Thomas A Clark

Winter Flowering Names

2012-02-09T15:44:00.007Z

When there are no flowers to place in rooms, you can place

the names of flowers in rooms.

a recumbent fold

2012-01-05T10:23:00.001Z

The Standing Poem

2011-12-13T14:05:00.004Z

If a piece of card is folded once, an astonishing thing happens – the card can stand up ! It has an air of self-possession about it. It holds its place.

If the words are then printed on the front of the card, rather than inside, something equally miraculous occurs – poetry moves from the private into the public realm ! Instead of being assigned to a secluded, literary space, it enters the ordinary, everyday world, taking part in the occasion.

The words are not painted on a wall or carved in stone. The card is a modest format. It sits quietly within the situation, making a difference, suggesting another possibility.

Our relation to literary products is usually voluntary; you go to the shelf to find the book to look up the poem. By contrast, a card is available at a glance. You can forget it for days or weeks and then come into a room and discover it again. It takes you by surprise.

The model fishing boat in the photograph was made by Ian Hamilton Finlay who, in 1965, invented the ‘standing poem’.

Butterflies

2011-12-03T10:25:00.003Z

In the semiological theory of Saussure and Barthes, a first-order level of signs (the level of assigned meanings, or denotation) is augmented by a second-order level (of associations, or connotations). Behind the apparent meaning is an ideologically-motivated set of cultural assumptions on which the meaning draws.

But connotations are notoriously vague. They are as likely to lead, in reverie, to the dissolution or diversion of meanings as to their condensation. Poetry seems to be an art that hesitates and hovers, keeping the uncertainty of connotations in play for as long as possible.

These days, no one knows the names of butterflies, so for a brief moment the words of the names can float free from any indicative function, their colours released.

Making

2011-11-26T16:49:00.004Z

If you want to make a poem, rather than write one, then its form will be an immediate concern. No one makes anything without a clear shape in mind. Although the shape might change in the making, some formal intuition will be necessary to get you started.

While the notion of writing is fluid, making is static and hard-edged. Where writing might run on forever, or for as long as its impetus lasts, making has an end in view, a finished object in some way answering desire.

To regard poetry as making, as a practical rather than an intellectual activity, is common to the Concrete poets, the Objectivists, and to old Scottish ‘makars’. It offers a middle way between a ‘free’, or formally lax mainstream poetry, and a more ‘experimental’ poetry that deconstructs, divides or diverts whole streams of language.

When you have made a few poems, cards or books, they amount to a satisfying pile, having weight, volume and presence. They can sit on the table for a while before heading off on their own adventures.

city butterflies

2011-06-12T11:38:00.006+01:00

Nagoya, Japan 2011

Photographs by Eiji Watanabe

As part of a collaboration with the Japanese artist

Eiji Watanabe, last year I installed a series of butterfly

names in a former kimono shop in downtown Nagoya.

The shop was recently occupied by a local politician

as a base to launch his (successful) mayoral election

campaign. The butterflies still hovered, in a more

politically charged space.

The Mountains Of Holland

2011-06-05T10:59:00.002+01:00

The Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, the Cairngorms, what

are these compared with the mountains of Holland, whose

height and range can never be measured ? Wrapped in their

own weather, invisible to the eye, they constantly recede

before the traveller who begins to imagine they are only

a rumour. Yet in the small hours, or in the evening, one who

walks pensively in a solemn extent of water-meadows may

sometimes feel the implication of their weight.

A boxed edition containing a flag, enamel plaque and dvd is

published by De Vlaggen Club/The Flag Club and available

from Peter Foolen Editions

peterfoolen@online.nl

on the earth

2011-04-25T11:55:00.003+01:00

With thanks to Lesley Punton, Jim Hamlyn

and Angus

Reticence

2011-03-16T11:19:00.002Z

The wooden columns of the Byre Theatre, St Andrews,

are like tree trunks holding the grove of the interior

space.

Three years ago, I installed a series of four-word poems

on the four sections of each column. Since then, all

the poems have been removed but for one column

which still bears the single word - 'reticence'.

Dusk print

2011-03-11T15:02:00.002Z

New Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.

a rudimentary song

2011-03-11T14:48:00.004Z

Brief descriptions of bird songs in vinyl lettering

attached to a window looking onto a courtyard

planted with birch trees and benches.

New Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.

Eight Delays

2011-03-11T14:30:00.005Z

Eight poems on plaques attached to eight benches

in a courtyard. New Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.

after the shower

it goes on raining

gently on the pond

under the willow

Selected Grasses

2011-03-11T12:24:00.004Z

The names of grasses scroll across a moving

light sign. New Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.

d'acqua e di boschi

2011-02-03T11:15:00.002Z

sul margine di un bosco

l'esitazione di un istante

come dovrai comportarti

in compagnia degli alberti

andare con la corrente

oppure contro corrente

scorrere via continuamente

essere constantemente colmato

poems translated by Chiara de Luca

d'acqua e di boschi

is published by Edizioni Kolibris, Bologna

www.edizionikolibris.eu

after Lao Tzu

2010-12-20T16:19:00.002Z

a small country sparsely populated
with a wealth of resources
never exploited
people seldom go far
their boats never venture
far from the shore
they have sophisticated devices
but seldom use them
energy and intelligence
but never display them
well-fed and clothed
living simply and quietly
they are honest to the honest
honest to the less than honest

Sea Bindweed

2010-12-13T14:00:00.003Z

Sea Bindweed (Calystegia soldanella)

One Blue Moment

2010-12-13T13:56:00.002Z

if the waves were silver

2010-11-21T11:02:00.003Z

from The Threadbare Coat, Moschatel Press 2008

film by Carmel Olivier

Shared Persimmons

2010-11-14T14:08:00.003Z

Shared Persimmons (homage to Santoka)

T-shirt design for Aichi Trienalle, Nagoya 2010

Photographs by Eiji Watanabe

Blue and Yellow

2010-09-05T16:53:00.003+01:00

Blue and Yellow

Laurie Clark
Thomas A Clark

Star Gallery
Nagoya Japan

1st July to 11th September 2010

I centomila luoghi

2010-08-15T15:02:00.002+01:00

I centomila luoghi, a translation by Chiara De Luca
of The Hundred Thousand Places is published by
Kolibris Editions and available from
Via Pellegrino Matteucci 11
40137 Bologna

www.edizionikolibris.eu
redazione@edizionikolibris.eu

primula
delle isole
aperta
dalla luce
prima primula
delle isole

The Path To The Sea

2010-04-12T16:58:00.002+01:00

came the nine joys
with the nine waves
with the nine joys
of the nine waves
and the nine waves
of the nine joys

the first wave to meet you
the second wave to lift you
the third wave to balance you
the fourth wave to carry you
the fifth wave to farther you
the sixth wave to enjoy
the seventh wave to rock you
the eighth wave to prepare you
the ninth wave to deliver you

from The Path To The Sea
Arc Publications 2005 £8.99

100,000

2009-12-07T14:37:00.002Z

birch sapling curving
slightly twisting
out from the slope
rising and turning
in what might
be called a gesture
if a gesture can be
prolonged indefinitely

from The Hundred Thousand Places
published by Carcanet Press 2009

available from
www.carcanet.co.uk

On The Earth

2009-12-07T14:17:00.004Z

Five polished stone axes were recovered this summer from the archaeological excavations at Braes of Ha'Breck on the island of Wyre in Orkney. These are in addition to hundreds of fragments of pottery, flint and stone tools making this one of the most significant domestic sites in Orkney from the Early Neolithic. For further information see www.orkney.uhi.ac.uk

A tee-shirt and photographic print, designed by Thomas A Clark for the archaeologists at Wyre, is available from braeprojects.com/shopsite

Company

2009-08-08T14:06:00.009+01:00

with thanks to Tamsin Clark
Carmel Olivier, Peter Foolen, Ross Hair,
Sara Mackillop, and Anne Bjerge Hansen

A Model of Order

2009-07-26T14:22:00.003+01:00

Selected Letters on Poetry and Making

by Ian Hamilton Finlay

"I don't usually play games but it seems to me
that most games are like many poems, in that
they are so complex that luck (randomness)
re-enters by the complexity - and that it is better,
therefore, to have a kind of 'concrete' game, where
the basic moves are simple, but can result in a kind
of measured complexity which one can see."

