People will always need people

Sharing a poem & a big thank you

Today I read Benjamin Zephaniah’s poem ‘People will always need people’.

I remember reading his work in school (Anyone else remember ‘Talking Turkeys’? It’s up there with ‘Chicken Run’. Both comic genius takes on the injustices of the meat industry - specific sure, but isn’t all good art a bit specific?).

I loved his sense of humour and justice. He instilled in me that poetry is a dancing art of love and silliness, as much as seriousness. As a fellow dyslexic writer, he reminded me that we can play with words in creative and wonderful ways, even (and especially) if we trip up.

Encouraged by his memory I have turned to my writing. I’m flickering between writing one piece about emotional labour, a second on building care clubs and a third about treating yourself with humanity whilst waiting for mental health services. All three pieces are nearly ready but have felt stuck. Like they’ve gotten too complicated.

Hearing Zephaniah’s poem is a helpful reminder that all that I am working on, all that many of us are working on, is an unfolding of one thing: the truth that people will always need people. Thank you Benjamin Zephaniah for making that sing.

I hope you enjoy his reading below. (Listen until the end for a really lovely ‘oh yeah’.)

With love, and an immense gratitude,

Rachel