Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Our Side Of The Clouds

      February 26, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Side Effects May Include Monstrosity

      February 25, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: Bruises Around the Heart

      February 24, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen

      February 20, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: The End of the World

      February 9, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Cain, Knocking

      February 24, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Bird Heart for Forgiveness

      February 19, 2021

      Fiction

      New Skin

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Skittering

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      Variations on a Theme: Larger Than Life

      February 6, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: To Limn / Lying In by J’Lyn Chapman

      February 25, 2021

      Review

      Review: Nudes by Elle Nash

      February 22, 2021

      Review

      Burials Free of Sharks: Review of Xandria Phillips’ Hull

      February 18, 2021

      Review

      Review: Censorettes by Elizabeth Bales Frank

      February 4, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

      Small Press

      Abalone Mountain Press

      February 3, 2021

      Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Our Side Of The Clouds

      February 26, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Side Effects May Include Monstrosity

      February 25, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: Bruises Around the Heart

      February 24, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen

      February 20, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: The End of the World

      February 9, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Cain, Knocking

      February 24, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Bird Heart for Forgiveness

      February 19, 2021

      Fiction

      New Skin

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Skittering

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      Variations on a Theme: Larger Than Life

      February 6, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: To Limn / Lying In by J’Lyn Chapman

      February 25, 2021

      Review

      Review: Nudes by Elle Nash

      February 22, 2021

      Review

      Burials Free of Sharks: Review of Xandria Phillips’ Hull

      February 18, 2021

      Review

      Review: Censorettes by Elizabeth Bales Frank

      February 4, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

      Small Press

      Abalone Mountain Press

      February 3, 2021

      Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
Literature

Sand Opera by Philip Metres

written by Marwa Helal January 14, 2016

Sand Opera by Philip Metres
Alice James Books, 2015
100 pages – Alice James / Amazon

 

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” —Audre Lorde

 

Timely and Timeless

In Sand Opera, poet Philip Metres places us behind the mirrored glass of the interrogation room to observe his deft dissection of the Standard Operating Procedure used by the U.S. Department of Defense during Desert Storm, the Abu Ghraib scandal, the torture in Guantanamo and other aspects of American war. Sand Opera was released shortly after the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program was released, proving its subject matter not only timeless, but timely. The first section of the work, “abu ghraib arias” was published in 2011 as a chapbook and received the Arab American National Book Award.

The work, divided into five sections, like an opera, opens with the arias, is followed by recitatives, hung lyres and a final section titled “homefront/removes” which is dedicated to the victims of the terror war, especially Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, who was held and tortured in secret U.S. prisons. Throughout the book, Metres incorporates Bashmilah’s prison drawings and testimony. The arias are composed both of blues poems written from the point of view of American military personnel and from the point of view of Iraqi detainees.

In a recent Los Angeles Review of Books interview with poet Fady Joudah, Metres expands on this: “Sand Opera employs the tropes of opera in its structure and themes. The book’s sections, as in classic opera, reference both ‘arias’ and ‘recitatives,’ the two dominant modes of opera, roughly corresponding to lyric and narrative/dramatic modes in poetry.” Each poem delicately draws us into the inner emotional lives of both the faces under the infamous hoods at Abu Ghraib and their tormentors. In the following excerpts, we go inside the minds of the young American torturers as they admit their guilt and also try to rationalize what they did to the Iraqi detainees. Metres takes us into the minds of the disturbingly familiar young officers:

The Blues of Charles Graner
the Christian in me
knows it’s wrong
but the corrections
officer in me can’t
help but love
making a grown man
piss himself

The Blues of Lynddie England
[G] played me
I guess I was blind
by love
maybe it was
[ ]
for documentation
maybe it was
for his own
amusement

The Blues of Ken Davis
and I remember calling
home that night and saying
I can’t take this anymore
if this is what we’re going
to do if this is what we’ve become
then I’m done

 

Forming Story from Omission

This is a work of erasure, from which the title comes: Standard Operating Procedure becomes Sand Opera. Here Metres tells us how to read this work, how it transforms military verbiage into art, and into meaningfulness.

Redaction becomes natural vernacular for writer and reader alike, as its placement in the text intentionally becomes a reminder of the horrors of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, of the crimes that remain unknown. A reminder of the work we must all do to heal from the collective trauma to the Arab body. The redaction also serves to give these texts new meaning, as the best erasure work tends to do.

An entire poem formed solely out of punctuation becomes a deft crescendo or constellation. It arrives on time, just as we need relief from the tension in the preceding poems. Here Metres shows us just how far a poet can stretch the art of erasure (or omission) into something astoundingly beautiful.

sand_opera1

Even as the redaction speaks, so do the breaks between poems. Readers might find themselves experiencing sharp intakes of breath and gritted teeth as they brace themselves for the experience of the next piece of the interrogation. The real questioning happening is that of the soul reading this work. Metres as interrogator seems to be asking us repeatedly, how did we let these atrocities occur? And how do we make sure they never occur again?

