'Het gedicht is een bericht'

Het gedicht is een bericht - the inspiring lines of poetry on the garbage trucks of Rotterdam - has reached its 35 year jubilee! To celebrate, the City of Rotterdam and Poetry International are pleased to give space to the sound of the up-and-coming generation of Rotterdammers with a poetry competition for secondary school students. What dreams do they have for their city of the future? Take part and who knows, maybe YOUR WISH FOR ROTTERDAM will be driving through this great city in the years to come!

How to participate?
Express your wish for Rotterdam in a catchy line of poetry that will blow the jury away, both in content and language. Your wish may be sweet, small, immeasurably large, mind-bogglingly unachievable, personal or for everyone - and everything in between. Your entry may be up to 2 lines of 45 characters (including spaces) long. Those lines can stand alone, but may also be part of a larger poem, spoken word piece or lyric of your own (be sure to send it along). Submissions can be made from November 15 to December 15 next, and we will announce the winner on January 25, 2024 - Poetry Day.

The jury and the prize
None other than City Poet Elfie Tromp leads the jury consisting of five persons. Garbage truck driver Paul Keijzer and parking attendant José Semple have a big heart for poetry and spoken word, Diana Chin-A-Fat is director of Poetry International. Together they will search for the most distinctive line of poetry among all the entries. The winning line will soon ride through the city on a garbage truck for the inspiration of us all; the winner will also receive an exclusive writing master class from City Poet Elfie Tromp herself.

Game on? Go to the online contest form. Enter your submission before 15 December 2023.