Poems for Resistance

As I was writing my persuasive essay, the topic turned to Muslim Americans and their current dilemma as citizens in the United States. Although many are citizens and have ancestry dating back numerous generations here, there are also Muslims living in America who were born in different countries and have moved here in search of better opportunities or for other reasons.

However, when I think about the current state that America is in and how the general consensus treats Muslims, I would like to believe that the majority of people treat Muslims equally, but we do not know what is happening overseas where Muslims are being attacked and killed by terrorist groups within their own religion, or when superpowers like the United States run drone strikes in attempts to eliminate specific targets.

A great deal of the media, especially now, has shifted more left in response to the polarizing election of Trump, so we are more likely to see the devastating effects of a United States air raid on a country or the images of children laying in the streets following a domestically-planned gas attack (looking at you, Syria). I appreciate the greater openness of the media but I think we need to consider precedence as well, so we can't immediately judge based on the media because of intrinsic media bias! Woo!

Taken from https://www.theparisreview.org/
blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/solmaz-sharif2.jpg

So why am I giving you a history/society lesson? Because I think we could all benefit from reading the poetry of Solmaz Sharif, who gives a raw, brutal look into the reality of living in a country where terrorists live and that is demonized for a minute percentage of its residents.


Sharif was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to Iranian parents, but came to the United States at a young age. She reported living in Iranian communities within the United States, but still felt a degree of exile within those communities, which she believes sparked her desire to write poetry.

One of the poems that is most resounding for me is called Safe House. Within this poem, Sharif took a section of words out of the United States Defense Dictionary and for each word, essentially write a story with that word. Pictured below is a section of the poem.

Taken from http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR36.3/solmaz_sharif.php

I think out of all the poets I've written about, Sharif has the most unique and variable style. Instead of structuring the poem by how she wants to organize information, she almost puts herself into a framework that she has to work within, which in itself is very telling about the perception of Muslims in America and how she is still not afforded equal rights in society in practice, even though in theory all people in the US have equal rights.

Another one of her poems that I found extremely moving is called Theater, where she chronicles an invasion of a mosque from the first person perspective.

Taken from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/06/suitcases.html

I can't tell if it is the imagery, repetition, or just pure word choice that evokes such strong emotion. There is little information about the assailant initially, but the last line, in English, confirms that it is an American soldier in the invasion of the mosque. The dichotomy between the submissive narrator who is merely playing dead in an invasion in attempt to stay alive and the anger conveyed by the "beast" is truly moving - and it makes me wonder a lot about how the United States military carries out these operations.

Although I'm not trying to provide commentary onto my level of agreement with American foreign involvement, you have to admit that poems like this evoke emotions, which is exactly what is the end goal. That's some persuasion if I've ever seen it.