Remembering Fallen Journalists

A poem commissioned by the BBC for the launch of Breathing (See Catch of The Day)

James Fenton who was born in Lincoln in 1949 has worked as a political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and columnist. He was Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1994 to 1999 and in 2007, was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. His volumes of poetry include Terminal Moraine, The Memory Of War, Children In Exile and Out Of Danger.

His specially commissioned poem, Memorial, explores the extraordinary dedication and drive which motivates journalists, their drivers and interpreters, to return to conflict zones in the quest for journalistic truth.

 

Memorial by James Fenton

We spoke, we chose to speak of war and strife –

a task a fine ambition sought –

and some might say, who shared our work, our life:

that praise was dearly bought.

Drivers, interpreters, these were our friends.

These we loved. These we were trusted by.

The shocked hand wipes the blood across the lens.

The lens looks to the sky.

Most died by mischance. Some seemed honour-bound

to take the lonely, peerless track

conceiving danger as a testing ground

to which they must go back

till the tongue fell silent and they crossed

beyond the realm of time and fear.

Death waved them through the checkpoint. They were lost.

All have their story here.

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