Neil Astley

Being a Human Being

not to be complicit
not to accept everyone else is silent it must be alright

not to keep one’s mouth shut to hold onto one’s job
not to accept public language as cover and decoy

not to put friends and family before the rest of the world
not to say I am wrong when you know the government is wrong

not to be just a bought behaviour pattern
to accept the moment and fact of choice

I am a human being
and I exist

a human being
and a citizen of the world

responsible to that world
– and responsible for that world

Tom Leonard

*

Lines for Winter

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself –
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon’s gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

Mark Strand

*

In Passing

How swiftly the strained honey
of afternoon light
flows into darkness

and the closed bud shrugs off
its special mystery
in order to break into blossom:

as if what exists, exists
so that it can be lost
and become precious

Lisel Mueller

*

Meteor

And this is how everything vanishes,
how everything that vanishes begins,
the hinged moment looking forwards and back.
Like that night when we sat with the back door open,
the summer distilled to the scent of jasmine,
the scrape of cutlery, the chink of glass.
A robin stirred in the dusty hedgerow.
Clothes held our bodies as a mouth might a kiss.
Then the meteor brought us to our feet:
a stripped atom, trapping electrons
to excite the darkness with its violet light.
I remember how it disturbed the heavens,
burned against the air to leave no trace.

Deryn Rees-Jones

*

Vows

I can’t promise it’s chiselled from gold
in spirals that speak of forever.

I can’t tell you it’s wise as a mountain
with pines that reach for heaven.

I can’t promise it’s flawless as honey
gathered by bees in bell heather.

I can’t say it’s simple as silk
spun from cocoon into treasure.

But I promise it’s rooted as rowan
with berries that sing to September.

I promise its to and its fro
will surprise like Glenmalure weather,

a seasoned row boat,
moored or unmoored at your pleasure.

Jane Clarke

*

Love Song for a Keeper

If nothing of us lasts past seven years,
each speck of skin replaced, old cells reborn,
then soon the crisscross lines inside your palm
where I pretended to read kids, careers,
won’t recognise my thumbprints anymore.
This fleck of face, that furthest tip of tongue,
whole parts of us will never know they touched,
nights when our tiny room swelled up with breath,
till one window exhaled for us at dawn.
Then will our new skin falter in the sudden
cold unknown? Will bones be what we dig for?
As our chests press again, stranger to stranger,
our particles in motion, trembling, raw,
let my flesh blaze to yours, for seven more.

Miriam Nash

*

Scaffolding

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

Seamus Heaney

*

Leaving Early

My Love,
                    tonight Fionnuala is your nurse.
You’ll hear her voice sing-song around the ward
lifting a wing at the shore of your darkness.
I heard that, in another life, she too journeyed
through a storm, a kind of curse, with the ocean
rising darkly around her, fierce with cold,
and no resting place, only the frozen
rocks that tore her feet, the light on her shoulders.

And no cure there but to wait it out.
If, while I’m gone, your fever comes down –
if the small, salt-laden shapes of her song
appear to you as a first glimmer of earth-light,
follow the sweet, hopeful voice of that landing.
She will keep you safe beneath her wing.

Leanne O’Sullivan

*

You Fixed It

And if the compass broke you fixed it, fastened
the pencil to it with a rubber band,
and if there was no hot water you fixed it, learnt
to sit on that plastic stool in the bathroom
and count, and if it was too cold outside
you fixed it, and there was the smell of burnt
lemon on the brazier, or the click
click click of the gas heater.
And if you were bored you fixed it, learnt how to cut
paper and color the scraps, learned to write
on the walls, and if you wrote on the walls you
fixed it, scrubbed them with your mom who yelled
at your big brother who what on earth
was he doing just watching? And if the TV blurred
you fixed it, adjusted the antenna to catch
those Japanese cartoons translated into Arabic
on the Syrian channel, and if the cartoons
hadn’t begun you fixed it, danced
to those nationalistic Syrian songs about Hafez, repeated
ya hala ya hala ya hala heh. And if you didn’t have enough
books you fixed it, read that French-Arabic dictionary the size
of your torso, stared at the words crépuscule and الشفق.
And if you tripped on the missing tile you fixed it,
learnt to count your steps in the dark
afternoon without electricity, gauged
how dark it was by whether or not you could see
your thumb, and if you couldn’t see your thumb
you fixed it, got the candle from under the sink,
and if the sink was leaking you fixed it, tied
a cloth to the pipe, and if the pipe burst
you fixed it, pressed your palms
against the hole in the wall until
Mom called the grocer to call the butcher to call
the plumber next to him, and if there was a hole
in your sock you fixed it, learnt to fold it
under your big toe. And if your window shattered
you fixed it, taped cardboard to the frame,
and if someone died you fixed it by telling stories
about how crusty their lahm bi ‘ajeen was,
and if the lahm bi ‘ajeen was too crusty
you fixed it by dipping it in the tahini,
and if your sorrow hardened you fixed it
by dipping it in sea water, and if your country
hardened, if your country hardened you fixed it
by dipping it in song.

