The Silence

Sue says about The Silence:
"A wonderful, varied selection of poems on themes of family, memory, and nature. The first section, written during the pandemic, contains poems that reflect how close observation and appreciation of the natural world helped us navigate the long, lonely days of lockdown, the seasons continuing whilst the world had ground to a halt. The poems in the second half focus on memories of  childhood holidays spent with grandparents on the Welsh coast with the threat of war rumbling ominously in the background. I’ve really enjoyed exploring these poems of the past couple of months, each one a delight."

A Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation 2024. 

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.