Get to know the writer by watching this introductory video first:
What are the questions you would like to ask the writer?
Born and raised in Birmingham, England. Rejecting the appointment as an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003, Zephaniah wrote:
Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised. It is because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don’t even know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I’m certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE — no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.
We are going to analyse some poems by Benjamin Zephaniah. Before we do, have a look at his webpage and browse it freely. What are the things that struck you because you did not know them before?
What do we need most in life? He thinks we need people. What do you think he means by this?
Let’s deal with the poem presented in the introductory video to Benjamin Zephaniah: “Talking Turkeys”. Listen to the poet recite the poem and follow from the text. Underline all the spelling variations you can spot.
- Why do you think the poet wrote this poem?
- What are the issues he raises? Find evidence in the poem.
- Why are there so many spelling variations? (Remember what he said about “colonialism” in the introductory video?)
- What extra information do you learn about the writer from this poem?
- Creative activity: choose another animal human beings eat and write yoru poem as if you were Benjamzin Zephaniah. OR choose another animal eaten by human beings or exploited by human beings and write a poem through the eyes of the animal itself. Have fun. Remember what Benjamin Zephaniah says about poetry and why he wishes young people would write it?
Now read another poem “People will always need people” and watch the video.
People need people,
To walk to
To talk to
To cry and rely on,
People will always need people.
To love and to miss
To hug and to kiss,
It’s useful to have other people.
To whom to moan
If you’re all alone,
It’s so hard to share
When no one is there.
There’s not much to do
When there’s no one but you.
People will always need people.
To please
To tease
To put you at ease,
People will always need people.
To make life appealing
And give life some meaning,
It’s useful to have other people.
It you need a change
To whom will you turn.
If you need a lesson
From whom will you learn.
If you need to play
You’ll know why I say
People will always need people.
As girlfriends
As boyfriends
From Bombay
To Ostend,
People will always need people-
To have friendly fights with
And share tasty bites with,
It’s useful to have other people.
People live in families
Gangs, posses and packs,
Its seems we need company
Before we relax,
So stop making enemies
And let’s face the facts,
People will always need people,
Yes
People will always need people.
–Benjamin Zephaniah
Now watch the performance of the poem “Money”, included in City Psalms (1992). It would help if you printed it.
Have you evern wondered about your national identity? What does being Italian mean? What does being British mean? How do you think Italians are different from Brits? What are the stereotypes of an Italian? of a Brit?
Now let’s proceed with another poem, entitled “The British”.
- Why do you think Benjamin Zephaniah used the extended metaphor of cooking to describe the British?
- What does the poet invite the reader to think of?
- What are the ingredients for a ‘cool’ nation/dish? What are the features of a ‘cool’ dish/nation?
- What are the ingrediatents that make a nation/dish unpleasant?
The poet discusses the issue of racism and multiculturalism. Watch the video and take notes. He also recites and mentions some poems we will analyse at a later stage.
Now you will have some fun watching the following video written by the poet himself. Why do you think he decided to shoot it? The analysis of some of his poems has certainly given you the necessary means to go beyond the face value of the video. It tackles … it is rich in intertextual references, such as….. because he wants to emphasise that…
Look at the two covers of the novel “Face”. Which one do you like better? Why?
Read the following review written by a teen student, just like you. It is taken from www.teenink.com
Benjamin Zephaniah has been interviewed by different people in different parts of the world. I read manifold interviews and some questions struck me for their depth and for the purport of Benjamin Zephaniah’s answers.
What role do creative pursuits like poetry and art have to play in the current climate of global poverty, conflict and economic hardship?
When people ask me, ‘Are creativity and art and poetry relevant in political struggles?’, I used to say, ‘Go and ask Mandela. He knows the importance of poetry and arts in the struggle against apartheid.’ I’ve seen lots of liberation struggles where poets have said, ‘I don’t want to write anymore; I want to go and fight.’ And the revolutionaries have said: ‘No, keep writing, because we need you! We need our poets.’ People need somebody to articulate what the struggle is about. Politicians can get on a soapbox and say that we dream of a better land and all that stuff, but poets can visualize it better and put it into words and into the imagination of the people in a much better way than politicians can.
One of the political issues you’re most passionate about is racial equality. Are you encouraged by the level of progress that has been made in your lifetime?
I always get worried that if we say ‘nothing’s changed!’, people will go: ‘you’ve got a black president!’ And if we say ‘we’ve got a black president!’, then they’ll say: ‘but somebody’s just died!’ So you see what I’m getting at? There is a black president in the US, but you’ve still got racist people.
But things have moved on, there has been progress in some ways. I remember the days when in Britain you never saw black people in the media; now you do. And now we have a black British person [Steve McQueen] making a film – 12 Years A Slave – that’s mainstream, that Hollywood has recognized. So that’s progress.
