Bobish by Magdalena Ball, Puncher &Wattmann, 2022

It is 1907 in the Pale Settlement, which Magdalena Ball explains was a region of the Russian Empire from 1791 to 1917 where Jewish people were forced to live in poverty and suffered extreme abuse; there her great-grandmother dreamed of a better life. In this year, with a few bundles filled with old clothes as well as with ambition and hope, she left for the Americas and disembarked in New York.

With poetry of cinematic quality, the poet tells the story of Rebecca Lieberman who was only fourteen with not much life experience or schooling, but she had strength of character and a skill, she knew how to read the fortune in tea leaves. A skill that helped her to survive.

Throughout the pages the reader gets to know Rebecca, we feel for her leaving all her family behind, we admire her courage, we understand her suffering, her resistance, her stamina. There is no sentimentality in Bobish’s poems because Magdalena Ball, with her talent as a poet can stir up emotions without being melodramatic.

Bobish is divided into six sessions, each one covers a period in the life of Rebecca. The first section titled “Arrival”, and the title suggests describes the young woman’s arrival in New York as well as her connection to the past. Ball, with poignant poems paints pictures illustrated by history, facts and (like in most of Ball’s books) a sprinkle of science.

The pain and suffering of Jewish people in the Russian pogroms are very vivid in the poetry, the following poem titled “Two kopeks” is an example:

Seven of them………one room
………..grandparents crouched ………small alcove below
………..………..broken stove ………no daylight.

It was not always
………..the winter before…… heating ……space…… a piano
………..………..nimble fingers…… unscarred …… played in waning light
………..………..………..curtains blowing
………..………..………..………..two kopeks in her pocket …… for sweets.

The piano burned…… in the first pogrom
………..no one wanted that music
………..………..she could no longer remember the notes.

Seven hours….. hid in the gap
…………fear pungent ….. as rotting fruit
….. ….. ….. ….. gunshot for hours ….. windows shattering
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. hands over the baby’s mouth.

They knew then ….. they would have to go
….. …….. .. ….. only how
…….. …….. ….. ….. . who stays who goes
….. ….. ….. ….. passports can take months
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ……… cost more than they have
her grandparents ….. would not have
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. survived
….. ….. ….. ….. the long journey….. steerage
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. her parents would have to join later
….. ….. ….. ….. when she could ….. send money….. gelt
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. order….. tickets ….. her cousins
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. had already gone
….. promises rained….. onto steamship
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ..she could not see
….. ….. from where she ….. huddled
….. for days ….. she heard those words
….. ….. ……. ….. falling in her head
….. ….. like the sound of ….. gunshot
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. shattering windows.…..

.In the second section titled “Azure” the reader finds Rebecca in New York City, the poet with a sharp eye, lyric touch and her powerful imagination describes, in poetry and in longer narrative poems, what her great-grandmother may have seen, smelled, and felt. Although I must point out that Magdalena Ball conducted a thorough search before writing Bobish which is demonstrated in the extensive section on “Notes and Sources” and “General References”.

The third section of this incredible book of poetry is titled “Fish Smoker” and introduces the young man who would become the heroine’s partner. Also here, we read about the ‘migrant experience’ experiences which are similar to every migrant no matter to which country you migrate to or when. As a migrant I saw myself in Rebecca: learning the language, adapting, comparing and adjusting. In my case, I also would say ‘loving the experience, but it was not a lucky or successful experience for Rebecca. The dread of poverty followed her also her body suffered. The poet says in the poem titled “Sugar”:

Even at twenty her body was breaking down
Vision going, kidneys straining, blood sugar rising.

In the third section of the book titled “Beyond the Pale” Rebecca’s life is saved by a miracle, but her life is not a joyful one. Power and control, reproduction and motherhood are amongst the many issues that emerge here. The poet treats the reality of Rebecca’s life and her misfortune with gentleness and sensibility, yet a power emerges from her words, yes, the power to keep going, to survive, to deal with the cruelty of everyday abuse and neglect.

The following extremally beautiful, but sad and nostalgic poem, gives a hint of the overwhelming emptiness of the woman who when young had so many dreams. The poem is titled “Pomegranates”:

There were two thousand acres
………..in the carpet of her mind
………..……….. or one yard of cracked linoleum
….. ….. and a chipped kitchen sink
in which she bathed the baby

on the wall a still life of fruit
……….. dispersed on a table
………..………..an appearance of abundance
………..a not quite satiating
gift from her mother

with a tiny note and nothing more
Remember?

arriving in a torn package
………..after she started sewing
………..………..before she met him
………..………………….before la grippe
………..………..before the fire, before children
………..………..a lifetime
………..passing in blood red strokes
her childhood acrylics

she tried to track time with her pinky
tracing bold black outlines
the air was fruity in the summer
………..her boy’s hair no longer blond
………..………..there were no pomegranates
……………………………in the city
………..only a broken vase
the memory of a basket

purple paint, orange flowers
arils large and bright
almost, but not quite, real.

“The Body is an Instrument” and “Tikkun Olam” are the two last sections of Bobish, where we read that Rebecca never stops dreaming of a better life, she suffers but she keeps going struggling to her end.

Magdalena Ball is such an accomplished poet that she has been able to portray a life in poetry form, not an easy task. She has written a brilliant biography that I am sure Rebecca would be proud of. I highly recommend it, it demonstrates that dreaming has the power to prop us up and keep us going … dream …

 – Dr Beatriz Copello

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Dr Beatriz Copello, is an award-winning writer and a former member of NSW Writers Centre Management Committee. She writes poetry, reviews, fiction and plays. Her poetry books include Women Souls and Shadows, Meditations At the Edge of a Dream, Flowering Roots, Under the Gums Long Shade, Witches Women and Words and Lo Irrevocable del Halcon and Renacer en Azul (In Spanish). Other books include Copello are: A Call to the Stars, Forbidden Steps Under the Wisteria and Beyond the Moons of August (Her Doctoral Thesis). Copello’s poetry has been published in literary journals such as Southerly and Australian Women’s Book Review and in many others journals and she has read her poetry at events organised by the Sydney Writers Festival, the NSW Writers Centre, the Multicultural Arts Alliance, Refugee Week Committee, Humboldt University (USA), Ubud (Bali) Writers Festival and various events in Spain, Italy and Argentina. She also reviews extensively and her critical work has appeared in The Compulsive Reader, NSW Writers Centre, Australian Society of Women Writers and Rochford Street Review.

Bobish is availble from https://puncherandwattmann.com/product/bobish/

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