The Incidentals

In his new collection of poems, Manolis Aligizakis dives deep into the human psyche to deal with the manner each person perceives life and reacts to it. Surely one considers tradition the most important factor upon which one bases his decision to act one way or another and to lead his life. This indisputable pull of tradition which forces upon every individual a certain way of behaviour is what Manolis questions with his poems dedicated to all the unsung heroes of everyday life: the coal vendor, the money changer, the thief, the priest, the bell ringer, the shepherd. A variety of images unfold quite incidentally and refer to incidental people who live an incidental life and one day pass without leaving any sign of existence on this earth. A philosophical approach to the human condition looked at through Manolis' lens which leaves no stone unturned when it comes to underscoring the conditioned banality of everyday human life while it opens a channel of communication between the unsung heroes and their masters in a society that suffers under traditional values which perpetuate littleness, servitude, humility and social degradation while these unsung heroes hold up hope for a reward in the afterlife.

Thomas Loukidis, essayist, philologist, poet.