PJ Harvey read this in a break in her extraordinarily powerful Glastonbury Festival set this summer. When I feel listless, dispirited and terrified by what's happening, maybe it's best to seek solace in the fact that humans have been utter morons before. Let's hope there is enough wisdom between us to rescue ourselves from too huge a fuck up this time round. On and for National Poetry Day... and my sanity.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
John Donne 1624 (in the voice of PJ Harvey June 2016)
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