"If the present European institutions cannot manage to inspire, charm, stir or touch the people, or if necessary anger them, then we shall have to do it. Europe is currently stumbling from one crisis to another, is floating somewhere high above the heads of its citizens, and at certain times suffers from arrogance and hypocrisy, at others from confusion and anxiety.
In this situation, we would like to reflect on who and what Europe might be. We wonder which past we should recall and of what future we can still dream. How proud we are, and how aorrowful we can still be."
This is the background for The European Constitution in Verse, as expressed by the artistic coordinators Peter Vermeersch and David van Reybrouck. After failing to decide on a political constitution, Europe got its poetic Constitution in Verse on Friday 27 March 2009. The Brussels Poetry Collective - Geert van Istendael, Laurence Vielle, Manza, Xavier Queipo, Peter Vermeersch and David Van Reybrouck - who kicked off the project in January were joined by more than 40 other poets in writing the constitution. The Brussels collective, a number of leading poets such as Antonio Gamoneda (Spain), Franzobel (Austria), Gerrit Komrij (Netherlands) and Mircea Dinescu (Romania) and the 70-strong PolyFolies choir, and several guest writers presented a long poem in which European enthusiasm is tempered by a critical attitude, the grand gesture rubs up against poetic intimacy, and seriousness is rhymed with satire. Themes as the hospitality and borders of Europe were very eminently present in the text. On this evening the complete text of the European Constitution in Verse was presented in three publications: in Dutch, French and English.
Here we bring you the contributions to the Constitution that were authored by former and present ICORN Guest Writers.
ARTICLE 25: THE RIGHT TO HOUSING
Article 25ter by Easterine Kire Iralu
In the spaces that I call home
where tigers roam the hill-heart
and deep, deep in those woods
lives the son of the man
who became a bear.
In the skies that cover
the spaces that I call home
sky-husbands appear in the night-skies
looking, looking for earth-wives.
ARTICLE 48: THE RIGHT TO DREAM
By Easterine Kire Iralu
There are gunshots deep in the night.
There is blood on the streets still
and in our hearts a dull deadness
words fail to define despair
silences have usurped speech
we are waiting for silence to scream
they have killed our dreams
but our dreams stubbornly refuse to die.
ARTICLE 53: PAINTING
By Kamran Mir Hazar
Every song is sung for you
every lyric
every dance performed on stage is for you
sorrow is everybody's lot
and dreams are there to hide you in their folds
the sea is yours
as is the gaze of the sailors sizing up the contours of a girl's body
this ship will berth near Paris
so Parisian writers can usher a doleful girl into the folds of their tales
this ship will berth near Paris
somewhere in the right-hand corner of a painting at the Louvre
people's sorrow hides itself in the folds of a painting
next to the shades of blue
ARTICLE 72: EXILE
Article 72bis by Chenjerai Hove
Far away from home,
the smells,
the sounds,
the madness,
the laughter,
these present sorrows
and the joys
of the land of my birth,
the songs of our birds
whose names i guessed,
the sounds of the rivers
whose names
i grew up trying to name
with rhythm and dance,
the shapes
of the hills and mountains,
how they told us
they were a man dancing,
or a woman smoking a pipe,
a crazy woman
dancing to several lovers,
the colours of the sky
as it changed its many tempers
to invoke the voices
of thunder and lightning:
all those shapeless colours,
of butterflies and nameless things,
all these remind me always
ARTICLE 73: FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Article 73bis by Faraj Bayrakdar
What is cooing
between one stone and another ? !
I thought twenty minarets
above this church
whose bells
are an echo of a remote temple.
Twenty minarets...
No beginning for fear
and no end for nostalgia.
What else ?
I've lived more than I ought to
and died more than I ought to.
However, no gods
my hopelessness has not defeated
and my forgiveness has not embarrassed.
Article 73quater by Salem Zenia
We made god and his emissaries
Who made the laws and its pleasantries
Flanked between two tall facades
Two rows of bars, two unwashed factions
In a heavenly prison with its stained glass
But we are, all the same, children of independence
Will we ever accept that we are human
Sentenced to live our lives in common
We created god and his little brothers
So we could proudly hack at one another
If we forget them, then a day might come
That will bring a peace to last forever
ARTICLE 75: HUMANITARIAN AID
By Salem Zenia
To partake of the bread of our combined blood
Under the icy night sky
I have offered my blood
I have offered my strength
and sacrificed my youth
just to see the rebirth finally set free
Spingtime comes back
with its birds
and pretends to forget
how it becomes heartless
I share in vain
I will always be the outsider
*****
I you want to read the complete version of The European Constitution in Verse, visit this website.
