Gillian Clarke
Gillian Clarke – Neighbours
Gillian Clarke is a Welsh poet whose writing often uses natural and rural settings to explore larger themes and ideas, particularly political ideas. She draws on the Welsh landscape and her experience of sheep-farming on the small-holding where she lives in West Wales. She has been the National Poet in Wales since 2008. The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Russia was the site of a massive explosion in 1986. Radiation from the accident killed people and animals from the local area, including 6 firemen who put out the fire after the explosion. The effect and spread of the disaster can’t be accurately predicted after a nuclear accident because radioactive particles can be carried by the wind. They can also get into the water cycle. The Chernobyl disaster was one of the motivations for the policy of ‘glasnost’, proposed and developed by the Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost translates as 'openness' and the policy supported the freedom of information. Gorbachev saw a need for openness because Chernobyl residents were not evacuated immediately after the disaster due to the Russian administration's concern to cover up their faults.
The spring was late. We watched the sky and studied charts for shouldering isobars. Birds were late to pair. Crows drank from the lamb’s eye.
Over Finland small birds fell; song thrushes steering north, smudged signatures on light, migrating warblers, nightingales.
Wing-beats failed over fjords, each lung a sip of gall. Children were warned of their dangerous beauty.
Gillian Clarke is a Welsh poet whose writing often uses natural and rural settings to explore larger themes and ideas, particularly political ideas. She draws on the Welsh landscape and her experience of sheep-farming on the small-holding where she lives in West Wales. She has been the National Poet in Wales since 2008. The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Russia was the site of a massive explosion in 1986. Radiation from the accident killed people and animals from the local area, including 6 firemen who put out the fire after the explosion. The effect and spread of the disaster can’t be accurately predicted after a nuclear accident because radioactive particles can be carried by the wind. They can also get into the water cycle. The Chernobyl disaster was one of the motivations for the policy of ‘glasnost’, proposed and developed by the Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost translates as 'openness' and the policy supported the freedom of information. Gorbachev saw a need for openness because Chernobyl residents were not evacuated immediately after the disaster due to the Russian administration's concern to cover up their faults.
The spring was late. We watched the sky and studied charts for shouldering isobars. Birds were late to pair. Crows drank from the lamb’s eye.
Over Finland small birds fell; song thrushes steering north, smudged signatures on light, migrating warblers, nightingales.
Wing-beats failed over fjords, each lung a sip of gall. Children were warned of their dangerous beauty.