Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A real poet

I was rooting around in links the other day - probably chasing up accounts of +Gene's visit to Scotland last week - when I came across this on The Herald's site. Edwin Morgan reads some poems he wrote recently in response to some well-known paintings - the best known probably the Dali Christ of St John of the Cross, a painting I grew up knowing through frequent visits to Kelvingrove Art Galleries.

Though his speech is now slurred by the stroke he suffered last year, Morgan's voice is still recognisable as that of the first real poet I ever met, when he lectured to my Ordinary English class at Glasgow Uni in the 60s, and the poems are as telling as ever. I am indebted to this real poet for encouraging me in my writing, and heartened to realise he's as sharp as ever despite failing health and confinement in a nursing home.

Read and enjoy.

3 comments:

  1. Unfortunately I cannot get the video to work - I'd have liked to hear him read.

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  2. That's a pity - it's still working fine for me.

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  3. You can hear him read on the poetry archive website -

    http://www.poetryarchive.org

    Not these poems though.

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