Zeina Hashem Beck

*

Ode

The streets are empty
but a crowd has gathered in the air.
Trombones and cellos on the balconies,
a song gradually taking hold.
The music invents a square
where all of us slowly appear,
a plainclothes orchestra surprising ourselves
like the flashmob we watched together:
first the lone double bass like a statue coming alive
then the bassoon and violins,
the rushing brass like firemen looking for a fire,
the shoppers dropping their bags and pumping the ode.
The man in the T-shirt turns to us, his hands in the air.
We’re the city now and the square,
leaping from our strange disguises
to sing to each other across the darkness.

17 March 2020

Peter Sirr

 

    Neil Astley    17    Introduction

1  Staying human
    Tom Leonard    22     Being a Human Being
    Patrizia Cavalli    22     ‘Here I am, I do my bit…’
    Göran Sonnevi    23     ‘Whose life? you asked’
    Fernando Pessoa    24     They Spoke to Me of People, and of Humanity
    John Barr    24     Bonsai Master
    Audre Lorde    25     A Litany for Survival
    Robert Pinsky    26     Samurai Song
    Zeina Hashem Beck    27     You Fixed It
    Janet Fisher    28     Life and Other Terms
    Vincenza Holland    29     Excuse Me
    U.A. Fanthorpe     30     A Minor Role
    Pippa Little    31     Against Hate
    Tatamkhulu Afrika    32     The Woman at the Till
    Ellery Akers    33     The Word That Is a Prayer
    Danusha Laméris    34    Insha’Allah
    David Friedland    35    Blind man
    Danusha Laméris    35    Small Kindnesses
    Mimi Khalvati    36    Smiles
    Mimi Khalvati    37    The Brag
    Nikola Madzirov    37    When Someone Goes Away Everything That’s Been Done Comes Back
    Ellen Bass    38    Gate C22
    Naomi Shihab Nye    39    Gate A-4
    Fred D’Aguiar    41    Excise
    Thomas Kinsella    42    Mirror in February
    Charles Simic    42    Mirrors at 4 a.m.
    Zhang Zao    43    Mirror
    Rachael Boast    44    Desperate Meetings of Hermaphrodites
    Werner Aspenström    44    You and I and the World
    Kaveh Akbar    45    What Use Is Knowing Anything If No One Is Around
    Tim Liardet    46    Self-Portrait with Aquarium Octopus Flashing a Mirror
    M. Vasalis    47     The IJsselmeer Dam
    Stewart Conn    47     Conundrum
    Valerio Magrelli    48     Vanishing Point
    Richard Siken    49     Landscape with Fruit Rot and Millipede
    Marjorie Lotfi Gill    50     Gift
    Patrizia Cavalli    51     ‘I’m pretty clear, I’m dying…’
    Lawrence Sail    51     Recognition
    Tracy K. Smith    52     Nanluoxiang Alley
    Dzifa Benson    52     Self Portrait as a Creature of Numbers
    Wisława Szymborska    53     A Contribution to Statistics
    Gennady Aygi    55     People
    Linda Anderson    56     Sanctuary
    Judith Herzberg    56     The Way
    Anna Swir    57     The Same Inside
    Martín Espada    58     Rednecks
    Natalie Diaz    59     The Beauty of a Busted Fruit
    Suji Kwock Kim    59     Monologue for an Onion
    Nadine Aisha Jassat    60     The Years
    Nadine Aisha Jassat    61     Let Me Tell You
    Jessica Traynor    62     In Praise of Fixer Women
    Marie Howe    63     Magdalene Afterwards
    Marie Howe    65     One Day
    Tishani Doshi    65     Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods

2  Ten Zillion Things
    Mark Strand    68    Lines for Winter
    Linda Pastan    68     Imaginary Conversation
    Jack Gilbert    69     Failing and Flying
    Gillian Clarke    70     Snow
    Vladmír Holan    71     Snow
    W.N. Herbert    71     Breakfrost
    Derek Mahon    72     Rising Late
    Michelle O’Sullivan    74     What Was Mistook
    Michelle O’Sullivan    74     Lines
    John F. Deane    75     The Red Gate
    Alison Brackenbury    75     So
    Ellen Bass    76    Any Common Desolation
    Lisel Mueller    77    In Passing
    Leanne O’Sullivan    77     A Healing
    Hanny Michaelis    78     ‘It’s terrible…’
    John F. Deane    78    The World is Charged
    David Butler    79     And Then The Sun Broke Through
    William Stafford    80    You Reading This, Be Ready
    Hanny Michaelis    80     ‘Over the years…’
    Deryn Rees-Jones    81     Meteor
    Tuvia Ruebner    81     Wonder
    Blake Morrison    82    Happiness
    Jack Underwood    82    Happiness
    Ruth Stone    83    Wanting
    Mikiro Sasaki    84    Sentiments
    David Ferry    84    Lake Water
    Randall Jarrell     86    Well Water
    Seamus Heaney    87    A Drink of Water
    Lani O’Hanlon    87    Going to the Well
    Denise Levertov    88    The Fountain
    G.F. Dutton    89    The Miraculous Issue
    George Szirtes    90    Water
    Moya Cannon    91    Introductions
    A.E. Stallings    91    Olives
    Jan Wagner    92    quince jelly
    Louis de Paor    93    Marmalade
    Sarah Lindsay    95    If God Made Jam
    Craig Arnold    95    Meditation on a Grapefruit
    Aleš Šteger    96    Chocolate
    Aleš Šteger    97    Egg
    Thomas Lux    98    Refrigerator, 1957
    Connie Bensley    99    Cookery
    Mary Ruefle    100    Timberland
    Matthew Dickman    101    The World is Too Huge to Grasp
    Linda Gregg    102    Let Birds
    Imtiaz Dharker    103    Carving
    Alice Oswald    104    A Short History of Falling
    Aracelis Girmay    105    Ars Poetica
    Ruth Sharman    105    Fragments
    Carlos Drummond de Andrade    106    The House of Lost Time
    Vera Pavlova    107    ‘If there is something to desire…’
    Luis Muñoz    107    Leave Poetry
    Boris A. Novak    108    Decisions: 11
    Carlos Drummond de Andrade    109    Absence
    Mairéad Byrne    109    Facing the Music
    Ruth Sharman    110    Hilltop
    Dennis O’Driscoll    110    Nocturne