But for a 16-year-old black kid in London, who’s walking around with baggy trousers, who may just want to hang out on the streets because that’s where the girls are… when he is stopped by a cop and asked: ‘What are you doing here?’, and he says: ‘I’m just looking for girls, why do you want to search me?’ – that’s when the tension starts. You can’t go up to that kid and say ‘well, Barack Obama is president!’
We’ve talked a lot about human rights. But are animal rights equally important to you?
One of the things that frustrate me is that in the human rights world, I know some people that are not really into animal rights, and vice versa. They say they are, but you know they’re not really active. I think you make a better case when you’re active, especially now when it comes to the environment and how important the environment is to us. And that means animals and land and humans. But yeah, I’m as passionate about animal rights as I am about human rights and I do think they overlap and connect.
Are you optimistic about the future of humanity?
Yes. This is something that I can’t really explain, and maybe it’s the spiritual part of me. I do think in the end that good will overcome evil. And if I didn’t, I would just give up. I would make a lot of money, I’d take my poetry and I’d concentrate on doing rap or something like that and get lots of girlfriends and just have a good time. But I want to contribute to good in the world.
I do really believe that good will overcome evil. And it’s so nice when you see good. Sometimes I’m amazed at some of these people that go to war zones and do medical work. I’m not talking about the political people; I’m talking about the people that just do humanitarian work helping people. So there are all these evil forces out there, but there are good ones, too, and I think the good ones will win in the end.
Identify the poems we analyzed that touch on the aspects he mentions in the interview. Which question do you like most?Why? What is the most important teaching by Benjamin Zephaniah you are going to take on board and investigate by yourself? I would really love to know. Obviously do not mention anything if the poet has not inspired you in any way whatsoever. Introducing and analyzing a poet in class does not imply that you must love that poet!
I introduced this writer to my students many years ago, when his first novel was released. I was told by an English teacher back in England that his writing would appeal to ESL students as much as it appeals to English mother tongue students. I found his prose “real”, “full of life”, I found the issues dealt with in “Face” close to young people’s interests. I love his social commitment and his urge to raise people’s consciousness and awareness to themes dear to me too. I hope you have enjoyed this short journey into Zephniah’s world. It was just a starter, so you can go on with other dishes if you wish. You can read his poems, novels, plays or listen to his music.
I would like you to have fun with the subject-matter of the novel. You know the themes, we discussed the characters. Now be creative and be inspired by one of the following prompts:
- Create a Book Trailer (https://spark.adobe.com/) or Bookreview
- Page of a Blog (write a review of the book and invite other bookworms to read it)
- Interview Benjamin Zephaniah (http://www.spreaker.com/)
- Write a Poem as if you were Martin Turner (1 before the accident, 1 at the end of the novel)
- Interview Martin Turner
- Write one of the pages of Martin’s diary (you choose what stage of the book to focus on)
- Write a different end to the novel
-What struck you about the poem?
I struck me how he try to explain to guys and children that the animals have a right to a life and that there are lot’s of different Englishes.
-What fascinates you about Benjamin Zephaniah?
I fascinate me who he ‘s vegan and his personality.
-What questions would you like to pose him?
Why did you choose to talk about the turkeys?
When did you change your diet and became vegan?
How has the prison change you?
-Poem
Love your lambs this Easter
Because lambs wanna have fun
Lambs are nice,lambs are funny.
Love your lambs this Easter
Don’t eat it,keep it alive
It could be your friend and not your meal.
Love your lambs this Easter
They just wanna dance
They just wanna play together
They just need a hug
And if you don’t eat
You will make a big friend for life.
Of Benjamin Zepheniah and his poem, I’m stuck about the fact that he can explain in few words the problems of our society.
He make in his poem The Talking Turkeys a sort of “funny figure” .
Do you imagine a turkey who dance? I love this mode for break the mold.
He want to give a voice to teens, and his poems aren’t difficult to understand. Talking Turkeys talk about a lot of issues: animal abusing, enviroment, capitalism and genetically modified.
I never thought that behind what I eat there are so many problems.
Benjamin really fascinates me for some reasons:
1. His determination.
2. His past .
3. His style of life.
He showed at the world his talent ! When he was sixteen he had a lot of problems, but thanks his determinations now he’s famous! He changed his future.
Another thing that I like of Benjamin is his desire to preserve his origins. Even so he was discriminate he never changed his mind. In fact he dimostrated that black people are the same as white people, and they have the same brain.
I want to ask to Benjamin these questions:
1. Why did you decide to become a vegan and not a vegeterian?
2. Become a poet was your dream since you was a child?
3. When did you start to write poems ? At first was easy or did you have problems?
4. In your book “Face” you wrote about discrimination. Do you think discrimination between teens is better or worst respect your times?
5. Do you have a model to follow? Who is it? It is the same model that you follow when you was a teen?
MY POEM :
Every time when I watch the TV
I see a cow and it say me:
“Buy my pudding! It is so yummy!”
But it really say me that?
Cows are happy or sad?
In their “house” are more and more fat,
And they don’t livello in a flat.
Oh no, they stay in small spaces!
With a lot o spiked fances!
