In this Book
- Far From Algiers
- Book
- 2008
- Published by: The Kent State University Press
Winner of the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize
“How honored I am—how lucky—to have been able to choose this superb first book by Djelloul Marbrook that honors a lifetime of hidden achievement. . . . Sometimes the poems seem utterly symbolic, surreal; they are philosophical, historical, psychological, political, and spiritual. The genius is in the many ways these poems can be read. I kept being rewarded by new awarenesses of the poet’s intentions, by the breadth and scope of the manuscript. As I read, I felt more and more that it was impossible that this was a first book. It seemed the writer knew exactly what to say, and, more importantly, exactly what to leave out.”
—Toi Derricotte, judge
“In a dizzying and divisive time, it’s beautiful to see how Djelloul Marbrook’s wise and flinty poems outfox the Furies of exile, prejudice, and longing. Succinct, aphoristic, rich with the poet’s resilient clarity in the face of a knockabout world, Far from Algiers is a remarkable and distinctive debut.”
—Cyrus Cassells
“Djelloul Marbrook, ‘a highly skilled outsider,’ bursts into poetry with this splendid first book, which brings together the energy of a young poet with the wisdom of long experience.”
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- p. x
- Part 1
- Climate Control
- p. 3
- Bitchy Nurse
- p. 4
- Far from Algiers
- pp. 6-7
- Troubled Boy
- p. 8
- Autobiography
- p. 9
- The Memory of Sand
- p. 12
- Port of Entry
- p. 17
- The Angel Departs
- p. 18
- Under the Grates
- pp. 19-20
- Part 2
- Familiarity
- p. 23
- The Great Game
- p. 24
- My Ship Comes In
- p. 26
- Van Gogh’ s Drawings
- pp. 28-29
- The Men’ s Room
- p. 30
- Parole Violator
- p. 34
- The Price of Crude
- p. 37
- Second Moses
- p. 41
- The Flavor of Lies
- p. 42
- Part 3
- A Fitting Place
- p. 45
- Commonest Word
- p. 46
- Hurricane Spaghetti
- p. 48
- No Good-bye
- p. 49
- Dread Commerce
- p. 52
- Escape Route
- p. 54
- What a Place
- p. 55
- Hasan ibn al-Sabah
- pp. 56-59
- About the Author, Back Cover
- pp. 60-61