Perhaps only a poet of Greek origin, who creates in the manner of his master Elytis could, using and renewing the conventions of Ode and Epode, Strophe and Antistrophe and an imagery that "unfolds like the fragrance of white hyacinths to the end of space" write a Eulogy to the loss of Logos. In these poems the reader encounters the virginal and sculpted limbs of the Kore and her ethereal beauty embraced by the gross and murderous Troglodyte, imprisoned and abused by the organized religion, academic education and capitalistic greed. Here also is the young poet, her intended lover and here is creation as it was at the beginning, in the Middle Ages, and in our modern world. Troglodytes has an overarching vision lyrically expressed of the history of man and the loss of that Greek ideal we no longer know how to translate and so we mumble platitudes about logics and the word of a single god that miss the mark

Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis) 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 Sciences at the Panteion University 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 and a large number of collections of poetry, which are slowly appearing as published works. Various articles, poems and short stories in Greek as well as in English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Australia and Greece. 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. In 2006 he founded Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey, BC with the goal of publishing literary books.

Manolis Aligizakis' profile page

With each poetry book Manolis gains different forms of expression and dynamism, which are qualities of a true artist. Troglodytes, his new collection of poems, reflects this evidence. His words, ripen by silence and a strong resonance from the Greek mythology, offer a myriad of images and senses that transport the reader to his world of wonder. At the same time they reveal the tics, beauty and contradictions of humanity, like a rain drop refreshes not only a rose on a hot summer day but also its thorns. The collection offers this simple and yet meaningful insight: Poetry is to be understood by its own diaphanous virtues and light in order to be a true mirror of the soul. That's the message we get page by page in Troglodytes.

Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto