HAPPYAGONY

In this debut collection of poems, Ferda explores themes of nostalgia, identity, and fulfillment.

Ferda separates his poems into five sections, titled “Youth,” “The Fallacy of Luxury,” “Society,” “Love,” and “Grief.” In “Youth,” the poems unsurprisingly reflect on youthful experiences, from childhood memories to rites of passage to moments of rebellion. Many of these pieces strike a  nostalgic tone; in “Bygone Rebel,” the speaker wistfully describes nights of drinking, dancing, and attractive women. Others explore the loss of innocence, such as “Ink My Soul,” in which the speaker’s body is covered in tattoos to which they’ve become desensitized. In “The Fallacy of Luxury,” the poems critique the excesses and superficiality of opulence. “Golden Gala” glamorously depicts an evening in Amsterdam as the speaker attends a film premiere at the Pathé Tuschinski Theatre: “Dressed in my tuxedo, my wife stunning in gold, / we head to the film premiere, a sight to behold.” “Urban Rats” emphasizes the dehumanizing nature of wealth and status by juxtaposing the desire for them with the primal instincts of survival in a concrete jungle. “Society” gathers verses that critique various aspects of contemporary social mores, addressing issues of justice and violence (“On the Border of North Macedonia”) alongside the personal struggles experienced by individuals in a fractured world (“Fractured”). Many of the poems are emotionally charged, evoking feelings of isolation, fear, and disillusionment, while others offer moments of peace and reflection. In the penultimate section, “Love,” the work considers love in its various forms, from passionate romance (“First Love”) to companionship and heartbreak (“Just Go”). Finally, the poems in “Grief” offer powerful meditations on loss, exploring the different ways grief manifests in our lives.

The poems are successful in expressing the speakers’ views on these universal subjects. However, they are presented in tandem with illustrations by Reeve, which, while technically impressive, may steer readers toward specific interpretations of the poems rather than allowing them to draw their own conclusions. (Reeve’s style is evocative—the images are in grayscale, and reminiscent of a graphic novel.) Ferda varies the pacing of the collection by featuring poems with a variety of structures: Some are in verse (mostly four-line stanzas made up of paired couplets) while others are prose pieces; some span multiple pages while others are sparse, such as the haiku “Bride.” While this variation is welcome, in some instances the poetic forms don’t clearly align with the works’ themes; for example, “Surviving Hollywood,” written as an acrostic, feels juvenile and doesn’t convincingly support the poem’s themes of self-hate and drug abuse. By contrast, the sequencing of the poems is clearly intentional. In the “Society” section, the poem “Go Away, COVID” (which explores divisions exacerbated by the pandemic lockdown) is immediately followed by “Vaccine Onslaught,” which takes a pessimistic view of vaccine development and distribution. Overall, while Ferda’s ambition is to be lauded, the work feels more like the experimental efforts of a novice than the mature pieces one might expect from a collection of this size.

An enterprising but unseasoned anthology exploring many facets of the human experience.