Human Beings by Adrian Mitchell

Human Beings

look at your hands

  your 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!

Adrian Mitchell

 

To learn more about Adrian Mitchell, please click here to visit his homepage.

I discovered this beautiful poem in the anthology Being Human, edited by Neil Astley. On National Poetry Day in 2005 over a thousand people voted this the poem to send into space to best represent humanity.

I have greatly enjoyed the two previous books in this trilogy (STAYING ALIVE and BEING ALIVE) and would recommend to anyone who loves poetry, who likes poetry but can't figure out where to find 'the good stuff' or who has never read a poem in their life before!

Each book focuses on celebrating the human experience, using the rather fabulous tag line - UNREAL POEMS FOR UNREAL TIMES.


Table Of Contents - Poetry