The Israeli state’s U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers. Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes the most effective mode of protest for artists is to refuse. I can’t write about poetry amidst the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. If this resignation leaves a hole in the news the size of poetry, then that is the true shape of the present.

Source: New York Times November 18, 2023 03:20 UTC