05/05/2026
HOT POETS - THE ENERGY CITIES POEM
Chris Redmond and Liv Torc from Hot Poets have been at the Energy Cities Annual Forum in Guimarães, Portugal - writing a poem for the conference about green transitioning cities...
Huge thank you to everyone at Energy City, especially Anna Francis, who brought us along.
Here is the poem in words and film.
Energy Cities
The people of Guimarães know
when the last drum stops,
the party ends.
The municipal musicians
of the green transition.
A cradle city, always rocking.
A nation was born here.
A place where you have to smile
to pronounce its name.
Attitude is everything.
Today, on our backpacks, we feel it
that ferocity of pride,
soaking through regulation waterproofs.
Our soggy socks tap out the tune
of a fair future.
The taste of custard tarts,
the story of leather.
Forever, forever,
we journey together,
whatever the weather.
Here we are 300 branches and 300 trees,
a European forest flowering,
asking big questions.
Roots are deep, allowing us to grow.
Solar panels ripple across rooftops,
electric buses trundle.
On the bus,
Jamal says:
“Every building is a story,
every park or light or path
is a choice.”
At the source,
the rain makes the river wild,
its flows unseen under the smiling city,
through culverts, below cobbled streets,
into history.
We step into medieval currents,
swept away on a ghost ship of tanneries
and underground sewer systems,
where the secrets of cities are stored
in broken pipes.
Above ground,
trees umbrella the streets,
cooling the espresso afternoons.
We used to think trees competed for resources,
saw them too much in our own image.
Now we know they share,
network, form alliances.
Citizenship is a natural system.
At the science and technology park,
in white plastic hard hats,
hi-vis vests,
in the rain and mud,
we tour sustainable student accommodation.
Housing is an emotional subject.
It’s about places for us to be together.
Everywhere there is pencil on walls—
measurements, calculations,
reminders.
On the outside of buildings
heritage colours—dark red, cream, beige
try not to clash with the green wave.
Guimarães has a past to honour,
a future to save.
We all do.
Later, at the gymnasium,
talk is of community energy—
heating and cooling.
We learn of a transition.
We hunker under a flat roof.
The rain falls.
The trees surround us.
Above the canopy,
the laboratory maps the city
with heat drones,
makes tree libraries.
My Uber driver does his best to explain,
half in French, half in English, all Portuguese,
why people here care so much.
Barbers, taxi drivers, knitting circles,
social workers, faith leaders.
‘We defend the city with all we have…’
Democracy is only as strong
as our most vulnerable, least flexible.
Food is energy too.
It’s the hardest job to earn trust
but earn trust
we must.
Guimarães
Guimarães
You have to smile to say it.
Forever, forever,
we journey together.
Whatever the weather.
Whatever the weather.
By Liv Torc and Chris Redmond, Hot Poets.
