A new poetry collection expresses the deep grief many are still experiencing after the Grenfell disaster. But it also raises funds to help rebuild communities in the aftermath.
While they have vanished from the headlines, the struggles of the families who escaped from Grenfell Tower continue. In many ways, those feelings must feel impossible to express.
But a new anthology – Poems for Grenfell Tower – is attempting to put words to the grief felt in the aftermath of the tragedy, to reconnect the public with the disaster, and raise vital funds for the victims.
The book includes 62 pieces of work, by well-known poets such as Anne Stevenson, Michael Rosen and George Szirtes – plus people closely connected to the Grenfell community, with David Lammy MP providing the forward.
All profits go to the new Grenfell Foundation, at the suggestion of Grenfell United, and the anthology will see launches all over the country – including two in London.
Left Foot Forward can exclusively share the foreward and one of the poems, by Gillian Laker.
David Lammy MP
Grenfell Tower exposed a tale of two cities: one that has a voice, and one that does not.
Situated in the wealthy borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Grenfell was home to those whose voices were unheard by people in power. Residents found themselves repeatedly ignored by the authorities—their concerns about the safety of Grenfell were brushed off, and their worries fell on deaf ears. Instead of listening to them, the council neglected their warnings and retreated into the shadows.
Tragically, we have seen how after the disaster, as Grenfell leaves the headlines and media attention wanes, the residents of Grenfell are still not being heard. Seven months on, many don’t have a permanent home, and are being forced to live in a state of uncertainty. The government’s promises have proved to be empty, and it feels increasingly as if they are once again being forgotten.
As Ben Okri poignantly expressed on Channel 4 at the time, in his poem ‘Grenfell Tower, June 2017’, in Grenfell we
saw how ‘a sword of fate hangs over the deafness of power’. Yet, the powerful continue to be deaf to Grenfell’s voices and voices of those like them.
Poems for Grenfell Tower encourages readers to listen and bear witness to the human cost of Grenfell. The poems are able to express the scale of loss, in a way that prose is not able to do— from the empty school chair invoked in Michael Rosen’s piece, to Rachel Burns’s ‘In a Hotel Room, A Father Sits Alone’.
Unlike countless newspaper articles and reports in the media, poetry goes some of the way in allowing the reader to understand what is really missing—a child in a schoolroom, a much loved daughter.
Poems for Grenfell Tower brings together many different poets, whose voices are joined together in elegy..Poems such as these are able go beyond the limits of prose in expressing the impact of the tragedy.
In doing so, they offer an important way in which the voices of Grenfell are heard.
In this Space We do Not Breathe – poem by Gillian Laker
The first book launch will take place at 14:30 on Sunday April 15th, at the Harrow Club in London (187 Freston Rd. W10 6TH). As well as readings from the anthology, the programme will feature protest singer Robb Johnson and the locally based Nostalgia Steelband.
‘Poems for Grenfell Tower ‘is published by the Onslaught Press. All profits go to the Grenfell Foundation.
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