Bordeaux Bay

Bordeaux Bay
Bordeaux Bay by Guernsey-based artist Tony Taylor

Thursday 1 November 2018

POETIC PILGRIMAGE

Two inspirational Twentieth Century poets, John Betjeman and Charles Causley, lie buried in Cornwall and whilst visiting the area I made a pilgrimage to their graves.
The poems of former Poet Laureate John Betjeman are well known but Causley’s poetry may be rather less so.
Charles Causley was born in Launceston and spent most of his life there. He died on 4th November 2003, aged 86, and is buried in St Thomas Churchyard.
Although known as an intensely private person, Causley was a friend of fellow poets, Siegfried Sassoon, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes.
Charles Causley’s poetry deals with issues of faith, friendship and family.
His work is noted for its simplicity and directness and for its associations with folklore, especially when linked to his native Cornwall.

His poems for children also proved very popular. He is quoted as saying that the royalties for his much-loved poem, Timothy Winters, were sufficient to retire on.
Here's my favourite Causley poem, Eden Rock





EDEN ROCK

They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:

My father, twenty-five, in the same suit
Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack
Still two years old and trembling at his feet.

My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dress


Drawn at the waist, ribbon in her straw hat,

Has spread the stiff white cloth over the grass.

Her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light.

She pours tea from a Thermos, the milk straight
From an old H.P. sauce-bottle, a screw
Of paper for a cork; slowly sets out


The same three plates, the tin cups painted blue.

The sky whitens as if lit by three suns.
My mother shades her eyes and looks my way


Over the drifted stream. My father spins

A stone along the water. Leisurely,

They beckon to me from the other bank.


I hear them call, 'See where the stream-path is!

Crossing is not as hard as you might think.'

I had not thought that it would be like this.


 
Charles Causley








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