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A Recipe for Water
A Recipe for Water | Gillian Clarke
4 posts | 2 read | 2 to read
The drop of water on the tongue, writes Gillian Clarke, 'was the first word in the world', and the language of water is the element in which these poems live. Ocean currents create histories and cultures - the port cities of Cardiff and Mumbai; myths are born where great rivers have their source high in the mountains. A bottle of spring water contains the mineral elements of life; we can read the earth's deep history in arctic ice. We share the rhythms of migrations in the pull of tides and seasons through rivers and estuaries. In her first collection since becoming the National Poet of Wales in 2008, Gillian Clarke explores water as memory and meaning, the bearer of stories that well up from a personal and collective past to return us to the language of the imagination in which we first named the world.
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Bookwomble
Bookwomble
A Recipe for Water | Gillian Clarke
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Pickpick

Given Gillian Clarke's been the National Poet of Wales, there's a lot of Wales in her poems, which is all to the good.
She also has a couple of poems about the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, which I hadn't heard of before. It's another in the catalogue of Nazi atrocities: the whole population of a French village murdered in reprisal for Resistance activity. 643 dead, including 247 women and 205 children burnt to death in a church. Bastards.

Bookwomble Otherwise, though, the book is about people, cities (Cardiff and Mumbai), the sea, rivers (especially the Severn), paintings, memories of childhood, and nature. Lovely, calming. I like her voice 😌 10mo
34 likes1 stack add1 comment
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rockpools
rockpools
A Recipe for Water | Gillian Clarke
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Pickpick

Fflam. Full poem at http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/general-reader/gillian-clarke/a-laureate-s-life

Really enjoyed this collection of poetry, which covers Wales (particularly Cardiff and its redevelopment), Mumbai and Limoges. Water is a theme throughout, along with the resurgence in the Welsh language, painters, poets and wildlife. I'll be looking for more of her poems.

#litsypoetry365

23 likes
quote
rockpools
rockpools
A Recipe for Water | Gillian Clarke
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#litsypoetry365. snippets from Sleepless by Gillian Clarke.

I'm loving this collection. A love song to language, and growing up in two languages, to water in all its forms, and to Cardiff, a city changing so rapidly. 🌃

Gillian Clarke was National Poet of Wales from 2008-2016.

21 likes1 stack add1 comment
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rockpools
rockpools
A Recipe for Water | Gillian Clarke
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from Llandâf Cathedral by Gillian Clarke

#litsypoetry365

Pic adapted from: Llandaff Cathedral by Peter Glyn https://flic.kr/p/ca7w2C

21 likes