Unwrap the pink fist and out springs
A Beijing Bolt, singing like three broken records.
Or a rock guitarist. Or Cape Town heart surgeon.
Or an Earth Institute don winning laurels
For a blueprint on ending poverty.

It does not matter that nukes
Are all over the world tonight,
From Tehran to Islamabad,
Or that inflation in Harare is a million
Per cent.

Unwrap the fist again. The world is a den of hope
Because a child just took its first breath.

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (South Africa/Johannesburg) : The River

The River

One day the Hillbrow Tower started to cry.
Real tears poured down its sides
collected in the gutters,
and ran down Banket Street,
and when
the other buildings saw the tower's sadness
they started to weep in sympathy.
Soon the whole city was sobbing,
the tears joined other tears
and filled the depressions and valleys.
They covered the koppies,
and collected in City Deep,
cascading over Gold Reef City
flooding Fordsburg
and soaking Soweto.
They flowed until they became a river
that carried us into the night,
where our dreams grew
taller than buildings
taller than buildings

Carsten Trotzkowski (Germany/Betzdorf): Truth Of Commission & Reconcilation

Truth Of Commission & Reconcilation

I say they are guilty.

They are guilty because they did it.

Because they did it to us.

To us who never did anything.

Who never did anything to stop it.

To stop it which is not easy at all.

Not easy at all - what only few people tried.

Only few people tried, risking their lifes.

Risking their lifes because those thought they

were guilty.

They were guilty because they did it.

Because they did it to them.

To them who never did anything.

Who never did anything to stop it.

To stop it which is not easy at all.

IBM Germany, in cooperation with the international literature festival berlin, announced a poetry competition. From 1st July to 30th August all the visitors of the website www.sawubona-musicjam.com were invited to post an online poem with the theme “Good Hope”. User ratings chose the ten best poems. Five international jurors, put forward by the international literature festival berlin, then selected the winners of the competition.

The first prize is a holiday to South Africa for both the writer of the original text, as well as the translator who best translated that text into English. Furthermore, the winner(s) will receive a prize of 500 Euros, which will be shared if the author and translator are different people. Second and third prizes are again the sum of 500 Euros, which will be shared if the author and translator are not the same person.

Furthermore, the international literature festival berlin will choose one participant who will get the opportunity to take part in the Poetry Slam Show (more information on www.literaturfestival.com) during the 8th international literature festival berlin.