Come on Everybody

Description

Come On Everybody brings together poems from a dozen collections published by Adrian Mitchell over five decades, from Poems (1964) to Tell Me Lies (2008). His poetry’s simplicity, clarity, passion and humour show his allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing William Blake as well as the ballads and the blues. His most nakedly political poems -about war, Vietnam, prisons and racism -became part of the folklore of the Left, sung and recited at demonstrations and mass rallies. His childlike questioning was a constant reminder from the 60s onwards that poetry is first and foremost an assertion of the human spirit. A pacifist prophet who remained true to his heartfelt beliefs, Mitchell reported back for over half a century from a world blighted by war, compromise, double-talk and pragmatism without losing his innocence, integrity and impish sense of humour. Angela Carter described him as a ‚joyous, acrid and demotic tumbling lyricist Pied Piper determinedly singing us away from catastrophe‘. ‚He has the innocence of his own experience. . . real inner freedom and the courage of his own music. Among all the voices of the Court, a voice as welcome as Lear’s fool. . . Humour that can stick deep and stay funny‘ -Ted Hughes. ‚Nobody else writes like him. And it is becoming more and more evident that his achievement endures. . . Nobody has ever departed with such language for such a destination‘ -John Berger. ‚Explosive energy, well-directed rage, undimmed idealism, a tremendous sense of how poetry can speak directly, and an innocence which is believable because it is wise‘ -Andrew Motion. ‚This is Adrian Mitchell, the British Mayakovsky‘ – Kenneth Tynan.