Saturday, June 6, 2020

"Working with Demons" Hifsa Ashraf Chapbook

https://proletaria730964817.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/working-with-demons.pdf   

     This is a quick but important read, which I see as serving as a springboard for further discussion not only on Islamophobia (the subtitle is workplace Islamophobia, but on any other phobia used to divide people into groups.


    There are seven brief poems in Asian forms, with headings on top of each page. While I do not consider myself proficient enough to critique the forms )I am a poet who writes in other forms), I certainly want to say something about hatred and discrimination.

    The world is far from a perfect place. I look at that from a religious point of view (Christian in my case, and more specifically, Lutheran). Even if one wants to examine the world from a spiritual and/or an ethical point of view, the world is still not a perfect place.

     In the first poem, that imperfection is captured in these lines:

     job orientation… 
     the lingering cold 
     after handshakes 

        The facade of politeness and business-like behavior is very thin and cannot mask the coldness that will always be there.

       A later one gives the reader much to ponder. roots could mean hair but more likely origins, background, and not for a good reason. As such the poem sets up an anxious tension/ Is the interview even going to be fair, or is it perfunctory, conducted with a foregone conclusion? Here is the poem:
:

            digging out
            my roots 
            job promotion
            interview 

     This chapbook would be useful to you at the workplace or classroom to stimulate discussion on the topic of discrimination.  There is also more to the issue, and I would hope that the poet will revisit it in the future.



       

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