I think, hesitantly, that the awful thing about that is that it's actually
quite good, as such things go, but persuasively so, in its hugging of
banalities and generality. One could almost fall for its spell, but then
wake, horrified, to the realisation that it is a bland nothingness. I
suppose it's better than most tombstone verse, but such a compendium of
vapidity is an insult to the people it commemorates. I guess the point of
the poem is a licence to collective emotion, I dunno.
Jesus, I actually like the thing, in some ways. Help!
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Tranter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 5:17 AM
Subject: The D & M, from a real pro
> Here's something D & M* from a real pro. BBC news says today:
>
> "Poet laureate Andrew Motion has written a poem for the BBC's live
coverage
> of the Westminster Abbey service in memory of the British people who died
> in the US attacks on 11 September. [....] His role includes marking
special
> state events with a poem, and previous works include the marriage of
Prince
> Edward to Sophie Rhys Jones and the Queen Mother's 100th birthday
> celebrations."
>
> Here it is:
>
> The Voices Live, by Andrew Motion
>
> The voices live which are the voices lost:
> we hear them and we answer, or we try
> but words are nervous when we need them most
> and shutter, stop, or dully slide away
>
> so everything they mean to summon up
> is always just too far, just out of reach,
> unless our memories give time the slip
> and learn the lesson that heart-wisdoms teach
>
> of how in grief we find a way to keep
> the dead beside us as our time goes on -
> invisible and silent but the deep
> foundation of ourselves, our cornerstone.
>
> ___________________________
> * D & M: Deep and Meaningful
>
|