The Silence by Gillian Clarke
POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION SPRING 2024 Penny Boxall attaining the measured extravagance of

attaining the measured extravagance of

their flight and their song have enlivened me

sober act of keeping faith with the ethical force of exact expression

and a letter which heals old wounds

these poems convey what it is to be human

The Silence by Gillian Clarke<br><b>POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION SPRING 2024</b> Penny Boxall attaining the measured extravagance of'The days have no names. The day they count the dead,the day they closed the doors,turned off the lights. We're still here in the silence,hearing tree talk,the wind's secrets,the company of birds.' 'The Year of the Dead' The poems in Gillian Clarke's The Silence begin during lockdown, whose silences Clarke listens so attentively that other voices emerge. As the book progresses, that silence deepens, in the poems about her mother and childhood, about