Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Poet whose work is studied widely in British schools; the BBC's first poet in residence; recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
On the island
Eight records
Well this takes me back to an important part of our lives. Grace, my wife and a poet in her own right, we arrived in England in nineteen seventy seven. … I remember that period where we would all gather together in his living room. We'd be looking at Top of the Pops. You'll have Legs and Core. … And you heard Withering Heights by Kate Bush. And watching that figure emerge like some kind of enchanting banshee I think was a wonderful combination of the literary, the musical, and a cameo of a performance.
Oh, we were speaking about language rubbing off, and I remember around early seventies, one of our friends had migrated to Canada and returned home proudly with this collection of vinyl. … And when I heard the wind cries Mary, you'd almost expect the wind to cry s softly or the wind whispers softly. But here a woman's name uttered by the wind, I just felt there was an electricity there.
Shelter from the StormFavourite
he puts on on his little record player, says,'Come on, boys, listen to this He puts on some one by the name of Bob Dylan. Adolescent, we shake our heads. Sir, what sort of music is that? Never realizing in years to come that I would be so in love with the lyrics of Bob Dylan. In this particular version, the live concert Buddha Kan in Japan where he sings shelter from the storm. I think it's a marvellous synthesis of the personal, the political, the erotic, the spiritual. And since I'll be on a desert island, who knows? Grace might suddenly appear and say to me, I'll be your shelter from the storm.
oh yes, around um back to 1970 and around that same period of working for The Chronicle. We used to get news releases from Reuters and you'll hear about the Vietnam War. … And this simple ballad, this takes us right back to Vietnam.
Oh, um going back to that period, that so-called um hippie period. And uh this friend who brought back this collection of vinyl, he played Jetro Tull. I thought that was a man's name, and I liked the sound of that breevy flute. but also the texture of the voice. And it really brings back that period of possibility and innocence when you think you are eternal.
Her truck, read all about it. I think she's a beacon of what I would like to consider the future British generation. Mixed heritage. … Reminding us that as young people they have a voice. … So I think this is for my three daughters and the future Britain, where they must not feel themselves marginalized, regardless of their class or their role.
And I I mean choosing air tracks that was a very difficult task. How can I leave out um Bob Marley? … I ended up choosing this one, my Lord Invader. A Calypsonian going back to the thirties. I think this is a superb little piece of mischief where the s the Calypsonian takes on the persona of a not very quick witted person, despite obvious amateur overtures from a lady.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:32When the alchemy is happening for you, when you're in front of a page and the words start coming, can you take me a little bit further into that feeling?
Well, um people speak of inspiration, or a line might come to you. You've heard the word like a benediction, a line just coming. You've heard the word grace, like it's a gift. … But it isn't something that's divorced from the mundane of life. The other day I was listening to um the postmortem on strictly come dancing. … She wanted to say that the improvement in the dance moves of some celebrity was heartening, so she says … To see him improve was butter to my heart.
Presenter asks
5:38Two of your poems, Flag and Checking Out Me History, are part of the GCSE syllabus. Is it satisfying enough to you that they are taught, or is it very important to you how they are taught as poems?
Well, if poetry is approached in the classroom in a very dull way, you will communicate a dull experience. So a lot depends on an inspiring teacher. The teacher is the midwife of talent, so to speak.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Thomas Merton
because I feel on that island Thomas Morton will touch many sides of me. ... he had this wonderful line where he speaks about each person being full of paradise.
The luxury
I think I will need that roll up of organic tobacco, if you don't mind.
You met Grace Nicholls, your wife, in the late 60s in Georgetown when you were both writing for the Sunday Chronicle, and you decided to embark on this great journey together and to come to the UK. What was behind that?
We were both writing for the same newspaper. And both Grace and myself had dreams of becoming a creative writers, a dream of living as a writer. … Apart from the personal reason that my dad was already here, and I hadn't seen him for about sixteen or seventeen years … there was that dream where you can send out a manuscript. You'll get a rejection, no doubt, but you'll send it out again, and then one day you'll get published and you can get something called royalties. That was the dream.
Presenter asks
20:46When you first came in 1977, what sort of welcome were you given as an immigrant?
Well, even though I didn't experience any sort of um Thank God any uh physical confrontation or or direct physical animosity … you can't be unaware that there were certain perceptions. It might come out i i in a simple way, like, you know, where did you learn your English from? … But the way I see it is that that word, shall we say, racism, one can invi absorb it to the point where you make of yourself a victim.
Presenter asks
24:40Maybe when you win the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, as you did in 2012, you automatically become a member of the establishment. What do you think?
I don't see myself in that light. I can I can respect previous decisions that have been made, say, by a poet, to refuse an MBE or an OBE because of that baggage of the word empire. But bearing in mind that this particular medal is an appreciation of your contribution and your oeuvre as a poet. … I think young people in this country, white and black … they need to be motivated by people who channel the word with positive energy … and for that reason I had no qualms.
Presenter asks
30:18You get the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and you will get to take one other book to this island. What's yours going to be?
Well, after long thought, I decided um a little book by Thomas Morton, because I feel on that island Thomas Morton will touch many sides of me. … He had this wonderful line where he speaks about each person being full of paradise. … Thomas Merton says When psalms surprise me with their music and antiphons turn to rum, the spirit sings. I mean I love the idea of antiphons turning to rum. So on a desert island, even if I haven't got any rum, I can imagine the bird noises and the canticles of the air turning to rum, preferably El Dorado.
“Poetry, um, language in orbit. Because a poet is using the same number of um letters of the alphabet as any other human being … but that magical moment when you happen to put the right words in the right order can trigger off a verbal chemistry that can touch your depths.”
“I had no plans to be a poet, but when I hear John Arlott speaking of a batsman forward defensive, gingerly all along the carpet, back to the bowler, without knowing it, I was responding to that power of language.”
“Imprisoned in my classroom cell, I chew my pen as printed words Come tumbling down before my eyes. Oh, words worth Why were you born? To rack my brains with songs of praise to lifelong nature … I wrote a poem.”
“Me not no Oxford Don. Me a simple immigrant from Clapham Common I didn't graduate, I immigrate. But listen, Mr Oxford Donne, I'm a man on the run, And a man on the run is a dangerous one. I have no gun, I have no knife, But mugging the Queen's English, Is the story of my life.”
“Oh, it was good. It isn't a position you can choose. … We didn't choose to be speaking English. It was thrust upon us in in the way of speaking. But now you've got that richness of the English language and you've got the richness of Caribbean Creole. If it's thrust upon you, you should embrace it.”
“A little book by Thomas Morton … he had this wonderful line where he speaks about each person being full of paradise. For some reason that touches me. I mean, you take, for example, when in one of his hymns in this book, Thomas Merton says When psalms surprise me with their music and antiphons turn to rum, the spirit sings. I mean I love the idea of antiphons turning to rum.”