Book Feature; Sipping Memories, Michal Mahgerefteh

Short Bio:
Michal Mahgerefeth is an award-winning poet and artist from Virginia.
She is author of three poetry collections, including "In My Bustan" (2009) and "What's Left Behind" (2011). Michal is editor of Poetica Magazine.

Book Reviews

"Sipping Memories brews expansive imagery and rich, local vocabulary into a deep and loving geography of recollection. Mahgerefteh mixes past and present, not only on a personal level but also on a historical-cultural one as well. permits the reader to travel with her, portraying the best aspects of a poetic tour guide. scent of foods and drinks wafts up from the pages, all in context of travels, bazaars, and religion. Without being didactic, the poet offers a lasting "ember of memory" to the reader like a cup of warmth at a significant archaeological dig."

---Daniel Pravda, English Professor at Norfolk State University
Author of "A Bird in the Hand Is a Dumb Bird"

"Even to a reader who has never been to Morocco, its landscape and people come to life in these vivid recollections of the poet. In the poem, “The Bazaar at Walled Mellah,” we catch a glimpse of “[a] bolted David's Shield on every entrance door” and like the poet, we experience “[our] pulsing heart feels the stones fermenting/ in silence.” In her new chapbook, Michal Mahgerefteh succeeds in transmitting her poetic journey and shares her visual and sensual impressions of this picturesque and exotic North African country."

---Dina Ripsman Eylon, Editor-in-Chief
"Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal"

"This chapbook is awash in the flavors and textures of Morocco. The poet takes us on the journey with her and we get not only the taste and colors of this country, but we find that the choice of language brings its rhythm to us as well. Sipping Memories, A Poetic Journey to Morocco is for us, the readers, as emotion-warming as the mint tea the poet savors throughout this trip. Who does not want to be "On the Road to Marrakesh," as the poet wanders near the food carts in a meadow stopping to pet the horse that has drawn the cart where fresh mint tea is offered to her. We taste with this poet the tea she drinks up and feel with her, "the surprising ache of desert."

In the "Henna Artist," we want it to be our hands that get the "Berber designs framing nails and fingers," as the artist tells the poet that "fish is for prosperity and lion’s paw for strength." We find ourselves saying, "Of course, of course." When we are taken to the "The Hammam," the poet cannot stop herself as she takes her notebook and "sketches footprints of ancestral mothers." And it is here that we find out what this journey is about for the poet. She is going home to breath in her ancestors. She is finding the rhythm of their life and melding it into hers, and we are privileged to be on this journey with her.

This chapbook invites us all to savor the lushness of the poet’s ancestral landscape in language that is rich and full of the everyday experiences of the people in Morocco. Every color, every scent, every ritual that surrounds the poet while she is making this journey is here. Read this chapbook quietly and carefully…..sipping warm mint tea."

---Nancy Powell
Past President of The Poetry Society of Virginia
author of "How Far is Ordinary"

 

Sample Poems

Beggar on the Corner of Blvd de la Corniche

first colors of dawn

             washing over rooftops of the Medina

she limps towards her everyday corner

                      between horse carriages and fruit stalls

slender figure in worn green caftan

       arrow tattoo on her chin   pointing to a deep frown
sits cross-legged on the coolness of worn mat

                     shooing birds pecking at her bare feet

                                   competing for crumbs

rearranges the chipped enamel bowl

        tied to her wrist   curses her long lasting fate
                   often spits into a ripped stained handkerchief

with a forced cry moans in broken English

                                 please help   me—old   very old 

                   

catching packets of butter and jam 

                        thrown from the bus by agitated tourists

         laughs with exuberant excitement

           

                         shakur—thank you   thank you

                                         God Bless You!

The Henna Artist

in the center market square of Djema el Fna 

                among fabric merchants   a single woman

   on a low stool   stone mortar in hand

         pounds chopped henna into fine green powder 

she looks at our group with a bubbling smile

                 beautiful lady   lucky tattoos   only dollars please

                              I follow her hand gesture

sit on rolled rugs and lean

             against large baskets of dry couscous

she stuffs a wad of tobacco into her mouth

                              takes a deep breath

   in a flowing rhythm draws Berber designs

                                       framing nails and fingers

fish for prosperity   she says   lion’s paw for strength

as the cool paste touches my skin

                 I travel back to my engagement night

when the women escorted the new bride

                                                 into the mikveh

      ululating as her palms and feet

                         covered in a thick paste of red henna

on this day

    as blessed sunshine strikes

               dark—red walls and climbing vines

                                     I sip a gentle past

 in the familiar flavor of mint tea

shkr thank you   she says

       flushing red cheeks and gold trimmed teeth

                          zwin—beautiful  

                                             so beautiful