REVIEW
Poetry as a Return to Origins and a Form of Resistance
By Attila Balazs
…in the poetry of Aligizakis, antiquity is not a vanished world. It continues to exist in bodily memory, instinct, language, and everyday gestures. An overturned coffee cup in a village café may become an oracle; a girl carrying a pitcher on her head may revive an archaic scene; and a simple walk along the shore may lead towards the myth of return. The poet does not imitate the past; he relives it and reconfigures it in the present.
This return to Greek origins is profoundly connected to the theme of homeland. For Aligizakis, homeland is not merely a geographical territory. It is a sacred space formed from light, earth, fragrance, grapevine, sea, family, and memory. It is the place where the poet drew his first breaths and towards which he wishes to return at the end of his journey. Exile or separation from this space transforms memory into a parallel form of existence.
Nostos, the return, is one of the great themes of his entire body of work. Yet the return can never again be complete. The house of childhood exists primarily in memory, the parents appear through pain and absence, and the native land is projected in an almost mythical light. Nostalgia is therefore not only sorrow for what has passed, but also a creative act. Through words, the poet reconstructs what time has destroyed or carried away.
In this reconstruction, the mother and father occupy an essential place. The mother is associated with the family table, washed clothes, water flavoured with vanilla, tenderness, and the permanence of home. The father appears through suffering, absence, torture, and death. Family memory is simultaneously luminous and tragic. The poet attempts to embalm his father’s body in fragrances and to bring the aromas of herbs back to his mother’s table. These symbolic gestures express the impossible desire to halt the sand in the hourglass and restore the lost unity of his family.
Eros represents another way of defying death. The erotic poetry of Aligizakis is direct, sensual, and at times provocative. The female body is contemplated as a form of beauty, but also as a gateway to transcendence. Desire is not reduced to physical pleasure. It acquires an ontological function: it suspends time, momentarily abolishes the mortal condition, and unites human beings in an experience of totality.
This vision explains the frequent presence of the virgin, the naked body, fragrances, and the erotic gesture. Through Eros, the human being attempts to overcome isolation and reach the other. Yet this union remains fragile. Pleasure is intense but transitory, and nostalgia often appears within fulfilment itself. Love is traversed by an awareness of loss, which lends it a tragic beauty…
Libros Libertad 