Right Now I’m Standing

Poet Jason Allen-Paisant reads his poem 'Right Now I’m Standing'. Set in a woodland in the shadow of a plantation house, the film brings into focus Allen-Paisant’s reflections on Blackness and landscape. It's part of our series of poetry films in collaboration with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The film is directed by Rob Akin.

8th May 2025

Right Now I’m Standing

by Jason Allen-Paisant

    beneath what used to be

I imagine    an impressive tree

              Split down its bole it

has sprouted green leaves    that will be rustling

              way into September

    At its base lying athwart the clearing

              is the severed part
The colour of brown has weathered to near-grey

    and the footfall of walkers has covered

the wood with a layer of dust & yet

    the part that has fallen among the spikenard

and hungry shrubs surges out of death
The raspberries feed on its breath

    and beetles thrive in the slurry middle

where the bole rots
Listen    there is nothing as exhilarating

as the feeling of life coming into you
Though people

    look suspiciously

stand and listen    do not go anywhere
we have been the workers

        just the workers
In the Congo    one man had a land

almost eighty times

the size of Belgium    as his estate
We have been property
When I talk about reclaiming time

I’m just thinking about my body

standing in the middle of this woodland

              and

doing nothing    nothing