David Morley (foto), is ‘n ekoloog wat ‘n grensverskuiwende studie gedoen het oor die impak van suurreën op die Lake District in Engeland. Maar hy is ook ‘n digter. En so is dit enkele dae gelede bekend gemaak dat sy bundel The Invisible Gift: Selected Poems vanjaar se wenner is van die Ted Hughes-prys vir nuwe werk in die digkuns. Die prys beloop £5,000 en is deur die Britse Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, ingestel. Die prysgeld word geneem uit as honorarium as Poet Laureate.
Volgens die Independent se berig, wissel die fokus van Morley se gedigte van die Romeinse geskiedenis en verhale tot politiese allegorie in ‘n gedigte “which evokes the enchantment and truth of the natural world and our place in it.”
Die beoordeelaars het die volgende in hul commendatio te sê gehad: “The Invisible Gift was like opening a box of fireworks; something theatrical happens when you open its pages, and a curtain is raised on a tradition that has been overlooked. In these poems, David Morley switches forms and registers to reveal the versatility of the voices and the liveliness of the Romani culture, arguing for a tradition which has been invisible and silent. Ted Hughes wrote about the natural magical and mythical world; The Invisible Gift is a natural successor.”
Nou ja, toe. Vir jou leesplesier volg een van David Morley se gedigte.
Worlds
It is pleasant as I have done today to stand
… and notice the objects around us
‘There is nothing in books on this’, cries Clare.
‘I do not read, brother’, states Wisdom smiling,
‘for I will not bother with Mystery.
Worlds move underfoot. Where lives Poetry?
Look’, hums Wisdom Smith, ‘in the inner domes
of ghost orchids – how the buzzing rhymers
read light with their tongues; or in this anthill –
nameless draughtsmen crafting low rooms, drawing
no fame – except the ravening yaffle,
or fledgy starlings bathing in their crawl.
I see these worlds – lit worlds. I live by them’.
The wood-ants sting. John Clare shifts foot to foot:
‘I did not know you gave me any thought’.
‘This? All this – is nothing, John’, laughs Wisdom.
© David Morley (Uit: The Gypsy and The Poet)
Klink na ‘n heerlike digter – om lig te lees met die tong!!