Carcanet Press - Making the Beds for the Dead

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1657. The house in Delft.
Windfalls in a bowl.
I see her wake, take an apple
in one hand, a knife in the other.

The apple has fallen from the tree in Eden.
They are mapping the round earth,
discovering geography, astronomy,
She holds the world in her hand...

from 'A Woman Sleeping at a Table, by Vermeer'

The title sequence of Making the Beds for the Dead charts the journey of a virus in 'the plague year'. Come from outer space, it travels - on a fox's paw, the beak of a kite and a crow and a buzzard - into the very heart of our lives. The poet includes personal, verses and stories from farmers in her family and neighbourhood.

The open structure allows the Gillian Clarke to include her seven rock poems, written for the National Botanic Garden of Wales; her poems based in archaeology; and her poems about war, and urban violence. There is an instinctive and a deliberate unity of theme and idiom in this book. The poet remains true to her landscapes and her nation. The sequence 'The Physicians of Myddfai', nine sonnets for Aberglasne, and much else is included in this characteristically generous and engaging volume by Wales' best-loved poet.

Gillian Clarke's poems ring with lucidity and power...her work is personal and archetypal, built out of language as concrete as it is musical.' - Times Literary Supplement Born in Cardiff, Gillian Clarke is a poet, playwright, editor, broadcaster, lecturer and translator (from Welsh). In 2008 Clarke was appointed National Poet of ... read more

Praise for Gillian Clarke

'Clarke's mellifluous new collection [A Recipe for Water] is her first since her appointment as Wales's national poet in 2008. The drop of water on the tongue, she tells us, 'was the first word in the world', and it's through water that these poems give up their stories: history is written into the Arctic's ice; myths well up from river sources; the currents on the ocean wash culture and heritage onto our shores. Watery collections have poured forth from the pens of poets from Sean O'Brien to Maura Dooley in recent years; anticipation is high for Clarke's contribution to the pool'. - Sarah Crown, the Guardian, 3 January 2009

Belinda Cooke, Poetry Ireland Review , Issue 86
Something Endures
In Making Beds for the Dead , Gillian Clarke begins with an explanation of the nature of creativity, of language in particular, a process in which she draws on associations with friends past and present. read more

Elizabeth Burns, Orbis magazine, Autumn 2004
At the beginning is a poem about a Vermeer painting, where a woman peels an apple and from it learns about the universe: 'The apple turns / under fixed stars, / Her knife cuts into the Pole...' read more

Tim Liardet, North magazine, issue 36, Summer 2005
Gillian Clarke's Making the Beds for the Dead continues with more of what we expect from her: the clarity of her narrative drive, the acute observation of the natural world. read more

Richard Poole, New Welsh Review , volume 67, spring 2005
Gillian Clarke's new collection is made up of five sequences and twenty-seven poems split into three unequal groups. read more

John Scrivener, The Reader , Issue 17, Spring 2005
Where the Future Believes in Itself
Straightaway in this new collection of poems by Gillian Clarke images of close-fitting accuracy arrest your attention: you're made to feel the 'moth-thin pages' of a Bible, or see a woman who, cutting into an apple, 'peels the fruit in a single / ringlet of skin': how exactly this gives us that coil of peel, at once tense and lolling (the single/ringlet repetition mimicking the repeating curls). read more

Reviewed by David Morley in The Guardian , 13th November 2004
All Clarke's books to date have an individual architecture in selection and order, one that requires her readers to grasp the book as a conceptual, even a musical whole. read more

Reviewed in Planet by Anne Cluysenaar
This is a richly varied collection, remarkable both for its sense of vast perspectives within immediate (often homely) experience and its visceral evocation of current events. read more

