In his previous poetry collections, John Surowiecki has proven to be a memorable voice with an ability to draw on the humorous aspects of even the most commonplace situations to create poems that delight as they resonate with authenticity. In Barney and Gienka, named for Surowiecki’s parents, his poems take a much more personal and introspective turn, yet he manages to not succumb to wistful reminiscences or melancholy.
Surowiecki’s family is of Polish descent, so many of the poems in this collection revel in the interactions of the other people of Polish ancestry in his parents’ town. The deep friendships between Barney, Gienka, and others are explored in poems that flit easily between past and present:
Gienka came to the hospital every night to see her
and every night Marion insisted she wasn’t sick at all
and asked her friend why she wasn’t her usual funny self;
so Gienka told her jokes and talked about their days
at the silverware factory when they spent their breaks
planning hope chests, one exactly like the other.
Many of the poems in this collection are set in hospitals as we see Surowiecki’s parents and their friends contend with the medical problems that accompany the aging process. In some of the poems, a touch of the surreal seeps in as reality and delusion blur; for instance, he describes in “Barney Attended by Dr. Cohen {after Goya},” the goblins lurking behind him are actually / the people who love him most.
Among the somber poems relating the many illnesses of age and ways people are haunted by their loved ones, are lighter poems providing witty and exacting snapshots of the people who make a community:
Gienka says there isn’t a woman on Bolivia Street
whose hair hasn’t been burned by Hedwig’s chemicals.
But they return anyway because she doesn’t charge much
and she serves them homemade chrusciki and cakes
and adds a shot of blackberry brandy to their Lipton tea.
from “Hedwig’s Garden of Hair”
In the way that memory is fleeting, most of the poems in Barney and Gienka tend to be brief glimpses, as if the reader is flipping through an old photo album and the album’s owner is providing short descriptions of the photos. These are tight poems that tell a story of the lives of their characters while leaving enough blanks for the reader to fill in with their own histories. After all, so many Americans have similar immigrant backgrounds that many of these poems will feel familiar and welcoming. Other of the poems speak frankly to the reader, refusing to sugar coat the inevitable:
… He placed the cat on the windowsill
so it looked out over the city, then told her
it might be easier to think of herself, not as dying,
but as being born into the world of the dead.
She took his hand in hers and said no, she was dying.
from “Mr. Szmykleszczwladeczeryniecki’s Wife”
In his endnotes, Surowiecki admits that the name of Mr. Szmykleszczwladeczeryniecki is fabricated and “dedicated to tongue-tied telemarketers everywhere.” While the character sometimes seems to serve as an ‘everyman,’ I believe that he is actually a veiled reference to Barney.
The poems from Barney and Gienka will stay with you long after you turn the final page. Surowiecki has crafted a moving and memorable tribute to his parents and to the immigrant community in which they lived.
76pp.