Edited by Thomas A Clark
Published by WAX 366
Available from David Bellingham,
119 Wilton Street 2/1, Glasgow G20 6RD
Price £9.95

To Flow Away

2009-07-26T14:11:00.004+01:00

Near the entrance to the Falkland Centre for Stewardship in Fife,
a pond is fed by the Maspie Burn. Beside the pond, a circular bench
is placed round the trunk of an old lime tree. A poem has been carved
onto the bench, in a line going round the tree

to flow away continually
to be constantly replenished

People can sit on the bench and watch a movement of water
constantly supplying the stillness of the pond. To read the poem,
they must pay homage to the tree by walking round it.

Letter cutting by Roger Hall

Grove

2009-06-27T09:41:00.023+01:00

Reiach & Hall's New Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow is set within
an apparently random planting of silver birch. Inside the building,
open courtyards are planted with larch and surfaced with natural
larch boarding.

Thomas A Clark proposed that the building be considered as
'a grove of larch in a forest of birch'. Short texts on a woodland
theme occur around the building in a context of art installations
by Kenneth Dingwall, Olwen Shone, Andreas Karl Schulze, and
Donald Urquhart.

The latin names of trees are sandblasted onto windows,
the names of grasses scroll across an led sign, the names
of butterflies appear on waiting room windows, as if an
orange tip or pale clouded yellow might flutter past.

Olwen Shone with Andreas Karl Schulze

Kenneth Dingwall

Thomas A Clark with Kenneth Dingwall

Donald Urquhart with Thomas A Clark

Thomas A Clark

Thomas A Clark

Spiritual Care centre designed by Donald Urquhart
with a text by Thomas A Clark

Thomas A Clark with Andreas Karl Schulze

Thomas A Clark

Thomas A Clark

Four Benches

2009-06-21T14:47:00.003+01:00

To convert an anonymous or undefined area into
a place, it may be enough to place something in it,
to direct attention to it.

As an invitation to linger, four benches were situated
around the Falkland estate in Fife, each bench inscribed
with a 'one-word poem'. (This is a form invented by Ian
Hamilton Finlay - the poem should have only one word
but the title can be of any length !)

The benches were made by Dave McKeen at his workshop
in Falkland and the letters were carved by Roger Hall.

Two Poems

2009-06-21T14:14:00.002+01:00

an island that dances away
from every approach towards it
an island of sedge and lyme-grass
bright like an open face
an island or glimpse of something
significant but misted over
an island with a boat
pulled up on the shore
an island to which singing voices
come at night over the water
an island of yellow ragwort
rippling in the sunlight

collected on a bright day
from cliffs above the sea
wild honey of the whin
eat it and hunger for it
look for it and find it
for honey of bell heather
take the hives to the moor
or to sheltered tidal margins
to gather from the sea pink
gather pollen from the willow
the sycamore's early nectar
nectar of bramble and clover

from The Threadbare Coat
Moschatel Press 2009 £5

Byre Theatre

2009-06-20T13:50:00.008+01:00

During the Stanza poetry festival, in March 2008, short texts
on the theme of trees and bird song were installed throughout
the Byre theatre in St Andrews, converting the bar and dining
areas into a shaded grove.

Dysart Artworks

2009-06-19T11:31:00.008+01:00

The wall in the photographs was designed by Donald Urquhart
with a text by Thomas A Clark, in collaboration with City Design
landscape architects. It was part of a regeneration project by Fife
Council in the old mining village of Dysart.

Aurora and Flora were the names of coal barges working out
of Dysart harbour in the early 20th century. The work was
intended as a reminder of the village's mining history as well
as a message of hope and regrowth for the future.

Before completion of the project, in April 2008, the wall was
demolished on 'safety' grounds and in response to 'public demand'.

Photographs by Liane Bauer

2009-06-15T13:51:00.003+01:00

Four Delays

on a wide bend of the river
there is a leisurely turning of water
that flows so profoundly it can
relax into ever gesture

a mist rising from water
drifts grey over green
a slow mist of willows
pale green over green

on the edge of a wood
a moment's hesitation
how will you conduct yourself
in the company of trees

willow branches spread and fall
around a space that holds the air
or detains it while it comes and goes
within a room whose walls are leaves

from Of Woods & Water
Moschatel Press 2009 £8.50