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Making the Beds for the Dead Gillian Clarke RRP: GBP£ 8.95 Discount: 10% You Save: GBP£ 0.89 Price: GBP£ 8.05 Available Paperback ISBN: 978 1 857547 37 5 Categories: Welsh Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Published: April 2004 216 x 135 mm 77 pages Publisher: Carcanet Press Also available in: eBook (EPUB), eBook (Kindle) Description Excerpt Author Reviews 1657. The house in Delft. Windfalls in a bowl. I see her wake, take an apple in one hand, a knife in the other. The apple has fallen from the tree in Eden. They are mapping the round earth, discovering geography, astronomy, She holds the world in her hand... from 'A Woman Sleeping at a Table, by Vermeer' The title sequence of Making the Beds for the Dead charts the journey of a virus in 'the plague year'. Come from outer space, it travels - on a fox's paw, the beak of a kite and a crow and a buzzard - into the very heart of our lives. The poet includes personal, verses and stories from farmers in her family and neighbourhood. The open structure allows the Gillian Clarke to include her seven rock poems, written for the National Botanic Garden of Wales; her poems based in archaeology; and her poems about war, and urban violence. There is an instinctive and a deliberate unity of theme and idiom in this book. The poet remains true to her landscapes and her nation. The sequence 'The Physicians of Myddfai', nine sonnets for Aberglasne, and much else is included in this characteristically generous and engaging volume by Wales' best-loved poet. Gillian Clarke's poems ring with lucidity and power...her work is personal and archetypal, built out of language as concrete as it is musical.' - Times Literary Supplement Born in Cardiff, Gillian Clarke is a poet, playwright, editor, broadcaster, lecturer and translator (from Welsh). In 2008 Clarke was appointed National Poet of ... read more Praise for Gillian Clarke 'Clarke's mellifluous new collection [A Recipe for Water] is her first since her appointment as Wales's national poet in 2008. The drop of water on the tongue, she tells us, 'was the first word in the world', and it's through water that these poems give up their stories: history is written into the Arctic's ice; myths well up from river sources; the currents on the ocean wash culture and heritage onto our shores. Watery collections have poured forth from the pens of poets from Sean O'Brien to Maura Dooley in recent years; anticipation is high for Clarke's contribution to the pool'. - *Sarah Crown, the Guardian, 3 January 2009* Belinda Cooke, Poetry Ireland Review , Issue 86 Something Endures In Making Beds for the Dead , Gillian Clarke begins with an explanation of the nature of creativity, of language in particular, a process in which she draws on associations with friends past and present. read more Elizabeth Burns, Orbis magazine, Autumn 2004 At the beginning is a poem about a Vermeer painting, where a woman peels an apple and from it learns about the universe: 'The apple turns / under fixed stars, / Her knife cuts into the Pole...' read more Tim Liardet, North magazine, issue 36, Summer 2005 Gillian Clarke's Making the Beds for the Dead continues with more of what we expect from her: the clarity of her narrative drive, the acute observation of the natural world. read more Richard Poole, New Welsh Review , volume 67, spring 2005 Gillian Clarke's new collection is made up of five sequences and twenty-seven poems split into three unequal groups. read more John Scrivener, The Reader , Issue 17, Spring 2005 Where the Future Believes in Itself Straightaway in this new collection of poems by Gillian Clarke images of close-fitting accuracy arrest your attention: you're made to feel the 'moth-thin pages' of a Bible, or see a woman who, cutting into an apple, 'peels the fruit in a single / ringlet of skin': how exactly this gives us that coil of peel, at once tense and lolling (the single/ringlet repetition mimicking the repeating curls). read more Reviewed by David Morley in The Guardian , 13th November 2004 All Clarke's books to date have an individual architecture in selection and order, one that requires her readers to grasp the book as a conceptual, even a musical whole. read more Reviewed in Planet by Anne Cluysenaar This is a richly varied collection, remarkable both for its sense of vast perspectives within immediate (often homely) experience and its visceral evocation of current events. read more	Share this... Quick Links Aspects of Portugal Audio Books Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry Comma Press FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog Richard Price: A Month in Portugal read more Let's Gimbal! read more Carcanet New Poetry Showcase: The Audience Writes Back read more John Gallas: A Little Andaluciad read more Carcanet Poetry Showcase: 30th April read more The Manchester Writing Competition 2013 read more
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