Cows love the fashion,
and they aren’t an exeption.
Bags, Carpets and Boots
Are everyday with you.
But cows want their dress too!
So don’t steal it!
And era what they really want to say
Cows are animals and have brains.
Questions:
1. Whilst reading the poem “Talking turkeys” by Benjamin Zephaniah, it struck me the fact that he managed to sensitize people and make them reflect about important themes, like killing animals and genetic modification, with a funny poem for kids.
2. After knowing better Benjamin Zephaniah’s life, I can say that it fascinates me that he was judged and denied for his nationality and the colour of his skin, he also handed up in prison, but then he picked up his life, started learning how to read and write and became a famous novelist, poet and singer in the UK.
3. I would like to ask him these questions:
-How long have you been vegan? Are your friends vegans too?
-When you wrote “Face”, did you refair into a person who had had a similar experience as Martin’s?
-What do you think you’d do if you were Martin?
Poem:
Don’t be mean to us,
we’re just dogs,
don’t ya think ya haven’t got a good reason to kill us for yourself?
We’re just cute an funny animals,
we just wanna hav fun,
run with our friends in a field,
eat somethin,
hav a few caresses from ya,
spend time on your side.
We don’t ask ya anything else.
Contrary to what ya might think,
we have a family, friends, a brain, a soul,
an when ya hurt us, we feel pain.
Yes, we suffer de same as human beings.
So, please, don’t be selfish,
become our friend,
an we’ll love ya and trust ya like anybody else.
-What stuck you about the poem?
The first thing that I noticed reading the poem was the choice of using turkeys like subjects,because it is strange and unusual talking about turkeys,another thing wich made me thinking was how Benjamin Zephaniah wrote the poem,in fact he has explained his beautiful message,that all living beings to feel the pain in the same frequency,using a simple and funny way that allows everyone to understand what he means.
-What fascinates you about Benjamin Zephaniah?
What fascinates me about Benjamin Zephaniah is the strength he uses to fight his causes and that he doesn’t give up if he encounters an obstacle in his path,I admire him for this.
-What questions would you like to pose him?
1. Why did you choose to talk about the turkey in the poem?
2. When did you change your diet and became vegan?
3. How has prison changed you?
4. How did you feel when you rejected the OBE from the Queen?
5. What is the reason why you wrote Face?
6. Would you like to write a sequel to this book?
7. Do you think that this book has helped the guys who are in situations similar to that of Martin?
8. Did you have to do researches to write the book?
9. What is the character that was most difficult to create?
10. How long did it takes you to write it?
11. What is your biggest success?
12. What is the thing you’re most proud of?
-I write my own poem:
You don’t eat your children,
So why do you eat lambs on Easter?
What do you think their mums do?
Let them run with their Group.
They’re so sweet and helpless,
Don’t become a murderess.
They have a heart too,
So they suffer like you do.
I was struck as the poem made us realize that the turkeys have sentiments, we do not understand that turkeys have a life like us, we must learn to respect all.
I fascinates about Benjamin Zephaniah that he writes the young people, he always says what he thinks. another thing that fascinates me about Benjamin Zephaniah is that uses the videos to communicate with us.
The questions for Benjamin Zephaniah:
Why did you decide to became a rasta and a vegan?
Did you feel like Martin?
What inspired you to write “Face”?
Have you ever had similar experience?
Have you ever met people like Martin?
This is my poem.
In ever Easter I sow the lambs
they run and jump
they just wanna have fun
and every lambs has a mum
she cry every day
because the umans killed his son
the lambs was just born
but we killed him the same
maybe they they don’t know yet pronunce his own name
they wouldn’t killed us
but we killed them in ever Easter
If you have a heart
please, don’t eat it, keep it alive.
Sincerely, nothing about the poem has struck me..
It’s a good thought, but isn’t the type of poem that I like..
I mean, I can understand the thought of Mr. Zephaniah, but I think that is just a poem who talks about turkeys.
He is vegetarian and so he doesn’t want that animals to be killed!
He’s saying that even the animals are afraid from the death and even them suffer, and I think that’s right!
But personally I prefer a different kind of poem.
It doesn’t sent me anything..
I think you can figure out who is a writer, just reading his books..
You can read all the information in internet or anywhere else, but is just from his books that you can understand how he is.
I’ve just read Face and this poem.. but I know his story and I can say that he is a great man. He had the courage to fight. He didn’t gave up.
Even when everyone were discriminating him, he had found the courage to say “I don’t care, I can do this on my own. I’ll learn this by myself.”
And then he did! He learnt to write, and read, and anything else by himself.
He understood that life is so hard, but you need to put on your armor and become a warrior.
And anyway I like him even because he always says what does he think! Like in the episode with the Queen.
For him we’re all are equal, and that’s my same thought.
We’re all are equal and you can’t be most important than me just because you’re most rich.. If you will be generous with me, I will be generous with you.. But if you hurt me, or if you treat me badly.. Why should I be kind with you?
