“Poetry is Guilty” interrogates not only Israel’s justice system, but also poetry, and language itself. The Hebrew word משפט has its origins in the Hebrew Bible, where it is often used to denote some legal precept, law, or ruling. In modern Hebrew, it also means sentence. In English, too, a sentence is both a syntactical construct and a legal ruling. This poem asks us to consider what happens when poetry is wielded by those who have no knowledge of—nor any interest in—poetry, in meting out “justice.”
Shoshana Olidort on "Poetry is Guilty" |
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