Co-operate

Like a smile owned by its teeth,
Like a kiss sold to yourself,
This is how your city grows.

Like the tender limbs of trees
Let our timber lenders breathe in,
This is how your city grows.

From hand to hand, a relay sport
How we shape thought into word,
Every awe we build from Earth
As if the rain falls
In reverse to feed the clouds.

Like a self-healing heart
Your city grows impossible,
This commonopolis

Not made of steel
But give and take,
Count your currency in character
Instead of money that your minutes make

here

Your value doesn’t need to lie.

Your city’s limbs aren’t lopsided
They yearn to grow in equal length
Not through competition
But cooperation of each the people’s strength.

_
Written by Isaiah Hull
 

Thanks to all the cooperatives featured in this short film:

OrganicLea, Calverts, Bristol Co-operative Gym, The Bristol Bike Project, Outlandish, Centrespace, DIY Space for London, The Cube Cinema, Ceramics Studio Co-op, The Bristol Cable and Cafe Kino.

Thanks also to the UK's coops for collectively inspiring the creation of this short piece.

The poem was created and narrated by Isaiah Hull while the film was produced by Blake House Filmmakers Cooperative.

A film commissioned by Co-operatives UK