Edith Piaf, Roger McGough, Bette Midler, Jacques Brel, Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Spike Middleton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Shel Silverstein, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, etc.

THE BRITISH

Benjamin Zephaniah 

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures*

And let them settle,

Then overrun them with Roman conquerors. 

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years

Add lots of Norman French to some

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

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,

Trinidadians and Bajans with 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. 

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*The Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe occupying south east Wales 

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