A visual representation of "City" by Louise Ho
WONG Sze Yu
Man Kwan QualiEd College
The poem “City” is about street sleepers in a hectic city.
There are people who are poor and have no choice but to be street sleepers or beggars.
They are unable to find a job and make a living.
Since the poem takes place in a desolate winter, for this reason,
I decided to use black and white.
Not only does it give the cold feeling in winter,
but it also shows the calm side of the city.
The use of one-point perspective creates the pressing sense of the city.
In the middle of the drawing is a beggar on a pedestrian footbridge.
It is inspired by the structure and environment of Mong Kok and the older Bauhaus-style buildings around.
I hope my artwork can raise the awareness of the social issue and
help people break free from the life as street sleepers.
It is worth rethinking about the root of this problem and
what can be done to ameliorate it.
City
No fingers claw at the bronze gauze
Of a Hong Kong December dusk,
Only a maze of criss-crossing feet
That enmeshes the city
In a merciless grid.
Between many lanes
Of traffic, the street-sleeper
Carves out his island home.
Or under the thundering fly-over,
Another makes his own peace of mind.
Under the staircase,
By the public lavatory,
A man entirely unto himself
Lifts his hand
And opens his palm.
His digits
Do not rend the air,
They merely touch
As pain does, effortlessly.
Louise Ho
“City” was published in Incense Tree: Collected Poems of Louise Ho by Louise Ho, p.45. Copyrights © 2009 by Hong Kong University Press.