The new Michael Jackson album This It It, a 20-track, two-CD set accompanying the release of the movie of the same name, features one of his poems, “Planet Earth.”
His poetry is a call to environmental awareness, according to James Bearden, the music supervisor of Jackson’s This Is It tour, who told MTV about the singer’s theme:
“[Jackson] wanted the world to know this may be it when it came to seeing him tour, and if we don’t start paying attention to the world, it will be it for the Earth too.”
He’s one of the biggest music stars ever, but can MJ hack it as a poet?
Critical reaction to Jackson’s prose has been mixed, but generally positive.
It has been called everything from “unsophisticated but poignant” (Globe and Mail) to “hokey at times, but there is a childlike quality that emerges after a few listens” (New York Post) to “vapid” (Toronto Star) and “consider yourself warned” (Time).
Follow the jump to read Michael Jackson’s poetry in its entirety:
A capricious anomaly in the sea of space
Planet Earth, are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spaceship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn’t true
You are my sweetheart, soft and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes, caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
In my veins I’ve felt the mystery
Of corridors of time, books of history
Life songs of ages throbbing in my blood
Have danced the rhythm of the tide and flood
Your misty clouds, your electric storm
Were turbulent tempests in my own form
I’ve licked the salt, the bitter, the sweet
Of every encounter, of passion, of heat
Your riotous color, your fragrance, your taste
Have thrilled my senses beyond all haste
In your beauty I’ve known the how
Of timeless bliss, this moment of now.
Planet Earth, are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spaceship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn’t true
You are my sweetheart, soft and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes, caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
Planet Earth, gentle and blue
With all my heart, I love you.