However I just wana say that Benjamin Zephaniah isn’t my type of writer, but I like him as a person.
And so there are some questions I’d like to pose him:
-Where did you found the strength to continue fighting?
-Do you think that life has been right with you?
-What do you think about the thought “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”? Based on your experience, do you think this is true?
-Think about your life before and about what you have now.. There is something about your past that would you like to have back?
What struck you about the poem? That it’s simple and funny but has a deep meaning.
What fascinates you about Benjamin Zephaniah? That even if at the beginning he was judged from the people that now love him, he never gave up and now he does what he loves. Also I respect the cheek he had with Her Majesty the Queen.
What questions would you like to pose him?
When you wrote ‘’face’’ did you refair to a person who had a similar experience as Martin?
What do you think you do if you were Martin?
Since when have you been vegan? Are your friends vegan too?
I know that horses sticks are good against cancer
but what about their wife?
I’m a horse rider
And what would I do without their life?
They feel your pain
Can you feel their?
they are horses
not your purses
they are kind with you
so be kind with they too
also they make wishes
but they don’t want to be your dishes
with their skins you make jacket
that will leave empty your pocket
So save money
and you will save horses
an horse could warm up you in winter
one could be a sprinter
one could be a winner
but no one could be your dinner.
So change courses
Save horses!
What struck you about the poem?
What struck me about the poem was the way how he wrote it, because it was very funny but despite that, inside the poem there was a deep meaning. Then I liked the different kind of English who he used.
What fascinates you about Benjamin Zephaniah?
What fascinate me about him, is his way of being.
He’s always himself and he doesn’t change for people. He’s an humble man, even after he became a popular writer. Honestly, I don’t disapprove of all his action in front of the Queen Elizabeth.
What questions would you like to pose him?
1. Why did you choose to speak about this issues?
2. How do you feel about writing for young people?
3. How did you feel when you left your country?
4. What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
5. The story is a figment of your imagination or is like a real experience that you (or one of your friends or relatives) have lived personally?
Poem:
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1.I think Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem to raise people’s consciousness and let them know that even turkeys have feelings like humans. They feel pain, they have a brain like us. In my opinion the poet wants us to think about the brutality against animals.
2.The issues that Benjamin Zephaniah raises in the poem are: -the capitalism (humans get greedy and waste more than need be and business men make lots of cash); -animal rights (A turkey could be your mate, and not on your plate).
3.There are many spelling variations in the poem, because this text is an hymn to the Jamaican culture. This poem is written using the English language spoken in Jamaica, with these variations. Jamaican people don’t want to use English of the UK. They want to keep their traditions.
4.With this poem, I learnt that Benjamin is a person who cares about the poor animals which are killed to feed humans, to satisfy annual traditions (turkeys in the period of Christmas). He takes animals as human beings. He’s a good guy.
5.Rabbits
Love all the rabbits, don’t eat them, they would like to be free, to run and jump in the grassland, and not to be killed or cooked.
Do it for themselves and for yourself, if you don’t kill them, they will be happy. Rabbits are pretty, rabbits are nice, if you want to kill them, look into their eyes, think about their short lives.
Keep them alive! A rabbit could be your pet, and not your snack. Please, care about them, and you’ll feel a better person.
I think Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem because he fight for animals rights and this is an example of an animal who humans kill for Christmas. But the poems is for children and Benjamin wants to explain them that turkeys are not different from humans. They have brain and they feel pain like us! This is one of the issues of the poem. Another issue is, for example, the brutality of humans (humans are out of dere mind, humans get greedy an waste more dan need be): who decided to eat turkey for Christmas? Why we don’t eat vegetables or another thing? I think we have to question about this.
In the text there are so many spelling barrietion because this is a poem for children and it have to have a simple language because a child can’t understand adults language.
I learn that we have to respect animals because they are important for the world like nature. I like Benjamin Zephaniah because he makes us think about different things in the world that humans doesn’t see.
PRISONER BIRD
I have a little friend and his name is bird
And he have never seen the world before.
He was in a big cage
And he wants a change.
Birds wants to fly
Birds wants to sleep out at night
Birds wants to sing in the sky
And birds want to…fly!
Open your birds cage and let them go out in the sky
Because birds want to fly
Let them free
To sing on a tree.
Maybe the bird will thank you, or maybe not.
what will you do?
I think that B.Z. wrote this poem to explain what he thinks about eating or killing animals. The issue that he raises is deforestation (i found it when he wrote “what happens to christmas trees?”) and i don’t found another problems that he raises in this poem.
The poem “Talking Turkeys” contains so many spelling variation, and he does them because he doesen’t want to speak fluent English because he’s Jamaican, and the Jamaica was a settlement of England and the British were so bad with the Jamaica’s people.
With this poem i learn that we can explain so many topics in a simple poem for children.
So, I write a “similar” poem about rabbits.
Rabbits are funny
You could take out bugs bunny
Rabbit wanna stay out
And do everything in crowd
So, dont hunt them today
Because they only want to play
Imagine if you are like them
Do you wanna have this end?