3  Innocence and experience
    Malika Booker    112    Cement
    Malika Booker    113    Erasure
    Tracey Herd    114    Happy Birthday
    Sinéad Morrissey    115    Fairground Music
    Sharon Olds    116    To Our Miscarried One, Age Thirty Now
    Dorothea Lasky    117    The Miscarriage
    Fiona Benson    118    Sheep
    Derry O’Sullivan    119    Stillborn 1943: Calling Limbo
    Deirdre Brennan    120    Born Dead
    Noelle Lynskey    121    Still Born
    Sandeep Parmar    122    An uncommon language
    Aoife Lyall    124    Sounds of that day
    Aoife Lyall    125    Ubi Sunt
    Catriona Clutterbuck    126    Her Body
    Rebecca Goss    126    The Lights
    Ciara MacLaverty    127    ‘That’s Quite a Trick If You Can Pull It Off’
    Fiona Benson    128    Prayer
    Hannah Sullivan    128    from The Sandpit after Rain
    Mona Arshi    129    Delivery Room
    Doireann Ní Ghríofa    130    Inventory: Recovery Room
    Justyna Bargielska    130    Different rose
    Zoë Brigley    131    Star / Sun / Snow
    Doireann Ní Ghríofa    133    Jigsaw Puzzle
    Jack Underwood    133    William
    Rebecca Goss    134    Last Poem
    Fiona Benson    135    Hide and Seek
    Ellen Cranich    136    Blasket Sound
    Niall Campbell    137    Night Watch
    Niall Campbell    138    February Morning
    Liz Berry    138    The Republic of Motherhood
    Rebecca Goss    140    My Animal
    Fiona Benson    140    Ruins
    Moya Cannon    141    Milk
    Esther Morgan    142    Latch
    Ailbhe Darcy    142    After my son was born
    Hollie McNish    143    Embarrassed
    Stephanie Norgate    146    Miracle
    Lauris Edmond    147    Late song
    Peter Sansom    148    Mini Van
    Sharon Olds    148    I Cannot Say I Did Not
    Katharine Towers    149    Childhood
    Lucille Clifton    150    daughters
    Jane Clarke    150    The trouble
    Brenda Shaughnessy    151    I Wish I Had More Sisters
    Ann Gray    153    I wish I had more mothers
    Gretchen Marquette    154    Want
    Tess Gallagher    155    With Stars
    Tess Gallagher    156    I Stop Writing the Poem
    Jane Clarke    156    Hers
    Naomi Shihab Nye    157    Shoulders
    Olivia McCannon    158    New Road
    Leanne O’Sullivan    159    My Father Asks Why
    Leanne O’Sullivan    160    The Cord
    Naomi Shihab Nye    161    Supple Cord
    Gwendolyn Brooks    162    a song in the front yard
    Tracy K. Smith    162    The World Is Your Beautiful Younger Sister
    Penelope Shuttle    163    Outgrown
    Carol Ann Duffy    164    Empty Nest
    Anna Enquist    165    All at Once
    Inua Ellams    165    Swallow Twice
    Jacob Sam-La Rose    166    Never
    Jacob Sam-La Rose    166    The Other End of the Line
    Jericho Brown    168    Prayer of the Backhanded
    Jericho Brown    169    As a Human Being
    Doireann Ní Ghríofa    170    Tooth
    Anne Michaels    172    from Correspondences: a poem
    Abigail Parry    176    The Quilt
    Safiya Sinclair    177    Family Portrait
    Pascale Petit    178    My Mother’s Love
    Pascale Petit    179    Her Harpy Eagle Claws
    Pascale Petit    180    My Wolverine
    Jacqueline Bishop    181    Snakes
    Selima Hill    182    from Grunter
    Selima Hill    185    from Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits
    Shivanee Ramlochan    188    from The Red Thread Cycle
    Zoë Brigley    190    The Eye in the Wall
    Nicki Heinen    191    The Ward
    Aria Aber    192    Asylum
    Sasha Dugdale    194    Asylum
    Sasha Dugdale    195    ‘Perhaps Akhmatova was right’
    Xidu Heshang    196    Fictionalising Her
    Tony Hoagland    197    Personal

 4  After Frank O’Hara
    Frank O’Hara    200    The Day Lady Died
    Rita Dove    201    Canary
    John Burnside    201    The Day Etta Died
    Clare Pollard    202    The Day Amy Died
    Nick Flynn    203    The Day Lou Reed Died
    Ian McMillan    205    The Evening of the Day Pavarotti Died
    Anjum Hasan    205    The Day No One Died
    Frank O’Hara    206    Autobiographia Literaria
    Safiya Sinclair    207    Autobiography
    Geoff Hattersley    208    Frank O’Hara Five, Geoffrey Chaucer Nil
    Simon Armitage    208    Poem
    Martina Evans    209    I Want to Be like Frank O’Hara
    Phoebe Stuckes    210    Kiss me quick
    Frank O’Hara    211    Katy
    Roger Reeves    211    Someday I’ll Love Roger Reeves
    Ocean Vuong    212    Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong
    Frank O’Hara    213    Why I Am Not a Painter
    Maria Barnas    214    Why I Am Not a Painter
    Matthew Sweeney    215    My Life as a Painter
    Adam Zagajewski    216    Describing Paintings

