Poetry
Plain Furniture
Peter Clarke · 1991
Synopsis
A slim collection of poems, accompanied by drawings that do not comment on the texts. The poems start from memories and people of Simon's Town: the day of enrolment at school, in 1936, when the mother leaves the child behind; the search, on the beach, for driftwood and debris from which the artist will make works, the poet then speaking of himself in the third person; a shoemaker, Mr Ramjee, whose poem honours the care of his work and the long journey of the ancestors who came from India.
Context
The collection appeared in 1991 from Snail Press, in Plumstead. According to Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin, its illustrations remain independent of the poems: its author rarely illustrated his own texts, which he had been giving since the 1950s to magazines such as Contrast; one of his essays had appeared in 1961, under the pseudonym Peter Kumalo, in an African anthology compiled by Langston Hughes. He read these poems to the young people of the parish, at St Francis church, reports the parish's former priest.
Who it is for
Short poems in English, in simple language, accompanied by drawings; not translated into French.
Prizes and reception
A slim volume gathering the poems of an author known first for his engravings, paintings and collages.