NPR Pitches Solmaz Sharif's Look

Freshly shortlisted for the National Book Award, Solmaz Sharif's Look offers at first glance a quick observation, and at longer investigation a deep set of considerations for those yearning to analyze our political philosophy overseas (and at home), writes NPR's Mina Tavakoli:

Look, the debut collection of poetry from Solmaz Sharif, opens with all the grace of an unpinned grenade: "It matters what you call a thing." But this comes as less a warning than a war cry.

Her slim grey collection, just shortlisted for a National Book Award, begins — and is built by — the cold vocabulary of the Department of Defense's Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. First published in 1989 and routinely amended since, the dictionary outlines an entire vocabulary that blurs military procedure into euphemism. These terms are loud and unmissable in her work — not woven or folded lightly into the poems, but knifed through in harsh small caps. But it is to Sharif's credit that her poetry flicks between lyric and lexicon while still sounding like music; in her hands, language is as pliant as warmed wax.

Throughout Look, Sharif returns our gaze to this duality. Though these words are sterile, even callous euphemisms of wartime politics (terms like "KILL BOX" and "WARHEAD MATING," for instance) they mix with her verse with a surprising capacity for tenderness.

By dint of the energy by which it's deployed, the poetry sounds at these two different frequencies of trauma and beauty. Look is tonally sliced into two halves: one that burns and roils with fatigue, and one that speaks at a gentler, more mournful pitch.

Tune in at NPR.