5  Harmony and discord
    John Hegley    218    A Declaration of Need
    Robert Wrigley    218    A Lock of Her Hair
    Jackie Kay    219    High Land
    Marie Howe    220    Low Tide, Late August
    Katharine Kilalea    220    You were a bird
    Sarah Lindsay    221    The Arms of a Marvelous Squid
    Warsan Shire    222    for women who are difficult to love
    Jericho Brown    223    Colosseum
    Jericho Brown    224    Of My Fury
    Caroline Bird    225    Marriage of Equals
    Joan Larkin    226    Want
    Chen Chen    227    Poem in Noisy Mouthfuls
    Mary Jean Chan    229    //
    Jane Clarke    230    Vows
    Miriam Nash    231    Love Song for a Keeper
    Seamus Heaney    232    Scaffolding
    Valerio Magrelli    232    The Embrace
    Vidyan Ravinthiran    233    Aubade
    Leanne O’Sullivan    233    Leaving Early
    Leanne O’Sullivan    234    Note
    Alex Dimitrov    235    Some New Thing
    Eavan Boland    236    Lines for a Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary
    Hester Knibbe    236    Yes
    Dick Davis    237    Uxor Vivamus…
    Dick Davis    238    Making a Meal of It
    Wendy Cope    239    To My Husband
    Wendy Cope    239    One Day
    Anne Haverty    240    Objecting to Everything
    Elaine Feinstein    242    A Visit
    Tara Bergin    242    Wedding Cake Decorations
    Ranjit Hoskoté    242    Couple
    Rebecca Perry    243    Windows
    Joan Margarit    244    Love is a place
    John Challis    244    The Love
    Fleur Adcock    245    Happy Ending
    Kei Miller    246    Epilogue
    Conor O’Callaghan    246    Kingdom Come
    Vona Groarke    247    Ghost Poem
    Phoebe Stuckes    248    Gold Hoop Earrings
    Phoebe Stuckes    249    Attempt
    Cynthia Huntington    250    For Love
    Bobby Parker    251    Working Class Voodoo
    Melissa Lee-Houghton    252    Love-Smitten Heart
    Louis Jenkins    255    Fish Out of Water
    Sarah Holland-Batt    255    No End to Images
    Patrizia Cavalli    256    ‘Very simple love that believes in words…’
    Natalie Shaw    257    Like when we went to the cinema that time
    Darío Jaramillo    258    from Impossible Loves
    Darío Jaramillo    258    Mozart on the Motorway
    Michael Longley    259    Ceilidh
    Derek Mahon    260    Aran
    Paddy Bushe    261    The Rolling Wave
    Seamus Heaney    262    The Given Note
    Gerard Fanning    262    That Note
    Seamus Heaney    263    Song
    Adam Zagajewski    264    Music Heard with You
    Elizabeth Burns    265    Listening to Bach’s B Minor Mass in the Kitchen
    Lars Gustafsson    266    The silence of the world before Bach
    Adam Zagajewski    266    Chaconne
    Jane Hirshfield    267     Even the Vanishing Housed
    Tomas Tranströmer    268    Schubertiana
    Tomas Tranströmer    270    Allegro
    Gregory Orr    270    To Be Alive

