Poetry Reading: Solmaz Sharif

On April 5th, 2018 I attended Solmaz Sharif’s poetry reading at the Great Plains Art Museum. At the poetry reading, Sharif read about eight different poems, most of which circulated around the notion identity, and her own upbringing as the child of Iranian parents. Her poems also discussed the struggles of immigrants, and the political and social problems in the United States today. One of the poems she read was titled “Reaching Guantanamo.” Prior to reading the poem she told the audience to set down their books, if they were following along, and to just listen. I thought this was a really interesting thing to do, on the part of an author. After hearing the poem I now understand why.

The poem consists of a letter, written to a loved one, being held as a prisoner at the Untied States detention camp in Guantanamo Bay. An interesting aspect about the poem is that it is missing a large portion of words, thus illustrating the form of censorship by the United States government, and the utter lack of rights these prisoners have.

Throughout the poem, the reader, or listener in the case of the reading, never learns who the writer is; the poem simply ends “yours.” The letter is addressed to a man named Salim. However, the letter is missing a large string of words, which make it nearly unintelligible, but the poem has just enough words to understand that the lover of the prisoner Salim wrote it. During Sharif’s reading of this poem, she would pause for varying amounts of time, depending how many words from her poem/letter had been censored. In doing this, Sharif is able to make a social and political critique on this United States government, censorship, and the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay.

“Reaching Guantanamo” Link: http://paperbagazine.com/paperbag_1_solmaz_1.html

Solmaz Sharif’s Website: https://solmazsharif.com/