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The Friday Poem

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The Friday Poem on 17/02/23

We chose ‘Evolution’ by Colm Scully to be our Friday Poem this week because it manages to both sum up and interrogate the supreme self-confidence of the human race. With the benefit of hindsight, a tendency to cognitive bias, and a generous dollop of wishful thinking, we can believe pretty much anything we want to believe about ourselves. But there’s a thing called hubris, which the Greeks knew a bit about. We like the way this poem undermines our self-positioning from the get-go, we like its tone, its insight, and its humour.

Evolution

These days I remember things that never happened;
how the world was won
by us, through our evolution,
winning each fitness battle that we fought.

How we changed just the right amount
at just the right time;
watching, carefully, the giraffes growing their long necks,
watching the ants organise.

Still, now we can look with satisfaction
at the sacrifices made;
hairless winters without clothes,
the endemic sore back.

Oh, how we always picked the right solution;
the bigger brain over wings,
the opposable thumb over night vision.
Knowing deep in our psyche,
someday we would create radar,
someday invent aeroplanes.

Colm Scully is a poet and Poetry Film maker from Cork, Ireland. He has previously won the Cúirt New Writing Prize and been part of Poetry Ireland Introductions series. His poems have been published recently in Cyphers, Crannog and Philosophy Now. His Poetry Films have been selected and shown at festivals around the world, including winning at The Rabbits Heart Poetry Film Festival and Spark MicroMania Short Film Festival. You can read more and watch films at Colm Scully’s website, here.

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