6  Mortal hurt
    Tomas Tranströmer    272    The Half-Finished Heaven
    Jan Erik Vold    272    The Fact That No Birds Sing
    Galway Kinnell    274    Wait
    Louise Glück    275    from Averno
    Caroline Bird    276    The End of the Bed
    Caroline Bird    277    A Surreal Joke
    Ken Babstock    278    As Marginalia in John Clare’s The Rural Muse
    Lieke Marsman    279    The Following Scan Will Last Less Than a Minute
    Lieke Marsman    279    The Following Scan Will Last One Minute
    Lieke Marsman    280    The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes
    Jo Shapcott    281    Of Mutability
    Ilyse Kusnetz    282    Harbinger
    Julie O’Callaghan    283    No Can Do
    Wayne Holloway-Smith    284    ‘the posh mums are boxing in the square…’
    Anna Swir    285     My Body Effervesces
    Robert Hass    286    A Story About the Body
    Max Ritvo    286    Poem to My Litter
    Max Ritvo    288    Heaven Is Us Being a Flower Together
    Max Ritvo    289    Cachexia
    Mark Doty    290    Michael’s Dream
    Ana Ristović    291    The Body
    Elaine Feinstein    292    Long Life
    Ruth Stone    293    The Excuse
    Finuala Dowling    294    At eighty-five, my mother’s mind
    Finuala Dowling    295    Widowhood in the dementia ward
    Finuala Dowling    295    Birthday in the dementia ward
    Judith Herzberg    296    Old Age
    Roger McGough    296    The Wrong Beds
    Geraldine Mitchell    297    Sneak
    Geraldine Mitchell    297    How the Body Remembers
    Elise Partridge    298    from The Book of Steve
    Menno Wigman    298    Everyone Is Beautiful Today
    Michael Longley    299    Age
    Thomas Lynch    300    Refusing at Fifty-two to Write Sonnets
    Dermot Healy    300    As You Get Older
    Mary O’Malley    301    A Lift
    James Fenton    302    For Andrew Wood
    Vijay Seshadri    303    Bright Copper Kettles
    Anne Stevenson    304    Anaesthesia
    Elise Partridge    305    Last Days
    Michael O’Loughlin    306    In This Life
    Zaffar Kunial    308    Prayer
    Adil Jussawalla    308    Mother’s Ninety-fourth Birthday
    Menno Wigman    309    Body, my body
    Janet Ayachi    309    Spooning Stars
    Matthew Sweeney    310    The Tube
    Kerry Hardie    311    Ship of Death
    Sara Berkeley Tolchin    312    Burrow Beach
    Helen Dunmore    313    My life’s stem was cut
    Helen Dunmore    314    Hold out your arms
    Lorna Goodison    316    My Mother’s Sea Chanty
    Vicki Feaver    316    You Are Not
    Sharon Olds    318    In the Temple Basement
    Emily Berry    319    The photo that is most troubling is the one I don’t want to show you
    Annemarie Austin    320    from Country
    Annemarie Austin    320    What My Double Will
    Steven Matthews    321    Last Christmas Cracker
    Kerry Hardie    322    After My Father Died
    Valérie Rouzeau    322    from Vrouz
    Bernard O’Donoghue    323    Ter Conatus
    Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin    324    The Morandi Bridge
    Jay Whittaker    325    The call
    Jay Whittaker    325    Bed fellow
    Ruth Fainlight    326    Oxygen Mask
    Ruth Fainlight    327    Somewhere Else Entirely
    Elaine Feinstein    328    Beds
    Imtiaz Dharker    328    Screen-saver
    Imtiaz Dharker    329    Passport photo
    Imtiaz Dharker    330    Say his name
    Gillian Clarke    330    Honesty
    Katie Donovan    331    Off Duty
    Eunice de Souza    331    Advice to Women
    Ron Koertge    332    Lily
    Wisława Szymborska    332    Cat in an Empty Apartment
    Theresa Lola    333    Tailoring Grief
    Wisława Szymborska    334    The Day After – Without Us
    Billy Collins    335    Helium
    Mary Ruefle    336    Trust Me
    Lucie Brock-Boido    337    Soul Keeping Company
    Dean Young    338    Street of Sailmakers
    Denise Riley    339    Listening for Lost People
    Dennis O’Driscoll    340    Then
    Julie O’Callaghan    341    Beyond
    Julie O’Callaghan    341    Cyber You
    Alison Brackenbury    342    All

7  Interesting times
    Selina Nwulu    344    We have everything we need
    Derek Mahon    345    Insomnia
    Colette Bryce    346    Helicopters
    Jennifer L. Knox    347    Drones
    Colette Bryce    348    Belfast Waking, 6 a.m.
    Doireann Ní Ghríofa    349    On Patrick Street
    Imtiaz Dharker    350    Flight Radar
    Jean Sprackland    351    CCTV
    Jasmine Ann Cooray    352    Call Centre Blues
    John Cooper Clarke    352    Bed Blocker Blues
    David Constantine    354    Pity
    Jacob Saenz    355    Sweeping the States
    Jane Commane    356    Midlands kids
    Sarah Howe    357    On a line by Xu Lizhi
    Jeong Ho-seung    358    Death of a Cellphone
    Sabeer Haka    358    Politics
    Sabeer Haka    359    Mulberries
    Paul Farley    359    Hole in the Wall
    Zohar Atkins    360    Song of Myself (Apocryphal)
    Tim Turnbull    361    Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn
    Caitlín Nic Íomhair    363    Praise the Young
    Jessica Mookherjee    363    Ursa Minor
    Theresa Muñoz    364    Be the first to like this
    A.E. Stallings    365    Like, the Sestina

