The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This collections of poems is centered on the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians, specifically the coverage of Israeli violence in the West Bank as recorded by a young woman, Janna, on her phone and on social media. She’s the titular young journalist. The other poems that fill out this collection are the poets thoughts on the invasion of Iraq.
While both of these topics take place in the Middle East, I did struggle to put together the topical connection between them. This collection seemed to lack a cohesive narrative between all of them. That’s not to say each poem on its own was not week written, it’s just that sometimes going from poem to poem didn’t flow as smoothly as other collections I’ve read.
The inclusion of comments on the Bush era made the collection feel dated. The call backs to Cheney shooting his friend on a hunting trip may go unnoticed by younger readers today although it did bring back a lot of memories for me.
All in all a solid collection of poems that does call the readers attention to violence in a region that often doesn’t get to give its own voice in the matter. This does offer a different perspective than the typical American pro-Israel dogma. There is criticism of calls for peace while aiding those who perpetrate the violence. Really makes you think. Which is what good poetry should do.