A tribute to Clive James …
Clive James (1939 – 2019 ) died on Thursday at the age of 80. He was an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism. He lived and worked in England from 1962. Clive James was such an erudite and clever user of words and a literary Australian Expat giant over a wide range of literary work.
He stated that his best poetry was in the last years of his life from 2010 when he was first diagnosed with leukaemia and emphysema. In many ways he said that this extension to life were golden years while in reflective mood and at a slower pace. Luckily he was not in any pain.
When he was not in a position to return to Australia he had strong mind memories that were sufficient sustenance. This can be seen from his articulation of such images of his homeland in the following poem …
And here are links to three more of Clive James’ Poems on this Site …
And I can thoroughly recommend reading his – ‘2006 -2014 Poetry Notebook’
my word in your ear 