Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘The one minutes of silence' poem

The One Minute's Of Silence

I have stood for so many minutes of silence in my time. 

I have stood many one minutes for

Blair Peach

Colin Roach

 and

Akhtar Ali Baig, 

And every time I stand for them The silence kills me. 

I have performed on stage for Alton Manning

Now I stand in silence for Alton Manning.

One minute at a time, and every minute counts. When I am standing still in the still silence

I always wonder if there is something about the deaths of 

Marcia Laws

Oscar Okoye 

Or 

Joy Gardner

That can wake this sleepy nation. 

Are they too hot for cool Britannia? 

When I stand in silence for Michael Menson 

Manish Patel 

or 

Ricky Reel

I am overwhelmed with honest militancy, I've listened to the life stories of Stephen Lawrence 

Kenneth Severin

And 

Shiji Lapite 

And now I hear them crying for all of us, 

I hear so much when I stand for a minute of silence. 

The truth is, being the person that I am

I would rather shout for hours, I wanna make a big noise for my sisters, 

Mothers and brothers,

I want to bear a million love children to overrun the culture of cruelty, 

I want babies that will live for a lifetime,

I don't want to silence their souls

I don't want them to be seen and not heard, 

I want them to be heard

I want them to be loud and proud

My athletic feet are tired of standing for one minutes of silence for Christopher Alder, 

I should be dancing with him 

Ricky Reel

Stephen Lawrence 

And 

Brian Douglas

Make silence very difficult for me. 

I know they did not go silently, 

I know that we have come to this

Because too many people are staying silent.

The silences are painful, 

They make me nervous, 

I fear falling over 

Or being captured and made a slave so I will not close my eyes. 

I look at the floor for ten seconds 

I look to my left for ten seconds

I look to my right for ten seconds, 

I spend ten seconds scanning the room looking for someone that looks like my mother, 

I spend ten seconds looking for spies and ten seconds are spent looking at the person who called the one minute silence, 

And I wonder how do they count their minute?

I always spend the extra seconds looking for people I know, 

Wondering how long they will live. 

I spend hours considering our trials and tribulations, 

I seem to have spent a lifetime thinking about death; 

Rolan Adams

Will not leave me. 

I've tried to look at this scientfically

I've tried to look at this religiously, 

But I don't want to limit myself either way.

I've spent so much time standing in silence, 

It reminds me of being in trouble in the headmaster's office, 

Waiting for the judgement. 

I've spent hours

Standing for minutes

Pondering the meaning of life

The reason for death 

And considering my time and space. 

Benjamin Zephaniah, 2001

In 2023, Benjamin Zephaniah rewrote and recorded his 2001 poem, 'The one minutes of silence', in response to The UK is Not Innocent, a documentary tracing INQUEST's 40 year history. 

It was his last recorded poem. We are forever grateful to Benjamin for his artistic contributions and for representing INQUEST as a patron for more than 20 years.

Watch a trailer of the film here.

Rest in Power Benjamin Zephaniah.