'Het gedicht is een bericht'

Every Rotterdammer knows them: the lines of poetry on the flanks of the sweepers and garbage trucks of the Maasstad. Since 1988, the trucks of Stadsbeheer have not only collected garbage or swept the Binnenrotte after the market, they also bring the most beautiful poetry into the homes of Rotterdammers. 

The lines of poetry are taken from the poetry of poets who perform annually at the Poetry International Festival. 'The poem is a message' takes its name from Jules Deelder's poem of the same name, one of the first lines put on the wagons in 1988.