{"id":736,"date":"2022-07-14T16:52:58","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T16:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/greenblotter\/?p=736"},"modified":"2022-07-14T16:52:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T16:52:58","slug":"if-you-please-o-wise-one-review-of-the-wise-american-poet-brings-peace-to-the-middle-east-by-fargo-tbakhi-prolit-december-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/2022\/07\/14\/if-you-please-o-wise-one-review-of-the-wise-american-poet-brings-peace-to-the-middle-east-by-fargo-tbakhi-prolit-december-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cif you please, O Wise One\u201d: Review of \u201cThe Wise American Poet Brings Peace to the Middle East\u201d by Fargo Tbakhi (Prolit, December 2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

reviewed by Isaac Fox<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cover art: \u201cThe Economy Class\u201d by Abhishek Tuiwala. Prolit<\/em>, January 31, 2022.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Fargo Tbakhi\u2019s \u201cThe Wise American Poet Brings Peace to the Middle East\u201d begins with a question: \u201cWhat is the value of poetry in a world so full of violence?<\/em>\u201d 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\u2019s prose poem resist those easy, underbaked answers, it questions whether poetry does in fact have value in a world full of violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Wise American Poet Brings Peace to the Middle East,\u201d the Israeli Academic, the Palestinian Academic, and the Wise American Poet discuss the Wise American Poet\u2019s 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, \u201cleaves out the back door to avoid being spat on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The poem\u2019s title alone drips with sarcasm, and the rest of the piece is no different. The Wise American Poet calls the Israel-Palestine Conflict the \u201c\u2018Israel- Palestine Meaning-Failure,\u2019 a term the Wise American Poet coined, as they find the term \u2018conflict\u2019 too war-like and aggressive.\u201d (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, \u201cThe sun shines on the Israeli as it does on the Palestinian, does it not?<\/em>\u201d This line isn\u2019t just vague; it\u2019s wildly cliched. And when Tbakhi declares that the two academics are \u201cthere to praise the Wise American Poet and marvel at the accuracy of their line breaks,\u201d focusing on poetic craft seems thoroughly ridiculous in the face of international conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201csleeps soundly in their bed, gently rotting, and dreams the dream of emptiness\u201d; and the Palestinian Academic sleeps in a \u201ctiny airport room far from sight,\u201d where they are being tortured.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this book event, then, the Wise American Poet\u2019s 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 \u201cgently rotting.\u201d The Palestinian Academic, meanwhile, becomes a victim of state violence, probably for their role in this vaguely anti-war event.<\/span><\/p>\n

In these final sentences, Tbakhi applies the cold light of cause and effect to privileged artists writing about other people\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prolit<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>publishes prose, poetry, and visual art focusing on economic struggles. To read more of Fargo Tbakhi’s work, go to his website<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019t assigned, shooting pictures, and playing the clarinet. His fiction and photography have appeared in\u00a0Rune Bear,<\/em>\u00a0Heart of Flesh<\/em>, and Green<\/em>\u00a0Blotter<\/em>, and he\u00a0has a piece forthcoming in Rejection Letters<\/em>.\u00a0You can find him on Twitter at @IsaacFo80415188.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

reviewed by Isaac Fox Fargo Tbakhi\u2019s \u201cThe Wise American Poet Brings Peace to the Middle East\u201d begins with a question: \u201cWhat is the value of poetry in a world so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,15],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-isaac-fox","tag-poetry-review","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}