Here is the audience response poem:
A few weeks ago, Co-Director Liv Torc appeared on the BBC World Service programme People Fixing the World with Kat Bruce (NatureMetrics). They talked about the amazing work Hot Poets does in the UK and internationally to give climate action and science a better story.
We asked the audience what they loved about people and used their answers to create this poem:
Things I Love About People:
Oh, people! Make me laugh my head off.
Go on, human
fascinate me,
appall me.
We are the songs
in other people’s playlists,
Photos on the inside of eyelids.
8 billion stories on a tiny planet, making art.
Cherry tree confetti
to deface hate, to smother concrete.
Vibrant varieties, you, they, he, she, we
different colours, inside out
but all born from the same star.
Warm skin, fresh sweat.
collective power,
generosity,
opposable thumbs.
We bleed when cut,
cry when hurt,
dance in the kitchen.
Yes, we’ve messed things up,
but our words have power.
The rehydration of hope.
Turning into fuel to fire to trying.
The rucksack we wear sags
under the weight of who knows what.
But there’s a general type of resilience that we all have.
People being people
where tolerance for imperfections
grow in a garden of crocuses,
lifting their yellow and purple
heads to greet the morning sun.
The thing I love about people is how they love,
and how far that love ripples
we hold in our handshakes, in our hugs
a human need for connection,
building community wherever we go
may we always hang on to it.
After all, we are simply stardust apes
with quite clever thumbs.
