A Poem for Refugees

While Greece is in the middle of the refugee crisis, Poets Circle, following a five-year period of poetic activism, brings the refugee issue to the forefront of cultural life in Greece and in the rest of the world. On this year’s World Poetry Day, celebrated on 21 March, the world stands by the refugees, aiming to send a strong humanitarian message against racism and to celebrate international solidarity with the refugees of our time.

Under the “A Poem for Refugees” campaign, various events will take place in 30 cities and islands in Greece, as well as in several other cities around the world, through a cooperation with PEN International and the World Poetry Movement. The campaign is under the aegis of UNHCR and is organized in cooperation with the volunteer network RefugeesWelcome GR. Events will feature recitations of poems about refugees, some of which have been written by refugees themselves. In Athens, the central event will take place in Stoa tou Vivliou, where 36 poets will read their poets on refugees, addressing the message of humanism and the fight against racism and racial discrimination.

Many renowned Greece poets and writers, among which Dionysios Solomos, Andreas Kalvos, Constantinos Cavafy and Elias Venezis, belonged in refugee families themselves. During the 20th century, Greece experienced her own refugee crisis following the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922, while there was a great influx of refugees after World War II. Many Greeks also became migrants in search of a job abroad or were forced to migrate due to political reasons following the civil war.

“…boat sunk soon as it got near the shore…
…could still see heads bob in the water…
…small waves rolling in, not much of a swell…
…a chorus standing on the rocks looking at them…
…a woman crying, men’s stony faces…
…two hundred fifty of them, packed like sardines…
…an awkward old tub made for Marmara sea…
…a clumsy one it was, just for the tourist trade…
…some of them drowning in four feet of water…
…shore full of jagged rocks, treacherous spot…
…they didn’t even know how to swim…
…the waters fully charted, captain should know…
…good thing it happened in the day, otherwise…
…sheer panic, their first time ever in the sea…
…in calmer weather they would just walk out…
…if it were night all of them would’ve drowned…
…seemed never to have seen the sea before…
…from Syria, they said, northern Iraq and…
…two thousand five hundred each, in cash…
…euros, not dollars, anywhere in Greece…
…the many layers of women’s clothing…
…a mother flailing on a lifesaver, losing her grip…
…wearing as much as they could carry…
…I saw the baby sink and dove right in…
…not even to my worst enemy, what I saw…
…he never cried, his big eyes fixed on me…
…our people saw it happen and they ran to help…
…green water by the rocks still full of debris…
…hypothermia they said, boys under observation…
…they sink the boat and leave them to their fate…
…scuttle the craft then quickly disappear …
…all done on purpose, a new slave trade…”