With All My Breath

With All My Breath

This 109 page book of selected poems
includes many related to his Greek American heritage
and a section devoted to medical themes.
Manesis explores a wide range of subjects,
from nursery rhymes to American icons like
Garbo, Dickinson, Houdini, and Babe Ruth.
Below are three poems in the book:

In a Room Upstairs
-for Yiayia

When my grandmother struck a match
and lit a candle next to the icon,
the coat hanging in the corner
no longer resembled an intruder.

She sat beside me on the bed
and murmured a prayer in Greek,
only part of which I understood,

crossed herself and made the same sign
on my forehead and hands,
her fingertips warm and steady.

Not having to say anything else,
she returned to the kitchen
and I fell asleep listening to
the sound of her slippered feet.

I don't remember what ailed me--
some fifty years have passed--
and yet whenever I summon her,

she ascends the stairs,
the candle still glows,
soft and low, and her light
brightens my darkest nights.

Green Thumb

He went to market to sell our cow, did Jack--
and what do you think that he brought back?
A handful of beans! I threw them out the window--
what can I do with him? I'm just a widow
and here we are, down to our last shilling.
I scold him all the time--why's he willing
to trust the people peddling poppycock?
Those beans are worthless as a worn out sock.

When Mother's mad at me, I wait until
she's gone to bed and come and sit real still
in the garden where I know each plant so well
and listen to every story that they tell.
I can't make things grow, I let them grow.
Sshh, it's coming up--I told her so!

The Marrow's Memory

I have seen the X-rays
of those children's bones--
cracked and bowed extremities,
zigzag skull fractures,
displaced growth plates,
the broken clavicles and ribs.

I have seen the shrouds
of calcium being laid down,
the new bone that wraps
around the sites of injury
as skeletons mend themselves.
After many weeks, the evidence
of trauma usually disappears
and the bones seem whole again.

But I can not see
in any shadows before me
the marrow's memory,
the soul within the bones
that never forgets
the fist and boot,
the kicks and blows.

Reviews of With All My Breath

"Perhaps it is optimism or compassion or humor
or uses of language, or most probably all of these
that have led members of audiences to say
after John Manesis' public reading of poems from this book,
‘I have not appreciated poetry before, nor have I understood
any of it. Now I shall try again.' "
        Catherine Cater, Professor Emerita, North Dakota State University

"Sometimes the professionally trained eye
is unable to see beyond its narrow limits.
Thank you to John Manesis for taking the time
to look into the depths and share with readers his vision."
         Stephen T. Kline, executive director, Creighton University Magazine

"Manesis has distilled his memories until they fall like gold into his poems. Read them."
           E. D. Karampetsos, author of  It Was the Scent of Lilacs