News at Eleven: [Mahmoud] Darwish once said in an interview:

"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."

Just as a critique of poetry might only change the critic. Which brings us to a justification of this essay, though it's a pity that one should be necessary.

from The Tablet: Point of Departure

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