Please dont eat animal like rabbits
Or they will always chase your spirits.
In the poem “The British” , Benjamin Zepheniah with an extended metaphor of cooking talk about the migration and the melting pot of the Britain.
He structured the poem like a recipe for make a dish.
He started to talk of the first populations that lived in Britain for example Romans, Angles and Saxons who created the basics of the English language.
Going on to read he explained the melting pot. A lot of populations when they come in other countries they forget their culture, their lenguage…..Benjamin want to teach us that the world or a country, is the same as a dish.
It is more interesting if it is various! If there are a lot of different cultures, if there are colors!
A big part of our society want that we are all the same, that we speak all the same laguage.. But it is boring! We can allow our languages to flourish .
Another expect that he wrote in the poem is the importance of equality and justice.
Beause if there is justice there aren’t prejudices! And we would have nations without tensions and disorders.
We are all important ! I’m not more important or more smart than a Nigerian because of the color of my skin, or the language that I speak.
In fact the poet wrote ” treating one ingredient better then another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste”. And we don’t want it.
I think that Benjamin wrote this poem to make kids aware of the fact that behind the meat that they eat every Christas there is a living creature, and its life was stolen by men to satisfy their greed and to get richer.
Benjamin in the text mixed funny phrases like “Turkeys are wicked” and “Turkeys just wanna play raggae” with very deep reflections about the society we live in and about what’s behind the tradiction of the Christmas Turkey, to make kids have fun but also think about their eating habits.
Benjamin makes us think about Turkeys in a different way, by talking about them like they are human-beings with family (“Every Turkey has a mum”), friends (“He could be your mate”, “You will make new friends”), music tastes (“Turkeys just wanna play raggae”), hobbies (“They wanna watch Christmas TV”) etc.
In this poem he also makes Turkeys talk and complain about their life, like when one of them say “I cannot wait for the chop” or “Benji explain to me please etc etc…”.
He makes us notice that Turkeys have a brain like us and they also suffer by being caged up and killed with brutality, when he says “Turkeys have a brain and Turkeys feel pain” and “They all have a right to a life, Not to be caged up and genetically made up”.
All of these phrases have a communal meaning that Benjamin wants us to notice: Turkeys have the right to a life.
In the poem it’s also highlighted the idea that humans have ruined christmas time, by making it a matter of business and not of religion and love, like when he says “Humans destroyed it, and humans are out of their mind” and “Human get greedy and waste more than need be
And business men make lots of cash”.
I think that Benjamin has made a lot of voluntary spelling errors and variations to make this poem’s language as similar as possible to the spoken language, in particular to the english talked with the Jamaican accent. Benjamin seems to be very attached to his origins and he wants it to be evident in his poems.
Through this poem I’ve understood how much animals’ rights are important to Benjamin and how hard he fights for them.
In this poem for me he’s also explaining some of the motivations why he is vegan.
I understood his visions of animals: creatures that are peers to humans and deserve respect from us.
This is my poem wrote as if I were Benjamin Zephanian. It’s about the exploitation of geese, in particular the ones used for the production of the Foie Gras.
-Foie Gras-
I’m a big fat goose
Caged up, in prison
Living a life I haven’t choose
Less then a month on my horizon
Attached to tubes and funnels
incessantly
I can’t see the light at the end of this tunnel
Trying to escape from this place, desperately
You’re nourishing me, but I’m not hungry
You’re poisoning me to keep me calm
I can’t stand on my feet, It’s exhausting
All I want is nothing more than a place where is warm
I can see my mates passing away
Soffocating by their own vomit, is this fair?
I can see my mates passing away
Their esophagus are lacerated by the tubes in their throat everyday
Your poison is blowin’ up my liver
But that’s what you want, isn’t it, killer?
I think Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem because, being vegan, he looks at animals from a different perspective, not only like a thing which you eat in the special occasion and not only but like your friend which has a family and feels emotion like you!
With this poem he raises issues such as animal’s rights, bodies genetically made up, business and money, people’s greed and take granted that animals don’t feel pains.
You can find them when Benjamin Zephaniah say: “ Don’t eat it, keep it alive” about animal’s rights, “they have a right to life, not to be caged up an genetically made about” about bodies genetically made up, “ Turkeys have brains and turkeys feel pain” about animal’s emotion and finally “ An business man make lots of cash” about business and money. I think that are the key phrases of poem.
Also, there are too many spelling variations because Benjamin Zephaniah, who is Jamaican, doesn’t want to be under English authority supporting that England and Jamaica are completely different.
Through this poem I learn that Benjamin really wants to improve this world, raising people’s consciousness and removing capitalism and consumerism, starting from the small things for example, cut down on meat of every animal.
The song is:
Chicken, chicken,
it’s not in your kitchen,
neither in your plate,
neither in your fridge!
They have a family like you,
keep it alive and its soon say thank you!
Chicken wants to run,
chicken wants to sing,
chicken wants to live!
Remember, behind a chicken
there’s a men become rich.
