"What do you know about the deaf and blind mid-twentieth century poet from Cornwall in England named Jack Clemo? Our guess is: not much. There are a few people out there trying to change this situation and we can thank one in particular: Louis Hemmings from Ireland, who has brought Clemo’s book The Invading Gospel back into print. Clemo was born in 1916 amid the china clay mines of Cornwall, which many have described as having a desolate, “lunar” look. Something of the stark intensity of this landscape colored Clemo’s style and vision. Deaf by age 20, Clemo’s blindness came on slowly and became total. After a period of youthful rebellion he returned to the Christian faith of his youth. The Invading Gospel—part autobiography, part apologetic—tells this story and goes beyond to reflect on many subjects, including the relationship between faith and art. Clemo’s stern Calvinism will be offensive to some readers but it is certainly bracing and intriguing. The controlling metaphor of the book comes from his belief that the Christian Gospel is like an invasion into the proud ego of the rebellious individual. This is, of course, a stark and even violent image and yet it bears a strong resemblance to that of someone like Flannery O’Connor, who grew up amidst the red clay of Georgia. And Clemo stresses that when the soul surrenders to this invasion the result is joyful, not dour and ascetical. He is also a more generous reader than this bare summary may indicate—for example, he writes of his appreciation of writers outside his own theological tradition, such as G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and Thomas Merton. At the very least, the re-issuing of this book ought to help stimulate a revived interest in what is arguably Clemo’s greatest achievement: his poetry (which has been published by the distinguished British press Bloodaxe, among others). The Invading Gospel has been privately re-published with some new background material and an afterword by Louis Hemmings and is available directly from him: louis@samovarbooks.com. The book is even more readily available in Kindle and Lulu editions."
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Jack Clemo - The Broadening Spring.
2 comments:
thank you for mentioning THE INVADING GOSPEL, of which i am the publisher. i appreciate your posting it on your blog. i was a good friend of Jack's. we exchanged 100 letters, now in Exeter University Special Collections, along with all of Jack's library, manuscripts, letters etc.
all the best
louis hemmings
Thanks Louis, I've appreciated poems of yours that I've read over the years in addition to valuing Jack Clemo's work.
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