This morning we heard about the tragic news of the explosions in Brussels. Three Rooms Press has a special relationship with Brussels: For the past two years, we have co-sponsored the Brussels International Underground Poetry Festival in this great city, bringing poetry, creativity and works of the imagination to the streets. Last year we stayed in the Forest section of Brussels, not far from where a police raid took place a couple of weeks ago. But the news this morning about explosions at the airport and at the subway near the EU headquarters left us in sad shock. Like so many people around the world, the warmth and kindness of the people of Brussels has touched us directly, and to hear they are under attack is horrifying.

In 2014, we published a book by Brussels poet and Underground Poetry Festival organizer Philip Meersman. That book, THIS IS BELGIAN CHOCOLATE, incorporated visual treatments of Meersman’s fine poems, including this one, “Brussels”, which seems particularly fitting to read on this tragic day. We sincerely hope that imagination, creativity, and art can contribute something to thwart future tragedies like what Brussels experienced today.