Sins of Algiers released on March 2021 was my first collection of poems that I asserted after a thorough dark romantic journey that stretched from September 2020 to January 2021. I saw the confinement as an opportunity to reconnect with oneself and practice the spiritual doctrines that I studied academically. But as the confinement started ending and people were lurking out from their pits, there was a return to original corruption and the Ego was bursting out to afflict the town that I was connected with both spiritually and physically and to a certain extent poetically.
Sins of Algiers was divided into three chapters each dealing with a specific theme from Delinquency or Rascality as I labeled it to Love reaching out the Soul. In its suggested progression, a person will inevitably go through a dark phase in his life in which he endeavors to find himself and in his journey nothing is limited and experience of meaning is sought in all forms of life whether through drugs, deceptions, hate, depression. We all have a way to unleash the repressed darkness either on ourselves or on others. Naturally, the man is always unconscious of his selfish acts that are rooted to the concept of Sins. But after a long era of darkness, this person or reader will experience Romantic Love found or sought as displayed in the second chapter. There will always be a quest of completion through finding a partner but this love as divine as it is will fade away due to our self-destructive tendencies that either come from us or be cast upon us. Finally, in the third chapter when this love fades away it becomes universal since as the reader is supposed to understand that this love comes from him and is never rooted to any external factor. In this view, love becomes universal and as the motto of my novelist persona Love will become the Law. In all mundane endeavors.
Sins of Algiers was not forcibly about me. I displayed some of my experiences as one of the many personas in the book but within few poems only I allowed my heart to shape the words that I displayed intimately and most notably in the poems: Istihkbar, Darj, Insiraf and Khalas. In this serie of articles I will endeavour to explain all these poems as well as their esoteric and poetic foundation with glimmers of the doctrines used in and in-between the lines.
Istikhbar is the first movement of the traditional Algerian poetry or music as it is displayed. It consists of putting the listener or the reader in a trance whereas he will connect with the projector spiritually through an initiation to the story that’s about to be revealed in its following movements. In the book, I narrate my life-hood as a novelist from Sons of Algiers going through From Psychedelia with Love with some glimmers on how I found pleasure during the confinement.
No matter where of Conformity no mane will ever speak
Let’s talk of Love, Drugs chant the Istikhbar
Write Sins on the buttocks of Algiers
And deflower its green bloody flag
On its virgin white stained skies
As Provocative as this interlude may seem and in purpose, it serves as a brief summary of what this journey is going to be about. Conformity and the so-called moral value that is seemingly but a social useless mask is announced as the antagonist of the book. And then a brief initiation to the three chapters is displayed in the second lines. Then a poetic hymn through dark and erotic words reveal the chosen given atmosphere of the book. These lines have always made the opening statement of my live events and I find an immense satisfaction of seeing the faces of the audience changing from humbled to surprised, the mask is torn and starting from this line anything by the listener and the reader will be expected without disappointment.
I may not write again so read the sound
Of the ville that wasn’t vacant of any villanies
These villanies are now shouted out loud
In a picturesque imagery if the reader is a connoisseur of melodies
And once again you’re in my phonetic strings you’re in my mind
After the Sons of Algiers and its own tales of treachery
Moons after its merit I loathed the sons and the town
And dived deeper down with the daughters of spirituality
I have journeyed to Psychedelia and wrote everything down
But the citizenry never dared to disturb it s inner calamity
From Psychedelia with Love was a bizzare sound
And the ones who picked it were nothing but amateurs of durgs and ecstasies'
It is important to mention that Istikhbar was based on a Taoist duality as noticed in the rhymes that end with A-B-A-B progression. One line displays a verity followed by a semblance of meaning to that verity that leads to another questioning and so on. In this part, aside from the aesthetic of the language that can be seen and heard through the poetic meter and the consonants, its context is about the what lies between the merits of the two books previously released. It clearly reveals that the soul is never-satisfied and there’s always something negative within the temporary feeling of appreciation. This displays the aspects of Dark Romanticism in which the book may be categorized willingly in its genre.
And then the novelist was locked in confinement with no way out
Aside from a pack of cigarettes that could wail my past and comfort me
Only the inside spirit within there’s no other way without
And the path was struggling yet it brought such a serenity
I found myself in connection to God and with the town mother was I bound
Reciting Victorian poetry in an Algerian Balcony
If the left rue is cruel the right boulevard will be kind
I will meditate in vain and ponder with the rain falling on me
And I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
With long moments of awe and wonder reviving the inner child in me
And I counted the suns counting on the full moon
In a nocturnal conversation with the troubadour by my company
This second part romantically displays the beauty of the little things that I endeavored to find during the confinement. There is an initiation to my spiritual beliefs and how suffering is naturally followed by ease as reflected in the Taoist concept of Yin-Yang. There is also a simile to the Victorian influences on the language used in the book but most importantly the usage of the diction Right and Left that symbolized the right and left side of the brain perhaps known in Jungian Psychology as the Animus and the Anima or the Masculine and Feminine foundation. Once again this poems is full of juxtapositions and dualistic allegories (Sun, moon, Rue, Boulevard, God, Nature, Struggle, Serenity, within, without, cruel, kind) but also there’s a mentioning of my old friend Jibalqis with whom I grow up artistically separated in our genre but united in our initiation.
Then I missed my friends and my town I wanted to tell them soon
That La Voix de Ville was turbulent yet it shaped such a melody
The rues were empty we were in a lockdown
I soon found out that Algiers was resting from its inside agonies
My souvenirs filled the lines and I locked them with runes
And the poetry that came from its rues was of such divinity
This part gives an overview on the state of Algiers during its confinement and how I tried to find a romantic meaning behind its emptiness that left the place for my past souvenirs to fill the lines. Runes are a tool of divinations in Celtic Mythology in which stones that contain letters that are cast randomly in order to assert a message from the universe and in this view, the souvenirs make the runes and in other words poetry gives meaning to things.
Back to the first line back to my town
Back to the ville that was indeed vacant of any villanies
So weeping, smiling or laughing I greet thee my town
And bound to your rues as a wave is bound to the sea
When the searching all-seen-eye of inspiration is for you bent down
In Saint Raphael’s Balcony that lights on these inspiring sceneries
For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell happy stories and laugh on death and tragedies
With Solemn reverence throw away respect
Mine heart is open and your ear must be prepared
Then there’s a return to the first part of the poem stating that this was merely a trip in an empty town. There’s a feeling of appreciation to the town despite the losses and the falls. But also there’s a reconnaissance to the inspiration given by the town that is metaphorically displayed bigger than any metaphysical entity or esoteric concept. And as an homage I mentioned Saint Raphael’s Balcony in which it is impossible not to experience the amount of inspiration given by the town and most certainly at night but most personally an homage to the neighborhood in which I grew up in Saint Raphael El Biar. And then there’s a call to emerge in the book without prejudgment or higher stance through a solemn reverence for starting from this interlude I announce that my heart full of grief and wonder is thereby opened and each ear must be prepared to bask in this poetic universe.
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