Simon Armitage

In memory of the 5th anniversary of the Twin Towers Attack, Simon Armitage has written a poem, to be read on Radio 4. It is too long to publish in full here, but this is the link to the pdf. And here is the link to the article published on the Times website.

I found the poem rather moving and a little jarring, not least because Armitage never settles into one particular rhythm; moving instead between rhyme and free form prose to create a sense of familiarity coloured by panic and finality, repeating imagery and themes as emphatic reminders that each person who died in the atrocity died leading an innocent, normal human life.