Nigerian Author, Ben Okri, Writes A Powerful Poem In Memory Of The Grenfell Tower Victims

Legendary Nigerian award-winning poet and novelist Ben Okri, wrote a moving poem in memory of the victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire. The poem thoroughly captures the grief and anger that the survivors of the tragedy must be feeling, while also criticizing the people who had the power to stop what is probably the most preventable tragedy of this year.

Ben Okri writes:

Residents of the area call it the crematorium.
It has revealed the undercurrents of our age.
The poor who thought voting for the rich would save them.
The poor who believed all that the papers said.
The poor who listened with their fears.
The poor who live in their rooms and dream for their kids.
The poor are you and I, you in your garden of flowers,
In your house of books, who gaze from afar
At a destiny that draws near with another name.
Sometimes it takes an image to wake up a nation
From its secret shame. And here it is every name
Of someone burnt to death, on the stairs or in their room,
Who had no idea what they died for, or how they were betrayed.
They did not die when they died; their deaths happened long
Before. It happened in the minds of people who never saw
Them. It happened in the profit margins. It happened
In the laws. They died because money could be saved and made.

The fire, apparently stoked by the building’s flammable exterior cladding, left at least 79 people dead or missing. In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, confirmed that cladding used on 95 high-rise buildings in 32 local authority areas had failed fire safety checks. But with an estimated 600 residential blocks fitted with similar cladding across the UK, that number is expected to rise.

Watch the passionate performance of his poem below: