Happy Birthday, Gillian Clarke, born 8 June 1937.
Five Quotes
- There’s a side to all writers that loves nothing better than a book, a big chair, a window.
- Poetry is a hook for memory.
- Why does a good poem catch the heart? Because the observation rings true, the words are right, and the syntax carries home subject, idea, image and narrative in a perfect cadenza.
- There is no such thing as a silent poem.
- Language is not frozen. It’s alive and it changes and grows with every generation of readers and writers and speakers. A poem is not carved in stone. It speaks. We listen. We respond.
Gillian Clarke is a Welsh poet, playwright, editor, broadcaster, lecturer, and translator. Her last collection, Ice, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award 2012. Her latest work is Zoology.
Photograph: Author’s Website via Author: Photographer Marion Delyth