented me when in the warmth of winter they would come and coil around my body I had no other dreams when I was a child that’s how I came to know my body.
…fifteen or so big commercial ships anchored in the bay, and on the far side of the water at beautiful Stanley Park and further off the Kitsilano district and the UBC lands to their right, the green thickets of trees, the roofs of houses, the big apartment buildings, and above them the airplanes descending slowly as they approached the airport in flat, distant Richmond, all such familiar sights and yet as fresh and fascinating every day as if never enjoyed before. Eteo and Ariana seemed to register the view in the logbook of their souls, tuned to the same sounds and echoes, to the same relaxation methods and to the same fiery lovemaking, to the same thoughts and wishes. Their souls were in tune. The following Saturday Eteo picked Ariana up from her apartment and drove to BC Place and the private room Pacific Trends had rented for the year. A few other people were already there: the vice president of Pacific Trends, Lucas Stonewall, and his girlfriend, Isabel, the head trader John with his wife Ekaterina, the head of the accounting department Dean Magnusen with his girlfriend and two other women. While the introductions were in progress, Bradley came in with his girlfriend, a woman of South Asian heritage called Pari. Other guests soon followed, and in a few minutes the room was full. The drinks flowed freely and everyone had something in their hands while they chitchatted and laughed. Eteo sided up to Bradley and proudly introduced Ariana to him “So you’re the one who has brought a smile back to Eteo’s lips,” Bradley quipped as he shook Ariana’s hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you.” Ariana only smiled and blushed at his comment. Before the game started, Bradley took a moment to address them all. “I wanted to inform you that this week’s success goes to Eteo, who introduced Pacific Trends to a new venture, Platinum Properties, which has made the firm some good money already, and we hope will make a lot more in the weeks and months to come. Cheers to Eteo, then. This has been his week.” “Not bad for a Cretan immigrant,” Bradley called out with a laugh, “and yes, recommend Platinum to all your clients,”…
IMAGE Come, beloved image, come, my wife, accompany me, stay close forever, protect me from life’s pitfalls. My only guardian angel, counsel my steps and keep them safe, and if I lose my bearings, come light the way before me Your light sustains my virtue and preserves my faithfulness because I know that you are mine I feel you in my spirit and know not how to call you, whether my wife or my soul!
Manolis Aligizakis 