The Clay Hymnal and Clay Phoenix

The Clay Hymnal is a specially commissioned project by Bodmin Moor Poetry Festival on which Jim Causley collaborated with author Luke Thompson to make an album of poems by Cornish poet Jack Clemo as part his 2016 centenary celebrations. 'Clemo - a close friend of Charles Causley - was a fascinating poet who lived in the evocative Clay Country district of mid Cornwall and was greatly inspired by that dramatic, man-made landscape. Often described as angular, his poems couldn't be more different from that of his Launceston friend and that is paralleled in these new musical settings. Recorded in his home village, this project features some of the finest musicians in the Duchy and brings to life the clayscape world of Clemo.'

The CD was launched, in a concert by Jim and friends, alongside Luke Thompson’s biography of Clemo, Clay Phoenix, at the climax of this year’s Bodmin Moor Poetry Festival. 'Clay Phoenix is the first biography of Clemo, and it is the first study to draw from Clemo's extensive archives; an archive that includes sixty years of diaries, letters (including to and from Charles Causley, Cecil Day Lewis, Mary Whitehouse, AL Rowse, Frances Bellerby, TF Powys, George MacBeth and Sir Arthur Quiller Couch), manuscripts of every volume of Clemo’s work and a large photograph collection.'

'Jack Clemo (1916-94) was a strange feature of the twentieth century’s literary landscape. Deaf and blind for most of his adult life and raised in poverty at the foot of a waste dump in the china clay mining region of Cornwall, Clemo's experience of the world was harsh and imposing. Using his rural-industrial landscape as a symbol for his faith, sexuality and physical decline, Jack Clemo produced some of the most exciting, tense and vital poetry of the era.'

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Jim Causley - Angel Hill.

Celebrating Jack Clemo's centenary

For some years the Arts Centre Group (ACG) has run a poetry competition in memory of Cornish poet Jack Clemo. Entries have just closed for this year's edition, which marks the centenary of Clemo's birth.

On Saturday 14 May the ACG will be holding a day of celebration with special guests, at the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity in Vere Street, London, culminating in the presentation of the 2016 Jack Clemo Poetry Competition prizes by the Bishop of Truro, Rt Revd Tim Thornton.

Highlights of the day's programme include:

11.00 Coffee and arrivals
11.25 Norman Stone introduces his 1980 BBC TV drama on the life of Jack Clemo "A Different Drummer”
12.30 Q and A with Director Norman Stone
13.00 Lunch
13.45 Keynote speech from Dr Luke Thompson, author of the new Jack Clemo biography, “Clay Phoenix. The Life and Writing of Jack Clemo”
14.30 Panel discussion with special guests including poet Steve Turner
15.30 Presentation of 2016 Jack Clemo Awards and reading of winning poems
16.45 Event ends

Tickets are £10 for the whole day including lunch/refreshments etc or £5 for either the morning or afternoon session with refreshments included. To help plan catering etc, ACG need you to book by FRIDAY 15th APRIL at the latest and send your payment by the end of April. The easiest way to pay is via the website - www.artscentregroup.org.uk, or call the office between 11.30 and 5.30pm on the following days: Monday 11 and Friday 15 April – (0207 407 1881).

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Jack Clemo - The Broadening Spring.

Jack Clemo: The Invading Gospel

The latest ImageUpdate has this about the The Invading Gospel by Jack Clemo:

"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.

Another shade of blue

Another artist that I came across while leafing through catalogues in Cornwall was John Miller, who was born in London in 1931 and started painting as a teenager. Online he is described as follows:

"His first main career was as an architect and after a visit to West Cornwall in the mid-fifties he returned to live there in 1958 with Michael Truscott. He was elected to the Newlyn Society of Artists in 1961 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1964.

He went on to show in London, New York, Vancouver and Europe and made many broadcasts and television appearances. Visiting the Isles of Scilly led to the beach paintings, and after living at Sancreed for many years he painted from a house on the beach at Lelant where some of his most evocative paintings were done. Travels in places such as Goa and Greece also influenced his paintings, as did his deep spiritual and religious beliefs, which shine through the colour and intensity of the images.


The blue and white images of beaches, sky and sea have become a trademark of both his artistic style and personality. Rock star Chris Rea required an image for ‘King of the Beach’, and chose a painting by John Miller for the CD cover. His paintings have decorated the walls of TV’s ‘Eastenders’, and the set of John Boorman’s film ‘The Tailor of Panama’.

In 1989, he published an autobiography, “Leave Tomorrow Behind”. After a short illness he died on Tuesday 23rd July 2002, at his home in Penzance. The memorial exhibition included a selection of paintings inspired by his last trip to Goa alongside works in both oil and gouache of his beloved Cornwall. Further reading: Another Shade Of Blue and John Miller 1931-2002: Seeing Is Believing."

My initial impression from a brief look at Miller's work is that his 'spiritual' works exemplify what has become a common and now clichéd feature of 'spiritual' or 'prophetic' painting i.e. a single colour field with a sole figure spotlit in a celestial beam of light.

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Deacon Blue - Swaying Arms.

Eden Project & Lost Gardens of Heligan

Heligan

Heligan

Eden Project


Eden Project

Eden Project

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Show of Hands - The Flood.