Chicken doesn’t like chips,
because they’re always in the same plate!
Love your friend chicken
and it loves you.
It’ll be your friend
BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH – Andrea Dreon 2^N
I think that Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem to teach to the children that not every things are like they see them. It looks like a normal poem for young people but there are a lot of issues that he deal. He wrote about GMO, he said that the turkeys are genetically made up and there is no one turkey that isn’t genetically made up in the world, he said that the human beings want always a lot of cash and they make our products and our foods that isn’t healthy for ourselves, in this way we buy medicine and they have the cash. ( Human get greedy on waste more than need be an business men make lot of cash.) He speak about vegans, they think that if you eat an animal or what it product isn’t right for they. They are people and they could be our friends. So he invites everyone to respect the animal and this Christmas to eat organic food and not only turkeys.
In the poem there are so many spelling variations maybe for make important the phrase or to create rhythm, for my opinion it’s also to attract the attention’s child at the mean of the phrase. For me this is a really good way because it isn’t boring like a classic way. Thanks to this who read don’t see only the words but he stop to thinks about them.
I learn throw this poem that the animals have a soul and a brain too but since the prehistory time the mans have eaten animals meat, this is for me the low of nature also if this is a brutality low.
MY PIG FRIEND
Caro maiale
sei così divertente
il tuo verso fa RIDERE
ma noi usiamo la bocca
gli uomini ti usano
mangiano ogni tua parte
il tuo corpo è disprezzato
ma tu meriti di essere amato
doni tutto te stesso
per chi non ti da nulla
magari un giorno
sarai grigio
e non ti mangeranno
perchè avranno altro
chissà i tuoi piccoli
cosa penseranno
quando saranno senza una mamma
e un padre
e succederà la stessa cosa
a loro
e ai loro maialini
dovresti dire stop
e vivere la tua vita al top
senza umani che ti mangiano
ma tutti amici per te!
In my opinion Benjamin Zaphaniah wrote this poem for introduce to the young people like children are what a vegan like him believes in. Through a turkey’s eyes he wants to make the younger reflect about the fact that an animal isn’t too different to us, it is almost like a human and so it feels the same thinks. First thing first, one of the more important issues he raises is truly to think the animals have brains and they feel pain like he mentions in the second verse; with this he wants to tell us that at the end they are humans. Another issue explain us that people very often believe themselves a superior group contrast the other, so in this way humans think to can subjugate other kind. Benjamin wrote that turkeys have the same right to live that we have and so we are nobody to take out them this (first verse of poetry). In his poetry Zaphaniah does so many spelling variations of the English language because he wants to introduce himself so as he is, with his origins, his culture and of course his different language from the current English that we know. In this way in his poetry he wants to impose his mother language that it is a thing which represent him. Through this poem I can see an imagine of the poet who is against every way of animal’s abuses and so behind this poetry apparently easy and nice he would make people think about as we treat animals when they do us nothing for being used like this. For this reason I think this poetry is done very well, in effect in his words Benjamin represent a serious message to share with us. Cleary for me he doesn’t want make we change our opinion about be or not a vegan like he is, but he wants to tell to the other his own ones.
Favorable or opposite to his position? …This is an ourselves decision.
Rabbits’s poetry
Rabbits are funny rabbits are sweat Rabbits can often make you a treat They are so nice with their long whisker And I would to caress them so a long Like for all the time Oh, rabbits are so delighted To run free in its lawn And you would can to have one for your own Rabbits jump and rabbits bump Rabbits always go away But they at the end find the way To return at home To return to you To return to their family Where are you too.
They have a big foot And a small soft tail They have an nice tooth And so they never fail. Keep it alive, don’t take out their life Rabbits are funny rabbits are sweat Rabbits can often make you a treat!
-I think that Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem because he wants to tell us that turkeys are like humans. In fact Benjamin says that turkeys have a mum, they want to have fun (playing reggae and hip-hop), they have a brain and they feel pain. That are all things we do too.
-The issues he raises are that turkeys are like humans and not kill them because they are “sensitive”
-There are so many spelling barrietion because Benjamin is Jamaican and he doesn’t want to write the english language that british impose to the jamaican. So he use many spelling barrietion to be different
-I learn about the poet through the poem that he is against who kill animals and that turtkey cuold be a “friend” and not food
-To me another animal that humans beings eat is the cow:
The animal that humans beings eat is the cow
and when is in the slaughterhouse doesn’t say wow
she is exploited all day and
when the shepherd arrives she become frightened
she will be milked for nothing
so now she is criying
her life is so hard
and she can’t, at the free time, play cards
– I think that Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem because he want to give a message to everybody and want that people look at things from a different perspective.
– The issues of this poem are the consumerism, animals and the deforestation.
CONSUMERISM
“Humans get greedy an waste more dan need be
An business men mek loadsa cash”
ANIMALS
“Be nice to yu turkeys dis Christmas
Cos’ turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
And every turkeys has a Mum”
“Turkeys hav brains and turkeys feel pain”
DEFORESTATION
“Who put de turkeys in Christmas
And what happens to Christmas trees?”