In the final notes of this work, Metres explains that the collection was borne out of the feeling of being Other in America. Here, it is his hand that seems to reach from behind the pages as it shapes a narrative of inner-conflict, a delicate dance between wanting to be seen while simultaneously wincing at the pain of bringing these atrocities to light. The text sheds light on both this feeling of alienation as well inclusion, the spectacle, culpability, and vulnerability of all parties involved.

 

Quantum Theory of Suffering

In a recent Guernica/PEN piece, the poet Natalie Diaz posits that poems are hypotheses in the quantum theory of suffering. Metres work seems to be directly in conversation with Diaz’s “theory of suffering,” in which suffering does not exist until it has been written down. The collection becoming one large hypothesis in said theory, from which the reader can draw their own conclusions. Here Metres bears witness to the neglect that is present in war, the breaking of bodies, and how a country can be at war with another country whose name it can’t even pronounce correctly:

The Iraqi Curator’s PowerPoint
Next slide: more damage by looters. If the eyes
Are gems, they will be made into holes.
If the skin is gold, goodbye. Now this is a sight:
The bodies too heavy, so they took the heads
Of these terracotta lions. A slide is missing

hung lyres
When the bombs fell, she could barely raise
her pendulous head, wept shrapnel

…

this is the air we scull
air of ancestors & ashpits
just five, the child’s baptized into this
unhappiness:
she corrects the voices
she hears butcher
the name of the country she’s never
seen—it’s “ear-rock,”
not “eye-rack.”

What Metres does so well is delve into the darkness of torture and comes out shining a light on the very raw human emotions of all of its subjects: tormented and tormentor. This is a work of extraordinary emotional endurance. The poet dives into piles of text and emerges having both transformed the text, himself, and us, the readers. Ultimately, this is a translation of the voice of the Other. Metres has extracted the various speakers’ innermost thoughts, complete with discrepancies and dissonance, delivering to us what is essentially a universal language of emotion.

But it would be unfair to label this work as one that is merely about war and its terrors. It is also about the ripple effect. It is about a poet raising a family in a country that continually maims and erases the people of his ancestral land(s). How Metres managed to wade through so much difficult content and come out with something so transformative is certainly miraculous.

Cell/(ph)one (A simultaneity in four voices)
3. [Guantanamo]
Please pass this on to my wife.
Tell her it’s time for her
to move on. I will never leave
Guantanamo. She must understand
I’m not abandoning her. That I
love her. But she must move on
with her life. She is getting older.
But I will never leave
Guantanamo. That I love her.
But she must move on
with her life.
(repeat)

Listen to a rendition of the poem here

This is a necessary read, and a brave contribution to Arab-American literature, in that it explores our collective psyche as it is in the U.S., rather than the nostalgic tropes of looking ‘back home’ which constitute the majority of our canon. Metres’ work is as American as it is Arab. His transformation of these texts is also a reconciliation, a reconciliation of identity, politics, and what it means to be a citizen of the United States.


 

Suggested further reading: Fady Joudah interviews Philip Metres: At the Border of Our Tongue, Los Angeles Review of Books

 

 

Sand Opera by Philip Metres was last modified: January 10th, 2016 by Marwa Helal
abu ghraibalice jamesarabarab-americanariascanonerasurefady joudahguantanamoiraqliteraturelos angeles review of booksomissionoperapersonalPhilip Metrespoeticspoetrypoliticalrecitativeredactionstandard operating procedurewar on terror
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
Marwa Helal

Marwa Helal’s poetry has appeared in Day One. Her essays and journalism have been published in Poets & Writers, the American Book Review, and Egypt Today. She is an alumna of the New School’s creative writing MFA program and participated in a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA) workshop, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Program, and Cave Canem New York City workshops. To learn more, visit her on Twitter (@marwahelal) or at marshelal.com

previous post
The Birds: Wren, Wren, Kinglet, Quail
next post
Needle Drop-Outs (Or The Decline of Film Soundtracks)

You may also like

Flash Portraits of Link: Part 3 – A Search for Strength and Courage

December 5, 2014

Diorama by Rocío Ceron

November 2, 2015

Syllabus-ness: THE CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORY

September 8, 2014

Between You and Me by Scott Nadelson

June 30, 2016
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • furiousvexation Loved this. Killer first line and such a painted picture. Bravo!

    The Birds: a poem ·  February 17, 2021

  • Deidra Brown Wonderful, moving work!

    The Birds: a poem ·  February 15, 2021

  • Ceres Growing up in a rural area, I've observed first-hand the disparate outlooks between urban children with environmentalist parents and children raised in the country. Modern agricultural practices...

    HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC ·  February 13, 2021

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Food and Covid-19
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2021 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top