reviewed by Isaac Fox
Fargo Tbakhi’s “The Wise American Poet Brings Peace to the Middle East” begins with a question: “What is the value of poetry in a world so full of violence?” Usually, if poets bother to ask that question at all, they answer it with vague platitudes about building unity and confronting moral dilemmas. Not only does Tbakhi’s prose poem resist those easy, underbaked answers, it questions whether poetry does in fact have value in a world full of violence.
In “The Wise American Poet Brings Peace to the Middle East,” the Israeli Academic, the Palestinian Academic, and the Wise American Poet discuss the Wise American Poet’s new volume on stage at some kind of literary event. (Tbakhi uses they/them pronouns for all three characters.) The Audience, a character all its own, adores the Wise American Poet and cheers for the Israeli Academic, who spends most of the event fawning over the Wise American Poet. The Palestinian Academic, who is clearly uncomfortable, “leaves out the back door to avoid being spat on.”
The poem’s title alone drips with sarcasm, and the rest of the piece is no different. The Wise American Poet calls the Israel-Palestine Conflict the “‘Israel- Palestine Meaning-Failure,’ a term the Wise American Poet coined, as they find the term ‘conflict’ too war-like and aggressive.” (The Israel-Palestine Conflict has repeatedly erupted into open warfare.) The only thing the star of the book event actually says at the book event is, “The sun shines on the Israeli as it does on the Palestinian, does it not?” This line isn’t just vague; it’s wildly cliched. And when Tbakhi declares that the two academics are “there to praise the Wise American Poet and marvel at the accuracy of their line breaks,” focusing on poetic craft seems thoroughly ridiculous in the face of international conflict.
At the end of his prose poem, Tbakhi briefly describes what the three panelists do the night after the event. The Wise American Poet sips whiskey and files taxes on their royalties; the Israeli Academic “sleeps soundly in their bed, gently rotting, and dreams the dream of emptiness”; and the Palestinian Academic sleeps in a “tiny airport room far from sight,” where they are being tortured.
The Wise American Poet presents themself as a humanitarian, as someone who will help end the conflict, but in reality, their vague platitudes only comfort the privileged by letting them feel like they’re engaging without truly engaging.
At this book event, then, the Wise American Poet’s actions mostly affect one Israeli and one Palestinian. The Israeli Academic leaves with a small paycheck, perhaps a bit more fame and reputability, and that sense of artificial engagement that leaves them “gently rotting.” The Palestinian Academic, meanwhile, becomes a victim of state violence, probably for their role in this vaguely anti-war event.
In these final sentences, Tbakhi applies the cold light of cause and effect to privileged artists writing about other people’s struggles. The kind of poetry the Wise American Poet writes, he argues, truly has no value in a world full of violence. But at the same time, through his own specific and morally clear work, Tbakhi demonstrates a better way.
Prolit publishes prose, poetry, and visual art focusing on economic struggles. To read more of Fargo Tbakhi’s work, go to his website.
Isaac Fox is a student at Lebanon Valley College, where he majors in English and creative writing. He spends his free time reading and writing things that aren’t assigned, shooting pictures, and playing the clarinet. His fiction and photography have appeared in Rune Bear, Heart of Flesh, and Green Blotter, and he has a piece forthcoming in Rejection Letters. You can find him on Twitter at @IsaacFo80415188.