Henry Moore: Pink and Green (Tate Gallery)
Sleep on, lying safely down there on the platforms,
Huddled together in row upon row.
Something terrible’s happened at Bethnal Green Station
But no-one is talking, it’s best not to know.
Sleep on, Harry, Amy, the girl from the chippy,
The chap from the butcher’s, and Vernon and Nell,
When you wake in the morning your friends will be missing,
The steps will be swept and nobody will tell.
When you wake in the morning they will all be missing,
The ones that you loved or you saw every day,
Sleep on now, not knowing a few yards above you
They died on the steps and were taken away.
Try to sleep now, young Alf, lying there in the darkness,
Eyes wide at the shock of the things you just saw.
Try to sleep, Mrs Chumbley, you’ve done all you can
But you can’t put the dead back where they were before.
Sleep on now, the lost, in your rows in the mortuaries,
Brought in by those who worked on through the night
And who won’t close an eye in the nights that will follow.
You will be remembered, we promise. Sleep tight.
(These sites will explain more: http://www.stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org/gpage5.html
and http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/02/11/alf-morris-survivor-of-the-bethnal-green-tube-disaster)
17 comments:
Oh Zeph, this is so incredibly moving, I have a lump in my throat reading it. It's an excellent poem and tribute.
Thanks Pink, I like making people cry! I wasn't quite sure if it worked - it was a horrible tragedy but also very local and domestic, tricky to catch the right tone.
The poem was prompted by the very touching annual display of flowers and photos at the Bethnal Green Tube station, and also by reading the piece on the Spitalfields blog. I realise now it would fit on Billy's 'date' thread on Poster Poems too!
Zeph,
A moment of tragedy to remember, it's good to remember it and you did it beautifully.At first you caught me off guard but we have to admit that in a way there is a link between tragedy and love. I see yours as a message of love.
Caught me off gard too. Had to go away for a moment. Very powerful, Zeph, and yet restrained.
Yes, I haven't put it on Poster Poems yet because that thread has got to the cheerful chit-chat stage and I thought it would land with a sickening clunk!
It is loving, it's very hard to explain about what this accident still means, but every year people put flowers and little photos of the dead at the Tube station and it's a very family thing - even for someone like me who has no family connections with the neighbourhood.
Bethnal Green was in fact the first Tube station to be used as an air-raid shelter. Early in WWII the authorities were set against it, and kept all the stations firmly locked and barred. But the folks of Bethnal Green, reasoning quite sensibly that the station was serving no other purpose since it was on a new route and didn't even have trains running yet, simply broke in.
Really like this, Zeph. 'The steps will be swept' is great - and 'Something terrible's happened....'.
Hadn't come across Henry Moore's work from the Underground shelters before - but then it came up in Dimbleby's Over-ambitious History of Britain or whatever it was called the other night.
Thanks, Ringo. I wasn't quite sure about the rhythm, which feels quite cheerful and grates with the subject - but it fits the speech patterns, and maybe the grating is effective. Anyway I tried writing on the subject in free verse and it was rubbish:)
I really like Moore's drawings, I'm afraid I can take or leave his sculptures. But I did go to his house last year and it was interesting.
Have you seen Moore's sculpture at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park? It's a lot more effective in a wild, open setting, I think, where it's allowed to seem monumental.
I don't think it grates, although I know what you mean - the rhythm and the subject matter are a strange fit (but they do fit). It reminds me of something... I'll have to come back and post again when I've remembered what...
Haven't been there, Ringo, but the sculptures look very good in the 'garden' at Perry Green, which is actually a collection of paddocks and fields.
I think the poem is perhaps a bit Kiplingish, which I don't mind, as long as it isn't McGonagallesque, which I would mind with this subject. But I'm pleased if it catches people off-guard, as Offie and Guitou said.
Nothing at all wrong with being Kiplingish in style, as long as you don't start adopting his views.
I think the rhythm is precisely why it works. Relentless. And also gives it the pluckiness that often characterises war stories of that era.
In any case, I was very moved by it. (I'm feeling a bit raw just now anyway, today I broke up with one of my oldest friends).
Thanks Munni, I'm glad you liked it. I recommend sending a large bunch of flowers to your friend tomorrow.
Thanks Zeph, it's actually a good thing, finally taking a "do not engage" stance with manipulative people. Enough about me, back to the poetry!
Just checking in after a bit away and I saw the pic before reading the poem. Seeing the pic I just thought of Perrault and frightening fairy tales of giants eating children etc.
Then read the poem, then the comments and somehow thoughts of Perrault seem quite apt. Monstrous acts and quiet heroics.
I think I am in the wrong place but why why why Delilah?
Forgive me Delilah, I just couldnt take any more.
Would you like a bit on Bunny Munroe? Nick Cave has finally written a brilliant book. I could tell you ....
Yes, a nice tribute. Keeping it low-key usually works best, I think.
my take on this caption: a guy who wants to show his date what he stands for.
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