– In this poem there are so many spelling variation because Benjamin Zephaniah want to impose his language like the Monarchy did with its population and culture.
– From the reading of this poem I have understood that the writer is vegan because eating meat promote consumerism and he questions topics of the society where we live.
LAMBS WANNA EAT GRASS
Lambs are your friends
You cannot cook them
You must keep lambs alive
Because you are on their side.
Lambs wanna be twins
And not be in greens
During Easter day
They wanna say
“We have to eat grass and then we play the bass”
Lambs wanna be free
Like the birds on the tree
If you want to be nice
Could you please for one day eat rice?
Benjamin Zephaniah is a famous poet. His poetry always has a specific message and through the children’s poem “Talking Turkeys”, to me, he wants to defend animal’s, and in this specific case turkey’s, rights. He combines this important objective with some really funny lines. I think Zephaniah wrote this poem to make aware people to the unfair use of turkeys, especially during Christmas time, and to make people understand that also turkeys have a family and a brain, feel pain and want to live exactly like us! Beyond this, he wrote about deforestation(An what happens to christmas trees?), genetical modifications(An genetically made up by any farmer and his wife) and captivity(not to be caged up) too. He also raises the issue of consumerism(Humans get greedy an waste more dan need be an business man mak lodsa cash) which stands out in most of his compositions. In this poem there are many spelling variations. The poet wrote using these to celebrate the way Jamaicans are used to speaking English, to turn against the rules English people imposed to them. Benjamin is a poet and like that he has the poetic licence, in other words he has the right to write as he wants to, and to me chosen to write this poem using the English language spoken in his homenation is a great thing. By reading this children’s poem to me Benjamin Zephaniah appears as a person who fights the attual society and his way to see things. He questions our habits and the system where we live, he tells us that we can be happy without killing animals and using more than we need. The thing that surprised me most is that Zephaniah treats turkeys like they were his friends, people like us, and not animals, and if you think about it, you’ll discover that they aren’t so different from us! I’m not saying that turkeys and people are the same, of course, but both have brains, families, feelings and so much more.
Now I try to be a little Benjamin Zephaniah and to write a short poem about animals human beings eat and unfairly use.
Talking Hens
Hi, i’m a little hen and I sit all daylong
I feel weak, not so strong
I’d like to walk along a road
But all I see during the day is a stupid wall
The farmer waits until I make a hen-egg
And then he returnes home, but I know he’s going to come again
He every time leaves me alone
And all I want to do is to phone
To my little chicks, but I think
They’re in the farmer’s pan, far away from me.
He wants me to be a golden goose
But I’ve already lost all my hopes
I’d like to be like the farmer and his wife too
And do all the day all I want to
But they won’t make me free
And they do the same with other hens like me
Am I going to hold
All this pain until I’ll become old?
Hi, I’m a little man
And I treat all my hens like friends
I saved a lot of them
I gave to them all a bed
All the times they see me they sing a kind of anthem
And I feel no more so bad
I’m not like the farmer this hen has just talked about
And all I want to do is to scream and shout:
“Stop behaving this way towards hens
Or after this life you’ll go to hell!”
– I think that Benjamin wrote this poem (“Talking Turkeys”) because he wants us to understand what humans can do; how cruelty exist in this world and he wants that everyone understand, especially kids that listen to/read this. The issues he raises are Capitalism, War, Starvation, Poverty and how people around the world are blind about these things.
There are so many spelling variation because Benjamin is Jamaican so he want to evidence his origines and not hide it, he’s proud of it and we can understand by this poem (& others). Also this poem is for kids and want to make their smile.
What I learn about it? I learn a lots of things that I never known in my life. Starvation is only a effect of the Capitalism, i ever tought in this way and i have to say thank you to Benjamin. War is only an effect of poverty (but also because humans are out of their mind). But i think i can’t become a vegetarian.
POETRY DEDICATED TO HORSES.
“Why we have to eat Horses?
They are so flawless
They’re so free
an human is just sleepy
Remember spirit: stallion of the cimarron
he was a stallion with his laws, he doesn’t obey
he slay
humans don’t
horses need to be free to run around the green
horses speaks their language
they have a lot of courage
when humans don’t
we won’t.”
I think that Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem to change our mind and make us more kind to all animals. The issues he raises are sexism, racism, poverty, consumerism, capitalism, wars and animal rights.
There are so many spelling variations because English pronounce is different from Jamaican pronounce and because the British Empire impose to Jamaican people to speak english so Benjamin doesn’t want to use it.
Through this poem I’ve learned that we and animals can be friends and we have not to eat turkey every Christmas but for example we can eat a soup.
My poem isn’t about an animal human beings eat but about an animal that was at risk of extinction because human beings killed many of them.
FOX HUNTING
The hymn is “God save the Queen”
But I say “God save the Fox”
The fox hunting was like a sport for you
And you did it only for the fur
And now how can she do
Without her suit?