8  Roots and routes
    Deryn Rees-Jones    368    Home
    Nina Bogin    368    Initiation, II
    Maura Dooley    369    Dancing at Oakmead Road
    Eavan Boland    370    Nocturne
    Tom French    371    The Last Light
    Peter Sirr    371    from The Rooms
    Jane Clarke    374    Who owns the field?
    Kirun Kapur    374    Anthem
    David Dabydeen    375    Catching Crabs
    Aleš Debeljak    376    A Letter Home
    Stanisław Barańczak    377    If China
    Arundhathi Subramaniam    378    Home
    Moniza Alvi    378    And if
    Vidyan Ravinthiran    379    Ceylon
    Vidyan Ravinthiran    380    My Sri Lankan Family
    Daljit Nagra    380    Our Town with the Whole of India
    Roger Robinson    382    To His Homeland
    Elisabeth Sennitt Clough    382    Potato Season
    Mir Mahfuz Ali    383    My Son Waits by the Door
    Alberto Ríos    384    We Are of a Tribe
    Vahni Capildeo    385    Going Nowhere, Getting Somewhere
    Imtiaz Dharker    386    Chaudhri Sher Mobarik looks at the loch
    André Naffis-Sahely    387    Vanishing Act
    André Naffis-Sahely    387    An Island of Strangers
    Adam Zagajewski    388    The Three Kings
    John Agard    389    Checking Out Me History
    Sujata Bhatt    391    A Different History
    Karin Karakaşlı    392    History-Geography
    Amir Darwish    393    Where I come from
    Imtiaz Dharker    394    Minority
    Luis Muñoz    395    The Foreigner
    Hama Tuma    396    Just a Nobody
    Amarjit Chandan    396    In This Country
    Keki Daruwalla    397    Migrations
    Beata Duncan    399    The Notebook
    Mina Gorji    400    Exit
    Adam Zagajewski    401    Refugees
    Wisława Szymborska    402    Some People
    Bejan Matur    403    Night Spent in the Temple of a Patient God
    Bejan Matur    404    The Moon Sucks up Our Grief
    Ribka Sibhatu    406    In Lampedusa
    Musa Okwonga    408    Hundreds of cockroaches drowned today
    Azita Ghahreman    408    The Boat That Brought Me
    Carolyn Forché    409    The Boatman
    Linda Gregerson    410    from Sleeping Bear
    Naomi Shihab Nye    411    Mediterranean Blue
    Kimiko Hahn    411    After being asked if I write ‘the occasional poem’
    Reza Mohammadi    412    Illegal Immigrant
    Moniza Alvi    413    Flight
    Fadwa Soulieman    414    For Lana Sadiq
    Audre Lorde    415    Diaspora
    Philip Gross    416    The Displaced Persons Camp
    Teresa Samuel Ibrahim    416    Longing
    Teresa Samuel Ibrahim    417    The last train across Ariat Bridge
    Warsan Shire    418    Conversations about home
    Sabeer Haka    420    Home
    Gabeba Baderoon    420    I Cannot Myself

 9  Empathy and conflict
    Kwame Dawes    422    Land Ho
    Edward Baugh    422    A Nineteenth-century Portrait
    Kevin Young    423    Reward
    Martín Espada    425    How We Could Have Lived or Died This Way
    Gwendolyn Brooks    426    We Real Cool
    Terrance Hayes    427    The Golden Shovel
    Wanda Coleman    429    American Sonnet: 94
    Terrance Hayes    429    American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin
    Terrance Hayes    430    American Sonnet for the New Year
    Patricia Smith    431    That Chile Emmett in the Casket
    James Berry    432    Travelling As We Are
    James Berry    433    In-a Brixtan Markit
    Elizabeth Alexander    434    Smile
    Patricia Smith    435    10-Year-Old Shot Three Times, but She’s Fine
    Jericho Brown    436    Bullet Points
    Danez Smith    437    the bullet was a girl
    Evie Shockley    438    supply and demand
    Dean Bowen    439    mi skin
    Kayo Chingonyi    440    The N Word
    Natasha Trethewey    441    Flounder
    Natasha Trethewey    442    Help, 1968
    Hannah Lowe    443    Dance Class
    Hannah Lowe    443    Sausages
    Rita Dove    444    After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed
    Raymond Antrobus    445    Jamaican British
    Anthony Anaxagorou    446    Cause
    Anthony Anaxagorou    447    Departure Lounge Twenty Seventeen
    Claudia Rankine    449    from Citizen
    Claudia Rankine    450    from August 4, 2011 / In Memory of Mark Duggan
    Roy McFarlane    453    from …they killed them
    Danez Smith    454    dinosaurs in the hood
    Thomas McCarthy    456    Slow Food
    Imtiaz Dharker    456    A Century Later
    Remco Campert    457    Poetry
    Leanne O’Sullivan    458    Safe House
    Ilya Kaminsky    459    We Lived Happily during the War
    Ilya Kaminsky    460    In a Time of Peace
    Luis Muñoz    461    Breathing
    Fatimah Asghar    461    If They Come for Us
    Solmaz Sharif    463    Look
    Lorraine Mariner    465    Thursday
    Chrissy Williams    466    The Burning of the Houses
    Ishion Hutchinson    466    The Garden
    Major Jackson    468    Selling Out
    Jay Bernard    470    Clearing
    Jay Bernard    471    +
    Jay Bernard    471    –
    Roger Robinson    472    Doppelgänger
    Roger Robinson    473    The Portrait Museum
    Roger Robinson    474    The Father
    Valerio Magrelli    474    The Boundary
    André Mangeot    475    Bellwether
    Deborah Moffatt    475    Eating Thistles
    Choman Hardi    476    Dispute Over a Mass Grave
    Choman Hardi    477    A Day for Love
    Seamus Heaney    478    Chorus from The Cure at Troy

