Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Blood Soaked Dresses


Among the many delicate books I’ve recieved over past two months, one of them especially drew my interest for a number of reasons.
It was a poetry collection called “Blood Soaked Dresses” by Gloria Mindock, the woman who handles the editorial position of Istanbul Literature Review ever since she took over it. Another reason was the theme of the book- El Salvador Massacare.
In Blood Soaked Dresses, the poet tells the story in five beautiful and well organised chapters: The Atrocities, Countryside Thoughts, Hearts, Exile and Looking Back. What makes this collection this unique for me is that Gloria is literally living the story as she is telling it. The events on this 62 page-collection frequently give you shivers from up and down your spine and you are always a subject to a set of emotions.

In El Mozote she says:
Bones on the side of the path
are collected, put into sacks.
I want to grab them. Empty them
On the ground and make a pattern.
How many sacks must I have to do this?
This is like playing pick-up sticks.


And she further develops her thoughts in Knife:
I am in pieces.
I close my eyes and cry slowly as
to not flood myself.

On the rear cover, John Minczeski says “A poet must never shy from necessary, no matter how hard it is. In poetry, that is both elegant and brutal, Gloria Mindock exposes the horror of the Salvadorian conflict especially on women…” This is an idea any poetry reader in today’s world should definetely agree with. And that’s what she really mastered in the book.

Back to the poems, as a closing scene, in the final poem Hope she says:
Everything means something to me.
I store my own leaves
of darkness
so do not worry.
Death moves at a incredible speed
but I move faster.
So fast in fact, that the boundaries between us
Can only dream.

Blood Soaked Dresses has a documentary quality. The dreadful events took place in El Mozote is ot something to forget and with these set of poems, the picture grows more vivid than ever in our memories.
A big congratulations to my dear friend Gloria.

3 comments:

Siestabea said...

The El Mozote Massacre took place in the village of El Mozote in El Salvador on December 11, 1981.Salvadoran armed forces killed an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign.This event stands out as one of the worst atrocities of the ciwil war in Latin American History.We all know who were the offenders.But what we have now in our hands is just a silent memorial, stands as a memorial to those innocent victims.
However, you know ıt is so hard to accept but this is a clear struggle of survival of human being. In order to add a bit humanity in it we should try not to experience any other event such as this.
Gloria delineated the very massacre like a pastoral. I myself appreciate it .It is so strong that make you feel those pains.But who can claim that we can feel the same pain more than a mother ,who sees her baby is being throwed in the air and shooted in the all alone stone alleys of El Mozote.
I am wondering why do people loose sight of what's important whenever there is a mention of a major crime that took place in a politically charged context? WHY???
I am a bit nerves why people are so blind.But again thanks to Gloria we have chance not to forget the ''blood soaked dresses'' in order not to give way to others.

Don't want to hear it

Don't want to know

Make them go away

But they Can come again maybe not today but tomorrow

Poems, proses will keep them and the atrocity away not even the unique gun. That's why my appreciations to Gloria are millions and to you giving me the chance to know this collection.

Divinius said...

The light that I leave you is of the color of my life...)
you have yahoo to BABEL FISH to understand the words.

Leave a comment:)

Yiannis said...

Mytilini

lesvos

Lesbos