Manolis's Blog

Long-listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards Griffin Awards I was almost sick from the glance that dwelled inside meI ripped the envelops spitefully, looked from behindthe curtain or gathered the street shadowsand finally since I’ll certainly die unknown to anyonebirds flew quietlycarrying the good tidings.The bus was taking the poor servant girls to witnessthe […]

excerpt with his other hand and just stares at it. By then Nicolas has rushedover. He stares at the twisted, swelling arm too.“Can you lift it?” Nicolas asks.“No, I can’t, and it hurts so much,” Eteocles replies, tears flowingdown his cheeks now.“Let’s go get help,” Nicolas says and helps his brother home. Assoon as their […]

excerpt “Maybe he’s right not to be involved too much,” Jennifer went on. “I can’t drag everybody into this. You could be caught, maybe jailed. I don’t even know what the penalty might be.”“I’m not being silly,” Maria returned. “I know it’s not an elopement. But it’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard of. […]

EpodeWe the leaders and the followersthe blind killers and the blind victimsI the atheist and the piousthe filthy rich and the despondentWe the egotistical and the humblethe allies and the enemiesI the knowledge and the ignorancethe palatial and the squalorWe the dreamers and the dreamlessthe forever roamers and the domesticatedI the important consonant and the […]

Private PlanetariumI breathed so much darkness that the starsstarted coming out of each exhaleand flew in the airy immenseness.Gleaming schematafaces, words, cities, secretsmy good friendsin the internal dome of my newplanetary cosmos.You and I there too,constellations of bloodgalaxies of spermthat create symbolsspecially interlockedthat only the imaginative knowledgecan decipher.And far away time passeswide river wateringwhat is […]

SONG OF SONGSCome, lean your blonde headin my yearning armsI have some songs to sing for younow that birds don’t lull you anymore.The night, look, passes dressed in black,all are asleep around us.Come, my precious, my enchantress,and let me breathe in your refined aroma,oh come, and let me sing a song for you again.Come lean […]

excerpt …recognised it, but no one knew its cause, not even Michael, for the story of Liam Dooley’s untimely arrival in the barn was one that Caitlin would take with her to the grave.“Caitlin, when are you going to tell me all about it?”Caitlin’s head jerked round, and she stared at Nora with surprise. “Tell […]

PromiseYou promised not to getsurprised today whenthe ugly womanlifts her skirt andshows you her gardennor when the man next doorwho lived his life stupidlywill show you the wind’s directionnor when you sit at the bus stopobserving how people reactto pain, today, you promisednot to get surprisedunless you meet the young studentfrom the house behind yourswho […]

eightThe first borderthe first motherlandthe first borderthe first terranean hopeMan means Chauvinism means Racismand many others in the imaginationof the poet’sSiamese creations https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676370X

my talkative forehead is wearing awaywhere I am the only strong point cellhis touch hurts – kin to my being to sayand speeches drive me to hellwhere the dirty white nothing gets into a cagewhere you get the knowledge between the linesrecent poetry must be put on stagefollowing protocol dirty white claims https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763718