Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Poetic Obituaries: The musical nature of Adrian [Mitchell]'s imagination

led him to work with a cavalcade of composers and performers: Andy Roberts, Richard Peaslee, Steve McNeff, Dominic Muldowney, Andrew Dixon and Stephen Warbeck. His influence radiated widely, not least to generations of teachers, who used his poems with children in schools.

Last week he rang me. He sounded better than during his last three months of illness. "Can I read you this poem?" he asked. He did. It was a celebration. Next night he died. But this poem (below), and the poems and the plays and the politics--he went to Faslane on the anti-Trident demonstration and got arrested--will last.

from The Guardian: Poet Adrian Mitchell dies, aged 76
also The Guardian: Adrian Mitchell--a poet who made things happen
also The Guardian: Tell Me Lies About Vietnam by Adrian Mitchell

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