
Volgens ‘n berig op The Independent is die Walliese digter, Gillian Clarke, einde verlede jaar met die Koningingsmedalje vir Poësie vereer. Volgens die commendatio word dié toekenning gemaak in erkenning van haar uitgebreide oeuvre, maar in hoofsaak vir haar bundel, A Recipe for Water, wat verlede jaar verskyn het by Carcanet Press. Die 73-jarige Clarke woon in Cardiff en is etlike jare reeds Wallis se Nasionale Digter. Sy is veral bekend vir haar betrokkenheid en inisiatiewe om skryfvaardighede en ‘n voorliefde vir die digkuns by skoliere te vestig.
Volgens Carol Ann Duffy, wat voorsitter was van die pryskomitee, is Clarke onlosmaaklik deel van die Britse lettere en ‘n welverdiende ontvanger van dié gesogte prys: “Gillian Clarke is part of the literary landscape of this country. As such, it is easy to take for granted the impact and influence of her work. Take an early poem, perhaps, like ‘Letter from a Far Country‘. First heard on radio and published in the early 1980s, this poem subtly and lyrically describes the everyday household responsibilities of a woman with a full, ordered, demanding life at home and a longed-for, free, dream-like life elsewhere. We could read it as a poem about a trapped housewife but it is so much more than that. It is a moving and beautiful statement about freedom and constraint. Freedom and constraint – whether writing about women, ecology, politics or the natural world – these are the hallmarks of Gillian Clarke’s art.”
Vorige wenners van dié medalje, wat in 1933 deur Koning George V ingestel is, is W.H. Auden (1936), John Betjeman (1960), Philip Larkin (1965), Stevie Smith (1969) en Ted Hughes (1974).
Clarke, wat totaal oorbluf is met dié toekenning, het aan The Guardian se beriggewer gesê dat sy nie ‘n benul het wat om met die medalje te doen nie; trouens sy oorweeg dit glo om by Don Paterson, wat in 2009 daarmee bekroon was, kers op te steek. “I don’t think I can hang it around my neck,” het sy gesê. “But I will treasure it.”
Vir jou leesplesier volg ‘n vroeëre vers van haar onder aan vanoggend se Nuuswekker. Op haar persoonlike webtuiste is daar nog gedigte wat geniet kan word.
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Sedert gister het daar twee nuwe bydraes verskyn. Andries Bezuidenhout skryf oor ‘n andersoortige lykdig terwyl Philip de Vos ons vermaak met nog ‘n plesiertjie vir die nuwe jaar.
Mooi bly.
LE
On The Train
Cradled through England between flooded fields
rocking, rocking the rails, my head-phones on,
the black box of my Walkman on the table.
Hot tea trembles in its plastic cup.
I’m thinking of you waking in our bed
thinking of me on the train. Too soon to phone.
The radio speaks in the suburbs, in commuter towns,
in cars unloading children at school gates,
is silenced in dark parkways down the line
before locks click and footprints track the frost
and trains slide out of stations in the dawn
dreaming their way towards the blazing bone-ship.
The vodaphone you are calling
may have been switched off.
Please call later. And calling later,
calling later their phones ring in the rubble
and in the rubble of suburban kitchens
the wolves howl into silent telephones.
I phone. No answer. Where are you now?
The train moves homeward through the morning
Tonight I’ll be home safe, but talk to me, please.
Pick up the phone. Today I’m tolerant
of mobiles. Let them say it. I’ll say it too.
Darling, I’m on the train.
© Gillian Clarke (Oktober 1999)
Ek stem heeltemal saam, Johann. Gillian Clarke is beslis een van die vernaamste Britse digters tans. Probeer gerus haar versamelde gedigte in die hande kry, indien jy dit nie het nie: “Collected poems – Gillian Clarke, 1997: Carcanet Press.” Die boek beslaan 192 bladsye en behoort teen R169.50 te verkoop.
Gillian Clarke het betekenisvolle ekologiese gedigte geskryf. Ek het baie waardering vir haar werk.