Poetry for lunch

A small group of us came together today to celebrate National Poetry Day as part of Black History Month at Lincoln Bishop University.  

The event was organised by Associate Professor Sheine Peart.  Her request was simple: ‘Come along this lunchtime and share a poem by a Black poet that particularly inspires you’.

Poems were wide-ranging and eclectic.  One was an account of the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963, an event made in response to the barring of the hiring of Black conductors and drivers on the omnibus system (The Buses by Miles Chambers).  Others were more personal, including Praise song for my mother (Grace Nichols), No Ascension by Dean Atta and People will always need people (Benjamin Zephaniah).

Discussion about the poems was wide-ranging and lively, including topics such as belonging, stereotypes, pre-conceptions, family and hope.  The power of poetry to foreground different ideas, perspectives and interpretations as well as to bring coherence and agreement of shared experiences was acknowledged and celebrated.

Two of the shorter poems are reproduced under, in order that they can be shared with our university community more widely.

Somebody Else

If I was not myself, I would be somebody else.

But actually I am somebody else.

I have ben somebody else all my life.

It’s no laughing matter going about the pace

all the time being somebody else:

people mistake you; you mistake yourself.

Jackie Kay

“I shine with different kind of friends” 

Said the sun to the moon

“I a blessed.

But I laugh with one to the earth’s end

You are that one and the best.”

Lemn Sissay

With many thanks to Sheine Peart for organising this event.