A charity poetry event to raise money for Haiti was organised by the present Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, at Westminster Central Hall, London in January.

Featuring more than 20 poets, Poetry Life for Haiti also featured PM Gordon Brown, who told the audience of the shipping of 5700 sheets of corrugated iron to provide shelters in Haiti. He also said that poetry could do what ordinary words alone could never do.

One example was by Roger McGough, “They Came Out Singing”, as below.

They came out singing, many of them. Pulled from the rubble, broken bodies from broken buildings. Coated in dust, red-eyed and bruised, crushed bones and severed limbs. Days of sepulchral darkness, nights choked with disbelief. First the smile, wide as thanksgiving, then the song, praise to the rescuers, and God for his mercy. Merci, merci.