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more about Brenda Cook about art + power
This is Brenda Cook’s poem, The Wrong Flowers, which inspired the making of the film.
The Wrong Flowers
I am wanting to be me
When I was small
and picking the wrong flowers.
I thought I was doing no harm
‘Stop picking, you’re on private land’
said my dad.
’I’d rather I told you than them
Because their voices are sharp’.
The sharper voices
Came from the people
From the other side
Of where I was living.
They owned the land
They had rights to tell me
But my dad thought I shouldn’t give them the chance
It would upset my lessons and it would put me back
Stop me getting on
But I never got anywhere, anyway,
There were flowers on the window sill at school
and my school days felt
Like I’d always been picking the wrong flowers.
To listen to an audio file of Brenda reading the poem click here.
