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The Silence
The Silence | Gillian Clarke
3 posts | 1 read | 3 to read
A Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation 2024 'The days have no names.The day they count the dead,the day they closed the doors,turned off the lights. We're still here in the silence,hearing tree-talk,the wind's secrets,the company of birds.'('The Year of the Dead') The poems in Gillian Clarke's The Silence begin during lockdown, to whose silences Clarke listens so attentively that other voices emerge. As the book progresses, that silence deepens, in the poems about her mother and childhood, about the Great War and its aftermaths, and in her continuing attention to Welsh places and names, and the rituals which make that world come in to focus. In these scrupulous, musical poems, Clarke finds consolation in how silence makes room for memory and for the company of the animal- and bird-life which surrounds us. These poems, compulsively returning to key images and formative moments, echo and bring back other ways of living to the book's present moment.
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Bookwomble
Bookwomble
The Silence | Gillian Clarke
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Wonderful poems, starting with Clarke's viewing of a "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse in 2019, an ominous precursor to her reflections on the COVID pandemic, a reminder of the unnecessary deaths, the silence of those taken by the virus, the silence of those in power regarding those deaths, and the gradual quietening of the world during lockdown and the temporary resurgence of the natural world. The poems gradually turn to the changing of seasons, ⬇️

Bookwomble ...reminiscences of the poet's childhood, her mother, the Welsh name her father wanted for her, Gwenllian, connecting her with Llewellyn's daughter & her sad fate at the hands of the English. In her 87th year, Clarke's writing remains as powerful as ever. 5⭐
I always learn something of Welsh culture from Clarke's poetry, this time about penillion music, which sent me to some wonderful recordings on You Tube of Welsh harpist & singer, Ossian Ellis. (edited) 6mo
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Bookwomble
Bookwomble
The Silence | Gillian Clarke
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"Black sky of stars and a risen moon
in the sleeping arms of the beech."

- Blood Moon
691 and 21 January 2019

37 likes
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Bookwomble
Bookwomble
The Silence | Gillian Clarke
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We've had a gloriously sunny weekend in Lancashire, but now the predicted storm is brewing, thunder is rumbling closer & lightning flashes briefly cutting through the gathering gloom - I love this weather! ⛈️
Listening to The Doors "Riders on the Storm" & ELO'S "Symphony for a Rainy Day", & about to start Gillian Clarke's latest poetry collection, "The Silence", featuring her native and beloved Wales, COVID lockdowns and WWI, amongst other topics.

Bookwomble This is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and, as I've enjoyed everything else I've read by her, I feel I'll be in safe hands again 😊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 6mo
42 likes1 comment