July 21, 2021
City Poems: A Selection of Poems
L’Harmattan
$14.17
You can purchase a copy here.
Reviewed by Sean Hanrahan
Mbarek Sryfi’s collection, City Poems: A Selection of Poems, illustrates the speaker’s intense, almost visceral, connection with humanity. Whether the poet is observing classes of people that society generally ignores or a tender moment between a loving elderly couple, Sryfi crystallizes moments in sparse, yet eloquent, lines. This is the work of an insightful sage who takes the time to observe the world around him. This book is divided into two sections: The Trace of a Smile, originally published as a chapbook by Moonstone Publishing, and City Poems.
In perhaps one of his most memorable tercets, “The Autistic Child,” Sryfi writes, “He stood there gazing/His tongue helpless/But words dripping from his eyes.” In this short, haunting poem, Sryfi poetically gives voice to a voiceless boy. Since this poem is located in the City Poems section, I wondered whether this was an observation from a stroll around the unspecified city, perhaps a city in Morocco.
He also has a poem titled, “The Flâneur” (French for stroller or idler), where he observes, “The yearning body in blue/trying to steer clear of the blueness of the cloth in vows of chastity.” Blue is a color especially prevalent in Morocco, and the reader can picture the poet walking past a woman in a hijab. This moment could occur in any city, such as Paris or Philadelphia. Sryfi’s city becomes a place built by finely wrought moments and connection to or isolation from humanity.
A moment that illustrates Sryfi’s empathy and enviable ability to encapsulate a specific moment occurs in “Witnessing a Senior Moment at a Diner.” These supple, dreamlike lines begin this poem (my favorite in the book),
like a firefly, on borrowed time,
towards the light, he drifted away
seated on the chair across from her
she can’t take her eyes off him
for fear he’ll never come back
This moment touchingly captures a moment between a wife patiently waiting for her senile husband to return to her and their shared present. Sryfi goes on to make the astute observation that “love is life affirming/she refuses to see him/leave, never to return.”
Realizing that the world is not just about connection, but also about its opposite— isolation, Sryfi pens the poem, “Café La Estrella,” about a man alone with his cell phone in a “café coming alive.” He writes “I might forget my phone/Here.” He leaves to go to a train station, perhaps to return to friends or family, and realizes he did in fact leave his cell phone. He had previously observed “The wide street was empty/Swarming with drunks and whores swaying in different/directions.” He comes to the realization that life too can be an wide, empty street, and he takes “pity on the drinks and whores, and on myself/“How lonely I am/Without my phone.”
Sryfi also turns his observation eye upon himself in the lovely final poem in this superb collection, ”Just Hanging On Waiting for Things to Happen.”
I flumped into my chair
Yeats’ Collected Poems opened on
Sailing to Byzantium
It was still dark outside
It took me by surprise when I
Suddenly caught a glimpse of myself outside
The poem takes place at 5 A.M. where he is alone with Yeats and his thoughts. With precise language, he takes the reader to that “dead silent” time where one recalls “long forgotten moments.” The time when you use music, perhaps Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, to fill up that silence. The time where one, drowsy, feels inside and outside of themselves at the same time. A beautiful endpoint to this book that celebrates life, yet finds time to explore its heartbreaking melancholy as well. Time with this book and Sryfi’s enriched, evocative language is time that is well spent.
Sean Hanrahan is a Philadelphian poet originally hailing from Dale City, Virginia. He is the author of the full-length collection Safer Behind Popcorn (read review here) (2019 Cajun Mutt Press) and the chapbooks Hardened Eyes on the Scan (2018 Moonstone Press) and Gay Cake (2020 Toho). He is currently at work on several literary projects as well as teaching a chapbook class. He currently serves on the Moonstone Press Editorial Board, is head poetry editor for Toho, and is workshop instructor for Green Street Poetry.