You may say I’m a dreamer,

But I’m not the only one.

Imagine, John Lennon

‘Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you

Ye are many – they are few.’

 The Mask of Anarchy, Percy Shelley

I don’t know if I should be believing

Deceptive perceiving but if you don’t mind, I don’t mind

I Don’t Mind, Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks)

I behold London; a Human awful wonder of God!

He says, Return, Albion, return! I give myself for thee:

My streets are my Ideas of Imagination.

Awake Albion, awake! and let us awake up together.

Jerusalem, William Blake

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.

Oscar Wilde

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T.S. Eliot

Eat your heart out on a plastic tray

You don’t do what you want

Then you’ll fade away

You won’t find me working

Nine to five

It’s too much fun a-being alive

I’m using my feet for my human machine

You won’t find me living for the screen

Are you lonely all needs catered

You got your brains dehydrated

Problems, John Lydon (Sex Pistols)

Ha, I was a blaze leaping up!

I was a tiger bursting into sunlight.

I was greedy, I was mad for the unknown.

I, new-risen, resurrected, starved from the tomb

Starved from a life of devouring always myself

Now here was I, new-awakened, with my hand stretching out

And touching the unknown, the real unknown, the unknown unknown.

New Heaven and Earth, DH Lawrence

I killed every song that I touched

And I turned into MC Hammer, they can’t touch me

I be killin’ it, over 10 years on the road

That’s a permanent mark, they can’t smudge me

Teachers used to diss me

Now when I touch the road I make history.

Lyrics, Skepta

The Red-Wood Forest is a bunch of sticks

The Wall of China is just a pile of bricks

The Pyramids mean less than nix

It’s the A-13 I travel on

To the Hanging Gardens…

Of Baden-Baden?

No!

The Hanging Gardens of Basildon.

The Hanging Gardens of Basildon, John Cooper Clarke

I’m not a prophet  or a stone-age man

Just a mortal with the potential of a superman.

Quicksand, David Bowie

They never fail who die

In a great cause.

Marino Faliero, Lord Byron

Warrior in Woolworths

Humble he may seem

Behind his servile innocence

He plots and he schemes

Warrior in Woolworths, Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex)

And finally…

The British (serves 60 milion)

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures

And let them settle,

Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years

Add los of Norman French to some

Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,

Trinidadians and Bajans wih some Ethiopians, Chinese,

Vietnamese and Sudanese.

Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians

And Pakistanis,

Combine with some Guyanese

And turn up the heat.

Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,

Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some

Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese

And Palestinians

Then add to the melting pot.

Leave the ingredients to simmer.

As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish

Binding them together with English.

Allow time to be cool.

Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,

Serve with justice

And enjoy.

Note: all the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.

Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.

Benjamin Zephaniah

Read about the inspiring new values of Southgate’s Young Lions.