Benjamin Zephaniah’s Imagine Nation
Benjamin Zephaniah. Wow, what an inspiration. Highly dyslexic, he left school at 13 being unable to read or write, had constant brushes with the law before turning his hand to poetry and making it accessible to all kinds of people in all kinds of places. His self-confessed mission is to fight the staid, academic image of poetry, thus turning his poetry readings into theatrical-style performances.
I can’t quite believe I didn’t know his poem, Imagine Nation, before. It is so powerful and a revolutionary call to fight the status quo and inspire young people everywhere. I worked with this poem with a group of ten and eleven year olds this week and I loved the way they responded to it and how it made them feel.
Here’s the poem. Enjoy 🙂
Imagine Nation
You cannot hold, force or control
The brave imagination,
From paintings that are bright and bold
To poetry creation,
You cannot legislate against ideas
For you will find,
You cannot stop young pioneers,
It’s all in the mind.
Teachers inspire students and
Students inspire teachers,
And if done write throughout the land
We’ll all become great readers,
There’s joy in mathematics
When a beauty is designed,
There’s even art in physics,
It’s all in the mind.
Bring thought police in uniforms
The music will not stop,
Excited brains will not conform
And nor will sweet Hip-Hop,
Now schools can become temples
Where the students bump and grind,
It’s all so experimental,
It’s all in the mind.
We beings need adventure
Just like we need a heart,
It’s more than lazy leisure
Life’s empty without art,
Ideas are like the universe
They cannot be confined,
And our ideas are so diverse
It’s all in the mind.
When you look at all the negative
It’s only black and white, But when you get creative
It’s all colour and light,
So why live in the darkness?
And why be colour-blind?
Our art brings love and brightness,
It’s all in the mind.
You cannot put a price upon
A dancer with great action,
Nor can you put a price upon
A teacher full of passion,
What’s possible is endless
When these talents are combined,
What’s possible is priceless,
And
It’s all in the mind.
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