You hang the hunting trophy on the wall
Don’t you feel observed?
“I see you with your child play football
While my babies have to survive alone
When I hear your bugle
I feel scared but I think
That you could play it in a band
With your dog at the bass
And your horse at the guitar
You wear a red coat
But mine travel on a boat
Now that hunting is suppress
I’m a fox with a great red dress
Risposte alle domande sulla poesia “Talking turkeys” by Benjamin Zephaniah
1) I think that Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem to trigger a change, a transformation of/in the human’s thoughts and to make us realize how human beings are cruel to animals just to get food that could be obtained from plants.
2) In this poem Benjamin Zephaniah raises some issues writing a poem which apparently may seem to be written for children but then, portraying a scene that comes again every year, that humans eat turkey every Christmas, and if we think about it, it is very deep and without mincing words, it is able to make us understand the message that the poet wants to transmit to us. The issues that he raises are the human selfishness towards animals, the maltreatment of them but above all he says that animals are similar to the humans, the feel the same emotions and then feel pain too. Also he mentions the capitalism, the consumerism and the wastage.
3) There are so many spelling variations in the poem because the poet wants to turn against the British Empire that, since the english colonization, imposes his english to the colonized people more than already subdue them.
4) Through this poem I can say some things about the poet. I’ve learned that maybe vegans are the only people that aren’t selfish in the world and that are able to put themselves in somebody else’s shoes and particularly in animal’s shoes: they can understand that somehow when we eat meat or animal’s products, we ensure that farmers kill another animals and we feed the consumerism, the capitalism and the wastage, things that are ruining our lives more and more.
5) For human <> means fur,
For coyotes <> means coyote
For human <> means fur,
For coyotes <> means coyote
Imagine if you were like them
Imagine if one day coyotes turned against humans
Imagine if coyotes used the human leather to protect themselves from cold
Do you think it is funny or beautiful?
Coyotes would like staying alive
Coyotes would like that humans don’t use them to make themselves beautiful or attractive
How much would it cost to you to be kinder of coyotes?
Just an useless fur.
I think Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this poem to protect what he believes in. He looks at thing from a different prospective and he would people do the same. He writes his thought jokingly, but he doesn’t raise simple issue. He tells about animal rights, about turkeys rights, from animal prospective. They have brains and feel pain but they couldn’t defend their selves when business men caged up animal genetically. Humans get greedy and business men only want to make cash without thinking about animal. In this poem there are lots of spelling variation because the poet wants you to notice the different between his language and British English. Throw this poem, Benjamin Zephaniah appears sure to himself and strong against humans. He describes men like selfish and greedy monsters. Throw what he wrote in poem, he is from animal team. In fact he see thing from an unusually prospective, but unusually doesn’t mean wrong.
Horses
Horses are animals
Animals would be free,
But in this word
They couldn’t fly as a bee
“Horse is too fine to be true”
Humans say
“How can I cook it?”
He thinks but doesn’t say.
Horses would run and play
Would say their magical “HI”
They would kiss a dam
And hear “Hi dad!”
They want to score a goal
And dance all the night
But humans don’t want this
Don’t want animal peace
They only want cash
And the poor horse smash
And more I know the men,
More I love horse
In my opinion Benjamin Zephananiah wrote the poem “Talking turkeys” because of his religion and because his vegan, so he thinks that to touch meat is to touch death and he wants to diffuse his idea about eating animals. He tries to to getting people to think and he does it writing poems that are funny but that also have an important message. I think that he wants to touch the sensibility of people humanizing animals, in this case turkeys.
In this poem he raises about humans that destroyed Christmas because they cage and genetically made up turkeys to eat them, he sais that turkeys are and feel things like us, so they have the right to a life, he argues about people that spend more than they need so businessmen make lot of money, he speaks about food that is genetically made and recommands to eat organic food.
I think that there are so many spelling variation because he’s Jamaican, so he wants to underline the difference between correct english and his slang. Even if he has a degree and he knows how to write right words and he wants to show us that he’s not more than normal people.
Thanks to this poem I know that Benjamin is a person that really loves and respects everything and everybody and life. He doesn’t agree with some general thoughts, like racism, sexism and to attach labels to people, but he tries to get people to think to change bad things in our society. Benjamin thinks that everybody in this world (also animals) are important in the same way and that all people have the same rights because we are equal.
PIGS
Pigs are not bad or mean,
don’t eat them because you think they are plain.
Pigs have the right to live in peace,
they have the right to have fun in the mud
and live with their mum, dad and brothers and sisters.
When you go to the butcher and you see the ham
think about a little pig that says to you:
“they kill my dad and now I’m alone,
please don’t eat it because I want to live,
but if you’ll buy this ham they are going to chop me for sure”.
Pigs just wanna be free
ecxactky like you and me!
They wan to stay together
in a warm place when there’s a bad weather
and eat some organic vegetables.
Pigs can be our friends,
so let’s help them to not have sad ends.