10  The future?
    Nick Drake    480    Stranger Thing
    Sarah Westcott    481    The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    Maura Dooley    481    Still Life with Sea Pinks and High Tide
    Polly Atkin    482    Colony Collapse Disorder
    Frank Báez    483    Exodus
    Mikeas Sánchez    484    What Is It Worth?
    David Constantine    484    Dominion
    Dom Bury    485    The Body’s New Weather
    Patrick Deeley    486    Two Hundred Million Animals
    Patrick Deeley    487    The End of the World
    Jack Underwood    487    Alpha Step
    Chase Twichell    488    Birdsong
    Chase Twichell    489    Herds of Humans
    David Tait    490     By Degrees
    David Tait    490     The Virus at My Window
    Imtiaz Dharker    491     Cranes Lean In
    Peter Sirr    492     Ode
    Gerda Stevenson    493    Hands
    Amit Majmudar    494     An American Nurse Foresees Her Death
    Imtiaz Dharker    494     Seen from a Drone, Delhi
    Imtiaz Dharker    496     Seen from a Drone, Mumbai
    Ruth Padel    496         Still life with a map of the world outside the window
    Joshua Bennett    498     Dad Poem
    Nick Drake    499    The Future

        501    Acknowledgements
        510    Index of writers
        517    Index of titles and first lines
 

More comments on Being Human:

'A book that makes the heart sing, which shows that the best of today's poetry…is a joy to behold, "charged", as Ezra Pound said, "with meaning to the utmost degree". Being Human, which runs to more than 500 pages, offers a glut of poetry from across the globe and, in so doing, renders redundant the "difficult" tag which so dogs the art. Above all it is a celebration of our capacity to embrace whatever's thrown at us… But subjects do not make poems, poets do. Astley's taste is catholic and inclusive and drawn to those who write with lyrical clarity and a keen eye… Being Human is not easy to summarise. It is a poetic Babel, a library in one volume' – Alan Taylor, The Herald (Scotland)

'Where Staying Alive and Being Alive were filled with poems that felt exigent, essential (even, in the case of Mary Oliver's subsequently much-quoted "Wild Geese", talismanic), the atmosphere of Being Human, as its title suggests, is more contemplative. Time – its passage and our relationship to it – is the overarching subject, and the section that tackles it specifically, "About time", sits at the heart of the book. Trains and rivers wind their way through the poems, memory is interrogated, and the moments of suspension in which, as Louis MacNeice has it, "Time was away and somewhere else", are rejoiced in… That act of noticing is what poetry ought to do, and what many of the superb poems in this anthology achieve. Let's hear it for modern verse' – Sarah Crown, The Guardian
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'Neil Astley's indispensable, endlessly surprising trilogy… The newest and last of these contains all the manifold virtues of the earlier two: another startlingly varied, unexpected and entirely accessible collection of contemporary poems - 500 per volume, no small undertaking - exploring the stuff of life, what Louis MacNeice called "this mad weir of tigerish waters/A prism of delight and pain"' – Catherine Lockerbie, The Scotsman

This playlist was curated by Birmingham Lit Fest to celebrate Bloodaxe's publication of Staying Human on National Poetry Day 2020 with readers from across the UK asked to read their favourite poems from the anthology. Presented in partnership with the Arts Council England Regional Literature Development Agencies: Writing West Midlands, Literature Works, New Writing South, New Writing North, National Centre for Writing, Spread the Word and Writing East Midlands.