If you can’t make it to the Greek islands this summer, you can read this book of poetry instead. I’ve been reading On the Altar of Greece on the bus as I go to work. Each time I place the book down, I am somehow surprised to find myself not on a Greek island, but back in the city. The poems evoke the smell of the cooking, the heat of the mid-afternoon, the clutter of the discos at the platias at night.
In some of Donna J. Gelagotis Lee's poems, the lives of island denizens are contrasted with those of the vacationing Americans and Europeans, whose presence and partying disrupt but also financially support the lives of the people on the islands. On the other hand, in "Gone Swimming," the baker closes shop to enjoy the beach, just as the tourists do, lost income be damned.
A few of the poems describe the behavior of the kamáki or "harpoon." This man is the player who hits on foreign women, often hypnotized by the beauty of Greece and looking for their Greek god. "Cafeteria on Syntagma Street" describes one encounter with a kamáki by the narrator of the poem. With a sensibility similar to haiku, the narrator describes this brief meeting, when the kamáki is shot down with a practiced strength that any female tourist should arm herself with.
On the other hand, the heart and self-respect of the woman in "The Kamáki's Ashtray" doesn't fare as well. This woman is powerless to assert herself and simply allows the cigarette butts to bleach in the sun.
One of my favorite poems is "Ioanna." This poem describes Ioanna's habit of buying extra bread, a leftover routine from the Second World War when the country was occupied by the Nazis:
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…she carries each loaf
like something sacred,
slices the warmed brown crust
into the flesh,
eats the white dough
of deliverance
just in case – just in case.
The poem seems to have as a subtext the bread of the communion sacrament of this Orthodox Christian country. Another excellent poem is "Readying for the Olive Harvest." It begins:
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To stand on the thickest branches
And knock the olives
Out of the hold of summer
Is to coax love
From a woman who has never known
How to be loved
Without condition.
On the Altar of Greece won the Gival Press Poetry award. It also won the 2007 Eric Hoffer Book Award: Notable for Art Category.