Searching for the soul of the city
CityPoem 38 - Antwerp (3)
By Hans Karssenberg
24-03-2007 /views: 1340 in past 12 months.
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A poem about poverty in Antwerp, painted on the wall of the social welfare institute.

Antwerp CityPoem 

Part of the Antwerp CityPoem programme, and written by the Antwerp CityPoet Ramsey Nasr. Put on the wall of the Social Welfare Institute. The first of 7 CityPoems this Inspiring Cities Antwerp week, resulting in an in-depth interview with the people behind the Antwerp programme.

Antwerp CityPoem: Een Minimum (Minimum), Ramsey Nasr

This poem on poverty was written by Antwerp CityPoet Ramsey Nasr and placed on the wall of the Social Welfare Institute. He interviewed many poor people from Antwerp to write the poem and used their own words in the poem. He was thanked by many of them, stating thankfully that he ‘really used their language’.

> Podcast of this Poem on the StadsdichterPodcast.be (in Dutch)


Minimum (literal translation, not poetic)

read me then
listen softly

I am the wall
a man who is stuck

for years
my love and I are still

against this ceiling
of pitch-black glasshouse

and from our skin
begins the bottom

and there is no room
to embrace her

she is in-betwen
I am underneath

and yes I have nothing
sure I am nothing

but damn it
I can survive

so far I fight
the years to an end
from the start
until my death
against you
this ceiling
and all eyes
in your mouth
I will fight

I will come forward
from my house

walk underneath her
with my underprivileged sun

and trumpet about

here we stand
small and proud

like a human being
on a square

and I would not trade you
I would give money

to just like you
be myself


About the author

Ramsey Nasr (Rotterdam, 1974) is a Palestinian-Dutch poet, writer and actor. He is most well-known for being a poet. He was the second CityPoet of Antwerp (in 2005). In his work, he regularly writes about society.

Antwerp CityPoem, photo Valérie W.
photo: Valérie W.

See also:

And check the presentation of Michaël Vandebril of the City of Antwerp who is behind these projects on the Inspiring Cities CityPoems & CityPoets Salon of 2006, including video presentation about the projects of Antwerp.

 

Inspiring Cities Museum of CityPoems

Inspiring Cities CityPoemsInspiring Cities has collected many citypoems over the years, as well as organized salons with citypoets and cities doing special projects. We have two criteria for what a citypoem is: the intention must be poetic, and it must be in the public realm of cities. Shapes, form and locations can and do differ.

The Museum of CityPoems has citypoems from cities all over the world. From Alhambra to Zonnebeke, from Taipei to Lima.

Got one yourself? Mail us your pictures (free of rights) and description, and we will publish. 

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