Common Prayer
from Jeremy Clarke
An abseiling window cleaner and a pavement layer
in a 'blind' dialogue as they go through their working day.
Published pamphlet by Rufus Books, London
and The St. Thomas Poetry Series, Toronto
printed by Coach House Press, Toronto
A limited, bound edition and an ambient recording of this work
available elsewhere on this site.
This work was performed as part of the 2014
Poetry For Lunch series at Eton College
(27 May, Election Hall).
'Jeremy Clarke has an ongoing relationship with Eton
as our visiting poet. He has given many inspiring and
memorable workshops and seminars to boys interested
in writing. We have been lucky to have access to the real thing.
For Clarke's work reminds one of what poetry is: language crafted with such care that it acquires a special lustre. The impression of skill and craftsmanship one has from his work may reflect his close interest in, and connection to, the visual arts. His debut collection 'Devon Hymns' (2010) featured pictures by Yves Berger and his father John Berger (the painter and Booker Prize-winning novelist); his forthcoming collection 'Spatiamentum' (2014) will be illustrated by Paola Volpato, and he has also done work with the sculptor Emily Young for St. Pancras Old Church.
His relationship with St. Pancras Old Church reflects his sincere, if slightly unconventional spiritual faith. He prefers visiting empty churches to attending church services and he has described the process of working at poems as a form of prayer. Moreover, though he escaped to the countryside to write 'Devon Hymns', he has spoken to at least one interviewer about following a kind of 'urban monasticism' as a London poet embracing 'poverty, obscurity, loneliness and rejection'.
Though he is utterly genial in company and conversation, one detects a level of seriousness in him about the business of living and writing; his poems reveal a profound commitment to what really matters - an essence, a truth.
~ Joe Francis, Eton College
Common Prayer copyright © Jeremy Clarke 2012
All Rights Reserved
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about
Jeremy Clarke London, UK
≈forthcoming
April 2024
Stone Hours
collected poems Rufus Books
Toronto
Sept-Dec 2020
Exhib. of Stations Notre Dame de France Church London
May 2018
Psalms in the
Vulgar Tongue
Wounded Wolf Press Ankara
Oct 2016
Music for Amen poem - The Long White Thread of Words: Poems for John Berger
Smokestack Books
Nov 2014-June 2015 Exhib. of written & recorded work
Eton College
Windsor
... more
discography
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Aug 2022 -
Dec 2020 -
Aug 2020 -
Aug 2016