Painting

Painting

Smiling little creek stitched
in the orange colored soil
soft laughter spread on her lips
provocative breast upright
forever sweet
and exposed to the elements
that piece of beauty bitten by time

Smiling little creek stitched
in the orange colored soil
her pelvis spread on the canvas
lips desiring and lustful
glued on the ache of voyage
         downward
         to
         the
         flesh
         of
         now

And the great father
the old river
         two legs joined there
where meaning vanishes
and nature commands
like the painter standing before it
and staring at the painting
says in haste-
         Next time I'll paint
         the Hermaphrodite

Manolis 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, a large number of collections of poetry, which are slowly appearing as published works, various articles and short stories in
Greek as well as in English. 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. Towards the end of 2006 he founded Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey BC with the goal of publishing literary books.

www.libroslibertad.ca