In a National Poetry Day poll in 2005, Mitchell’s poem, ‘Human Beings’, was voted the one people would most like to see launched into space (so that if aliens were ever to wonder about us, they would be able to read a thought-provoking poem on the matter of ‘being human’). You can see him read this poem on YouTube if you look up ‘Adrian Mitchell reads Human Beings’.
1 MIN PREPARE
Look at the title of the next poem. With a classmate, do a one-minute brainstorm and write down as many words as possible that you associate with the word ‘playground’.
Back in the Playground Blues by Adrian Mitchell
I dreamed I was back in the playground, I was about four feet high Yes I dreamed I was back in the playground, standing about four feet high Well the playground was three miles long and the playground was five miles wide
It was broken black tarmac with a high wire fence all around Broken black dusty tarmac with a high fence running all around And it had a special name to it, they called it The Killing Ground
