EILEEN TABIOS Engages
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Panagiotis A. Tsonis
(Dos Madres Press,
Loveland, OH, 2016)
Sometimes, people ask how I choose which books to review for
Galatea Resurrects. I usually—and
honestly—reply that I don’t assign myself books to review. I just try to read
as widely as I can and those books that move me to write a review end up being
the ones I review. That’s that. But there are occasional exceptions to my
approach. One way to become reviewed by me could be if my husband ends up
laughing at the book cover. That’s what happened with Panagiotis A. Tsonis’
collection, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Here’s
Tom with Tsonis’ book cover (click on images to enlarge):
So what happened was I was moving around piles of Galatea’s
review copies (they’re in the hundreds now!) and
Tsonis’ book cover caught my husband’s eye. He asked, “Is that Agamemnon?” And
then he laughed. Surprised, I asked, “Why are you laughing?” and then looked at
the cover. I happen to think the cover is attractive and effective as book
covers go.
Tom explained that the image on Tsonis’ cover was a gold
death mask discovered by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann claimed the mask was Agamemnon’s. At this, Tom laughed again. He said, “Isn’t interesting that these folks
discover something and they claim it’s of some famous king? It could have been
a lawyer’s death mask, for all we know!”
The reference of lawyer, of course, is one of diminution—the
opposite of elevation through, say, ascribing a royal background. Tom, by the
way, is both an ancient Greek art scholar and a lawyer; the latter allows him
to make lawyer jokes. And laugh we did at the consistency of "bigly" claims
throughout history.
But the matter did make me take a second look at Tsonis’
poetry collection. I wondered about the relationship of the mask to the poems inside
the book. In addition, I was intrigued by the title AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY since one of my hobbies is to question the notion
of autobiography (you can read about said hobby through my chap HERE). (Auto)biographies are based on what are
reported (including self-reported) and, quite often and as with the controversy
over whether the gold death mask was truly Agamemnon’s, the reports falter before the truth.
Tsonis was born in Greece and so it’s logical for his poetry
to reflect his birth land’s culture. But based on my read of his poem “A
PHOTOGRAPH” (which begins “Bold eyes / Fixed / To eternity / Depicted on a /
Golden mask / Of death”), the reference to or use of the mask is just a
starting point, rather than the singular theme of the book. It is a starting
point in that this is Tsonis’ first poetry book—there are hints he was about 60
years old when he wrote the poems in this book—and, thus, he looks back at his
life to make his poems. By looking back, as noted in the poem’s ending:
…your eyes
Seem like seeds
Ready to transform gold
Into fiery beacons
To guide me home.
This could be to say, after traveling elsewhere (Japan and
the United States), the poet shows that toward the end of his life he more
treasures his homeland/home culture … or that he’s found a home through the
writing of poetry. I note the latter’s possibility because the poems,
themselves, are lovely accomplishments—in their own way, they are “gold”
(“beacons”) shining out their wisdom and beauty. Here’s an example (click on images to enlarge),
I appreciate the colorist’s eye and other aspects expanding
the definition of “light” that occurs more than once in the book. But I also
appreciate the wisdom—and, indeed, am relieved there is wisdom in this
collection as it would be a bit of a shame if some wisdom didn’t surface from
having lived a life. For example, in “THE STORY OF LOVE,” he notes
(appropriately in my opinion)
The word Love
Is misunderstood
Because it’s used
Like ingredients
In a churn.
But is only
One spice.
About love’s constancy, he further notes:
Love is an angel
Without wings
Who doesn’t fly away.
Lovely. But, ultimately, what elevates the book is the tour
de force poem “AUTOBIOGRAPHY.” Most of its lines begin with “I am” and here is
its beginning:
“AUTOBIOGRAPHY” is personal and universal, is local and
global, is specific and general—it is, in one word, indigenous. It is a long
poem that takes up eight pages in the book, which leads me to suggest that it
would be a great project as an illustrated chap. Here’s another page-excerpt of
its bounty:
I am glad Tsonis wrote these poems, for they make me care
about his life. The poems warrant the epigraph with which the poet chose to end
his collection—the words of Ted Kooser:
How
important it must be
to
someone
that
I am alive, and walking,
and
I have written
these
poems.
This
morning the sun stood
right
at the end of the road
and
waited for me.
The book cover’s death mask is like life: paradoxical. The
gold for treasure is appropriate. But what the poetry book created is not so
much a death mask but a life mask. We can never know everything about the
author based on what s/he wrote—but the mask, as presented by Tsonis’ poems,
reflects a beautiful mind.
*****
Eileen Tabios does not let her books be reviewed by Galatea Resurrects because she's its editor (the exception would be books that focus on other poets as well). She is pleased, though, to point you elsewhere to recent reviews of her work: AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir was recently reviewed by two Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewers: by Kevin Killian and by Grady Harp. She released three books and two chaps in 2016, and is scheduled to release at least that similar number in 2017. More info at http://eileenrtabios.com
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