Trawling the ABC Online site today, I came across this rather amusing post on their Arts blog.

Apparently the UK Poetry Society recently conducted a poll of their members to nominate the poem they’d most like to see broadcast into space. The winner was a poem entitled “Human Beings” by Adrian Mitchell, which you can read here. The poem will be displayed at the UK National Space Centre until the Poetry Society can come up with a way to beam it into space for the edification of any extra-terrestrial visitors who come our way.

My favourite part of the story is where they quote Mitchell as saying, “Human Beings is a poem for peace. It is about the joy of being human, but that doesn't mean that it's against animals or alien beings. When it goes into space and it's read by aliens, I'd hate for them to think that it's anti alternative life forms.”

That’s just beautiful.

Of course, the question that must be asked is what the good people of Australia would choose, given the same opportunity. I would appreciate any suggestions via the comments section below.

To get the ball rolling, (and because I’d like to think if the Ed was here, this would be his nomination), I’ll throw this one into the mix: as Mick says in Idiot Box, I've got a poem for ya:

You are an idiot,
You are a bitch,
You shit me to tears,
…I'm goin' down the pub.

Like Adrian Mitchell, I can only hope that my nomination is taken by the aliens in the spirit of endearment in which it was intended.