lyric subjects 29marker of loss, and also an attempt to recompose the past. The fi ve
sections that comprise the sequence mark time in a circuit: we start
with the fourth anniversary, move to the fi rst then the second and
third to conclude with a fourth anniversary once more. Looking
closely at ‘Anniversaries’, it becomes clear that the poem through
these acts of refl ection seeks to work through ideas of trauma and
grief. Motion’s poem points us signifi cantly to his biography.
‘Anniversaries’ chronicles his mother’s riding accident and sub-
sequent years of being in a coma. But the opening stanzas do not
point to this directly; instead what one is presented with is a sense
of continuation and repetition set in a snowscape: ‘I have it by
heart now / on this day in each year’ (p. 6 ). Words such as ‘lost’,
‘waiting’, ‘setting’ reinforce the sense of a ritual which accompa-
nies the bedside vigil.
The fi ve sections enact a conversation with the absent mother.
In this way the poem functions similarly to Pinsky’s suggestion
of a discursive lyric, the speaker’s voice in its personal refl ection
indicates private meditations overheard. Motion’s emphatic repeti-
tion of the lyric ‘I’ in the second section – ‘What I remember’, ‘I
watched’, ‘I am still there’ (p. 7 ) – indicates not only the attempts
of recollection, but also an implication of solitude, as though the
subjective is literally rooted to the spot. Motion also makes use of
nature as a psychic landscape where sentiment is superimposed
upon his surroundings. We are told that while waiting for his
mother’s return the tap ‘thaws’ (p. 7 ) then hardens to ice. These
small observations also bear witness to the marking of time. The
impression of a solitary individual alone in a hostile environment
is enforced when the horse returns to the farm. The reins trailing
behind mark a pattern, ‘a trail across the plough / a blurred riddle
of scars’ (p. 7 ). This image of premonition superimposes the trails
in the snow and a cosmic sky as Motion plays on ‘the plough’ as
constellation and the sonic suggestion of ‘scars’ as possible stars.
As the sequence unfolds the speaker attempts to deconstruct
the loss of a parent. The second, third and fourth anniversaries
commit themselves to understanding the ‘blurred riddle’ (p. 7 ) of
amnesia and stillness. He witnesses his father’s attempt to engage
with his mother: ‘If you can hear me now squeeze my hand’ (p. 8 ).
Empathetically Motion sets the bedside rituals in correspondence