Poem
Adrian Mitchell
HUMAN BEINGS
HUMAN BEINGS
HUMAN BEINGS
look at your handsyour beautiful useful hands
you’re not an ape
you’re not a parrot
you’re not a slow loris
or a smart missile
you’re human
not british
not american
not israeli
not palestinian
you’re human
not catholic
not protestant
not muslim
not hindu
you’re human
we all start human
we end up human
human first
human last
we’re human
or we’re nothing
nothing but bombs
and poison gas
nothing but guns
and torturers
nothing but slaves
of Greed and War
if we’re not human
look at your body
with its amazing systems
of nerve-wires and blood canals
think about your mind
which can think about itself
and the whole universe
look at your face
which can freeze into horror
or melt into love
look at all that life
all that beauty
you’re human
they are human
we are human
let’s try to be human
dance!
© 2004, the estate of Adrian Mitchell
From: The Shadow Knows
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Tarset
For National Poetry Day 2005, the Poetry Society held a Poem for Space Poll. This poem was voted the favourite to be sent into space, in the hope that it would be read in a hundred years\' time.
From: The Shadow Knows
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Tarset
Adrian Mitchell
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1932 - 2008)
“Joyous, acrid and demotic tumbling lyricist Pied Piper determinedly singing us away from catastrophe.” (Angela Carter)
Dubbed the Shadow Poet Laureate in 2003 by Red Pepper magazine, Adrian Mitchell has been one of the most exciting popular voices in British poetry for almost half a century. He passed away just days before Christmas 2008, marking the end of an incredibly prolific, and political...
Dubbed the Shadow Poet Laureate in 2003 by Red Pepper magazine, Adrian Mitchell has been one of the most exciting popular voices in British poetry for almost half a century. He passed away just days before Christmas 2008, marking the end of an incredibly prolific, and political...
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HUMAN BEINGS
look at your handsyour beautiful useful hands
you’re not an ape
you’re not a parrot
you’re not a slow loris
or a smart missile
you’re human
not british
not american
not israeli
not palestinian
you’re human
not catholic
not protestant
not muslim
not hindu
you’re human
we all start human
we end up human
human first
human last
we’re human
or we’re nothing
nothing but bombs
and poison gas
nothing but guns
and torturers
nothing but slaves
of Greed and War
if we’re not human
look at your body
with its amazing systems
of nerve-wires and blood canals
think about your mind
which can think about itself
and the whole universe
look at your face
which can freeze into horror
or melt into love
look at all that life
all that beauty
you’re human
they are human
we are human
let’s try to be human
dance!
From: The Shadow Knows
For National Poetry Day 2005, the Poetry Society held a Poem for Space Poll. This poem was voted the favourite to be sent into space, in the hope that it would be read in a hundred years\' time.
HUMAN BEINGS
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