Questionnaire

Q. How do you do?
A. Like a bear in the Zoo.
Q. Why should that be?
A. That world is not free.
Q. Must it always be so?
A. No.
With our hearts and our brains
We will tear off its chains.
Q. You write poems, why?
A. Because I am shy.
In real life I conceal
Everything that I feel,
But in poems I shout
And my feelings fly out.
Q. Why do you write in verse at all?
A. I would rather jump than crawl.
My tongue would rather sing than talk
And my feet would sooner dance than walk.
Q. What’s the difference between a walker and a dancer?
A. Love is the answer.
Q. Why do you write?
A. For the love of life
And my friends, my animals,
My children and my wife.
I am lucky and happy –
Q. But how do you do?
A. Like a bear who dreams he is not in the Zoo.

Adrian Mitchell