Tag Archives: Adrian Mitchell

POETIC IGNORANCE

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Adrian Mitchell (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British anti-authoritarian Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country’s anti-Bomb movement. Mitchell sought in his work to counteract the implications of his own assertion that, “Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.” In a National Poetry Day poll in 2005 his poem “Human Beings” was voted the one most people would like to see launched into space.  “Most people ignore most poetry / because / most poetry ignores most people.”

Since the Vietnam war nothing has really changed except that war-mongers have become more sophisticated about sanitizing acts of mass-murder with remote controlled drones and smart bombs.  More “enemies” are killed per square “peace keeping soldier”.  Listen to a poem performed by Adrian Mitchell in the video below.  Fill in the word “Vietnam” with the word “Iraq” or “Afghanistan” or “Iran”, etc..  Different year…. same old shit.