Recently I went with my partner to visit one of the poorest areas in Sweden for his work. Ramels Väg in Rosengård is full of high rise appartments which are interspersed with works of public art – something that it has in common with many British housing projects. We also discovered a shrine to a boy who was murdered there just a week and a half before.
This poem was inspired by my visit.
Paint the concrete many colours
Draw murals from the grey
Place art between the high rises
Insert beauty where you may.
There are figures here not bronzed into eternity
There are bodies of people here, not works
There are no colours which can beautify
Tarmac and playgrounds painted in red.
Quiet Radicals 