‘Very emotional’ to perform in front of D-Day veterans on anniversary – poet
Tomos Roberts recited his specially written piece The People Who Gave Us Today on stage at the commemorative event in Portsmouth.
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Your support makes all the difference.A poet has said it was “very emotional” to perform his piece in front of D-Day veterans at a commemorative event marking the 80th anniversary of the invasion.
Tomos Roberts, a 30-year-old spoken word poet, recited his specially written piece The People Who Gave Us Today on stage at the memorial event in Portsmouth, in front of hundreds of gathered spectators.
Among the audience on Wednesday were the King, Queen, Prince of Wales and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
But Mr Roberts – who has amassed more than 130,000 followers on Instagram and 50,000 YouTube subscribers – said it was the dozens of D-Day veterans who were present that he was most eager to please.
He told the PA news agency: “The main people that I was feeling very emotional about performing in front of are actually the veterans that were in attendance today.
“I feel, you know, this could be the last anniversary of D-Day where we have people who were there in attendance and that really hit home when I was writing the poem.”
Mr Roberts added that the “core aim” of his poem, which pays tribute to the sacrifices made during the Normandy landings, was to be “respectful and to be mindful that there are people in attendance that actually did it”.
The performer and filmmaker had previously given an emotional rendition of his specially commissioned piece Alive With Poppies at the Royal Albert Hall for the annual Festival of Remembrance in November 2021.
He said both heartfelt poems were “quite different” from his usual work, which is “more about things that are going on in the world”, and it was difficult to capture the emotions of the event in only a few minutes.
Mr Roberts added: “I was allowed two minutes and there’s an old saying that it’s harder to write a short letter than a long one.
“And sometimes, trying to say something thoughtful and meaningful in a short space of time is quite difficult because it’s hard to not just do a very glossing summary of these big things.”
The event in Portsmouth on Wednesday was part of a series of major commemorative events being held in the UK and France on June 5 and 6.