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| |  | | Poem for Memorial Service
by Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion
| | | | The poet laureate, Andrew Motion, has written a specially commissioned poem for a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, which is being held for British people who died in the New York terrorist attacks.
THE LINES
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 shatter, 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 corner-stone
Read Andrew Motion's exclusive poem written for Today on foot and mouth
Read also Andrew Motion's recent live chat on Radio 4 Online.
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