In his collection of poems Plektani, Dean Kalimniou takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through a web of mythological, historical and non-Western literary allusions. Often we may find that the signposts he has placed within each poem, either through the use of the title or through certain images, possibly may illuminate our understanding of the poem’s underlying meaning, however, just as we begin to grasp an understanding we lose it.
From a deeply esoteric aporia “Πώς νά εννοήσουμε εμείς οί στεριανοί τίς μπόρες, τίς φουρτούνες, τίς τρικύμιες καί τόν απόμακρο αλμυρομισεμό τών Τριτώνων”; the poet concludes with the “ξεροφάσολα τής φασολάδας,” making a strong statement about our vain strivings for truth and the temporality of this life. His words range from the highly literary, to those which refer to the mundane objects of everyday life.
This visionary poet is synchronically the scribe, and the storyteller, the keen observer of life, a master of very complex metaphors and a constructor of neologisms such as maphrianos which does not exist in Greek, although it does in Syriac. While the reader and possibly the poet himself might experience a sense of entrapment within this labyrinth of disorientating images, which offer bleak observations of the present state of the world and the human condition, ultimately he does add glimpses of hope that all is not lost.
In the past, during periods of social and spiritual strife, traditional societies sought hope in the oracles, the mystics and the prophets. The Australian poet A.D. Hope, in his poem Australia, asks the question ‘if still from the deserts the prophets come?’. Dean Kalimniou’s poem ΓΑΛΙΛAIΑ also engages with this question, apparently querying the legitimacy of the modern day prophet but this is an ambivalent aporia and his perspective is very different to A.D. Hope’s. We cannot make a valid judgement about the existence of legitimate present-day prophets, and if Kalimniou is referring to himself as a prophetic poet, since we occupy the same time frame and do not have the advantage of hindsight. This remains to be answered by forthcoming generations of readers. When Kalimniou’s socio-cultural observations are transformed into enigmatic poems, we do, however, have the ability to recognise existential and valid current concerns that have to do with our personal and cultural integrity and survival through his cryptic vision.
He challenges the reader to unlock the meanings which lay dormant within his verses by becoming immersed in Plektani with its vortex of images and words. For each of us there might be something new and revealing that we may realise. That which is constant, however, is that Kalimniou does not offer a romantic and idyllic view of the world and the human condition. He does not use riddles, myths and paramythia in his poetry in order to allow us to escape from reality, but instead he challenges us to see our reality and ourselves through a new and anti-prismatic light. The strange juxtapositions and incommensurable allusions that he adds in a self-referential way are both a confession and an ekphrasis of a collective lithi which has overcome Western society. We recognise a state of acedia when in Pamvotida III he writes ‘we are stagnant in the mercurial mirror, stuck with trout, focused on the black hole which emerges like a hill in the centre’. He does not judge his countrymen and humankind in general for their shallowness, but instead implicates himself as a co-traveller in this journey towards self-realisation. While there might be a threat of an entrapment, we sense that this poet is a competent critic of himself and society.
Hope’s symbolic allusion of ‘the Arabian desert of the human mind’ is realised in Kalimniou’s poetry. In the desert the poet, like the prophet, is liberated from the intrusions of chatter and the noise of drunken crowds “μέσα στην οχλαγωγια της ομοιόμορφης τέρψης.” The stillness of the desert produces an extreme response to the noise of ‘civilized’ drunkenness, and so the poet constructs in his poem ΤΕΡΨΗ the image of enraged dogs biting the couches to highlight an imagistic response against such a collective and warped sense of pleasure. Collective guilt remains and cannot be wiped away “καί ο ενοχος λεκκές της μουσταλευριάς στά χείλη μας, μένει, μένει, παραμένει, καί εξωσκελετώνει.”
Prophets and poets share an uncanny relationship. They can cause a scourge by unearthing dark truths “ξεχύνονται βατράχια από κρυμμένα βαλτώδεις στόμια. Δραπετεύουν καί χοροπηδούν στήν άσφαλτο” he tells us in The Seventh Wound. While, as individuals they might appear strange and often enigmatic, the poet’s visionary tales, like the prophets of the Old Testament, could potentially allow for the readers to realise that they need to return to simple truths found in our traditional heritage. The poet asserts, and so presents a counterbalancing force to rationalists who deny the foundational truths of our faith, that from Galilee will come a prophet. Instead he dares to hope for a small sign of redemption, by embarking upon a deep and esoteric journey. Such hope is not always so clear since he often dislodges his readers. In ΧΑΜΗΛΟΤΑΒΑΝΕΣ ΗΜΕΡΕΣ, while the poet admits that ‘we don’t want to worship the soil’, he adds a very unusual scenario: ‘we remain lying upside down to lick forgiveness from the sky’. Here there is no sense of reassurance, but instead a tension between the desire for redemption and improbability of such a fulfilment due to the inverted position of the individual. This upside down position may represent desperation or an animalistic state, which in the previous poems were those animate creatures which registered the illness of society. Such a reversal may also signal a secret code as occurs in the following poem whose first initial in the title is reversed.
Plektani shows through symbols and images a world stretched to the limits of endurance. As a way to counter the type of despair which prevails throughout many of his poems in this collection, Kalimniou directs his reader to look beyond the surface and note the mystery within the relics which exude a little Myron. These relics could represent those anonymous travellers who made a Sinaic ascent and whose untold stories “αναζητώντας στα κοραλλιασμένα οστά των ολίγόψυχων τις χαμένες οκτάβες” inspire the poet-observer to also begin the road to Capernaum. It is a road that leads to a place which symbolically represents the topos where Christ performed miracles and triumphed over demonic forces. This is the alternate road that this poetic anthology presents to the readers. It is one which the poet invites us to travel although it may entrap or enlighten us, depending on our own disposition and interpretation.
* Dr Anna Dimitriou holds a PhD from Deakin University, Geelong.
Dean Kalimniou’s poetry collection Plektani, along with two others, Anisixasmos and Kelyfsopastis, will be launched on 8 September at 3.00 pm at the Panarcadian Association, 570 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, by Professor Vrasidas Karalis.