Daljit Nagra: How I Wrote ‘We’re Lighting Up The Nation’

“I didn’t want to be a poet who knocks out book after book of ‘auto-pilot’ poems, so I stopped writing the thirty-line poem and sought something that would challenge me. I waited to be astonished by something different.”

We’re Lighting Up The Nation

No one’s an island when each is at home
in the hope and glory! Born free – we’re a plucky bunch
of every shade. From the bronze of the Celts
across our Roman roads to Windrush and beyond,
today, just now, the spectacular parades of light
travelling from Windsor to iconic heartlands across the realm
so the kingdom be unified. Imagine Edinburgh Castle
near monuments for Scott and Burns, or imagine
across the waters of Belfast our titanic dockyard
and the blood-sweat, the toil that launched a thousand ships
over there’s Blackpool for Punch & Judy, glad rags
for the tango and foxtrot, and out for a pint of Newkie Brown
by the Gateshead Bridge, that harp of the Toon, the Tyne – it’s all mine
now all Yorkshire beams from the hall of seven-hilled Sheffield,
now my heart’s with the famed anthem, the land of my fathers
at Cardiff Millennium! Everywhere I look, from the golden
miles of Leicester with their chicken masalas and jollof rice
to an eco-haven amid the botanical gardens of Cambridge
like the oasis at Eden with its rainforest under a dome,
to our bold promise of the cliffs of Dover, everywhere I look,
within our shores, I feel a new phase, new chapter must begin,
just now, so let’s light up the nation like a smile!

How did this commission come about?

I’m Chair of Royal Society of Literature (RSL) and the Royal family was keen to showcase some of the charities it supports. The Queen [was] our Patron, and both she and the King have been pleased with the work we’ve done to diversify our projects. I suspect that prompted them and the BBC to ask me to compose a poem to be part of the Coronation Concert, which took place last May in the grounds of Windsor Castle. It was read by James Nesbitt and broadcast to more than 100 countries.

What sentiments were in your head when you were writing it?

The brief I was given was that there would be a sequence of live illuminations at famous landmarks across the country straight after my poem was read, so I should mention this lighting-up ceremony and name some key sites that would be part of it. This helped focus my thoughts. I also wanted to make sure I used the moment to suggest that we, as a nation, could come together in some literal and symbolic way. I was keen to write a positive poem whose language might be slippery enough to suggest that this positivity is hard earned because problems exist under the surface of this jubilation. 

You cover a lot of ground, geographically and temporally – how did you manage to get so much into twenty-two lines?

Years of practice at writing in the condensed form of poetry! I enjoyed opening with a reference to John Donne’s great work, which states no man is an island and suggests we are linked to – and dependant on – the wider world. As Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London about 400 years ago, Donne would have spoken for the nation on many occasions, so I felt it right and proper to give the feeling of him speaking through my poem, as I spoke to the nation. I hope the wealth of both past and present in the poem highlights what powers we have to create a forward-thinking and compassionate identity for our country. The poem’s aim is to show how we are united – and how this is a force for change.

How did you decide what form to put this poem in?

I decided on good old free verse because I knew it would be likely I’d have to make changes to the poem as it went through the editing process, and free verse left me slightly more scope to do this. It only took about ninety seconds to read, but I was given less than a month to write it and had loads of other work on at the time. At that point, I was teaching full-time – and was an admissions tutor – at Brunel University, as well as presenting the weekly Poetry Extra show on Radio 4 Extra. I was also busy as Chair of the RSL and overseeing the work of Poetry By Heart, a poetry-speaking competition for pupils in Key Stages 2 to 5. On top of that, I was finishing my new book, indiom. Once I’d completed a draft of the poem, it had to be approved by the BBC, the Palace and James Nesbitt, so there was some further tweaking to ensure everyone was happy.

Have you written a lot of commissioned poems and how do you generally find the process?

Yes, I’ve written many and always enjoy them. It’s a chance to immerse myself in topics I might not normally consider deeply and the research is always fun. There’s often a sense of pressure, though. If the timeframe is practical, however, I’m fairly confident I can produce a poem about pretty much anything!

Tell us a little about your writing practice

I read loads of poetry, non-fiction and novels to give me inspiration. When I’m starting a new big project, there are usually two elements in common – the surprise of a new idea and ensuring I’m building on the ideas I’ve developed in my previous books. I like writing about love, community and the English canon, so I am always on the lookout in this terrain. 

My new book, indiom, was particularly interesting in that I forced myself to stop writing the traditional lyric poem after my last collection came out in 2017. I didn’t want to be a poet who knocks out book after book of ‘auto-pilot’ poems, so I stopped writing the thirty-line poem and sought something that would challenge me. I waited to be astonished by something different. I feel I’m in an exciting new place with my writing because of that refusal to keep knocking out short poems. And now I’m working on my next project after indiom, which also feels surprising and fresh to me. 

I tend to write my poems on the hoof – often in a rush while on the underground, in the bedroom at night or in a cafe. I prefer this ‘write-wherever-whenever’ approach because it connects me to my first joys of writing verse when I would do it purely to communicate with something innate in me and without any vanity for praise and recognition. I would hate my writing to feel like a day-job, something that could only be ‘properly’ done at a desk.

Daljit Nagra

Daljit Nagra (he/him) has had four poetry collections published by Faber. He’s won the Forward prizes for Best Single Poem and Best First Collection, and the Cholmondeley Award. He lives in London with his wife and two children. 

Visit his website at www.daljitnagra.com