With it being 20 years since Charles Causley passed away, it seemed appropriate to explore how memory is referenced through poems and stories.  Ian McEwan’s ‘Atonement’ comes to mind for this, but what if you wanted to write your own piece? 

First, consider – do you want to talk about memory more generally or on a more personal level?  

Either is completely fine, just keep in mind the instances when they differ.  Personal memory may include anecdotes for example, while there would be more of a collective focus with more general themes – most notable of which would be something like the centenary year of World War I we had back in 2014.  

Don’t restrict yourself to a word count  

Memories have detail and, when writing them down, you should reflect that level of detail. Immerse your reader in the environment and scenario that you create – whether that’s recounting an especially personal memory or providing space to document the voices of a range of people.  

Gear more towards non-fiction  

As much as I encourage freedom within writing, I would say it’s more appropriate in this instance to adopt an approach that is geared towards non-fiction more, which may be easier to follow through poetry over a story.  As well as McEwan, the likes of current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage come to mind for this.  To add to the war references as it were, his poem ‘Remains’ does a great job of evoking the feeling of memory to the readership, while giving the platform for individuals who were involved in conflict to then share their own stories off the back of the text. 

Memory does not stop at the one text.  It gives people a platform to develop on to further share their experiences of life.  In any case though, it raises awareness in helping to record what people have lived through in writing so future generations can look back and appreciate the way we were.  Or in the case of a poem like Remains, help ensure we don’t see repeats of the events in the poem and work towards more positive connotations of life and memory instead.