In Nostos and Algos a mature poet tells a simple story and yet underlying it all is a tension formed by intense, glaring, cutting, gripping and captivating images. This collection, Manolis’ best so far, is subtle and unexpected, and you are left to imagine what may occur. You feel this sense of expectation in many of the poems, and this keeps them from feeling dry or overwrought. Most fascinating is how Manolis captures a sense of motion just before it begins to take place, almost an anticipation of a gesture.
His work is rich and evocative and tugs at something deep within the reader: poetry that reveals the observer of life's roots searching for the meaning of beauty and pain, the endless longing of the human heart for a place to belong to, a pendulum between
nostalgia for the abandoned birthplace and assimilation in the new land, a mixture of
pleasures and tears. His voice echoes amid the labyrinths of inexplicable senses. Some metaphors are like a panel of dreams taken from reality. Nostos and Algos is a collection that requires some meditation to best enjoy. The glimpses of human nature throughout combine to create a pensive mood that at the same time liberate and enchant the reader with images of days past and days present.
The deep ground of Manolis’ poetry is an ancient music that is the source of all great poetry, and within the context of these poems the shades of Anacreon and Neruda are ever present.
Richard Olafson
