Lawrence Durrell: Poem by Charles Bryant

To fully appreciate this poem you have to have read, as I have, an awful lot of the work (Alexandria Quartet, Tunc, Nunquam etc) of the English writer Lawrence Durrell. I call him English but he was hardly ever here and didn't much like us. On one of the family's brief visits to the UK he attended the same grammar school that I did, St Olave's & St Saviour's at London's Tower Bridge, locally known as Snotty Oliver's. Believe it or not, my poem is really rather a loving tribute. Larry was an absolute literary peach! The Scobie mentioned at the end of the poem is one of his most hilarious characters from the Alexandria Quartet, inventor of the patent earth-closet and possessed of a parrot that could recite the Koran! Durrell also wrote poetry, most of it rather flat.


LAWRENCE DURRELL

by Charles Bryant

Really rather a grubby little man!
Stink of Gauloises and last night's spilt gin.
Attempting to be fashionably gay,
his heart not really in it.

The sirocco was always blowing;
sometimes the more exotic sharp khamseen;
the shrubbery packed with cicadas sawing away;
bougainvillea blooming up the drive.
Hung over, groping for another drink
and finding the bottle empty. Bitch bitch bitch!

His publishers deferential but demanding
just like the latest mistress, some old biddy
reeking of the casbah and stale sex.
The awful poetry: what did it really mean?
Endlessly sprawling novels with Latin names.

An ex-pat to his very ex-pat bones
lounging about Greek islands. Civil servant
manqué; admirer of Cavafy
and Krafft-Ebbing. Scobie
his most glorious creation,
self-portrait with earth-closet;
parrot scurrilously quoting the Koran.

Category:

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Tags:

• lawrence
• durrell
• charles
• bryant
• english
• verse
• st
• olave's
• saviour's
• school
• for
• boys
• tower
• bridge
• alexandria
• quartet
• scobie
• cavafy
• krafft-ebbing
• spoken
• word

[keswickpoet]

interesting. i met him in somieres, had lunch with he and his daughter, penny, and a belgian actress and astronomer.

he kindly wrote to me a few times, one letter stating he'd sent my comments on his book 'the alexandria quartet', to his publisher/biographer ian mcniven, syaing 'NEVER have i been so well understood.

thanks

geraldine, poet

cumbria uk

[brychar66]

That's wonderful. I hope he was behaving himself :)

[PoetLina]

Lawrence Durrell - all adjectives pertaining to to be qualified with a "not quite". Really enjoyed your poem it kind of echoes L.D.'s humour - comment not qualified. :)

[brychar66]

I'm finally reading The Avignon Quintet - hence this poem! The poem was entirely - but entirely - spontaneous. Took about 5 mins - which is the way I write these days, a bit like Durrell :)

[udollamsky]

Thank you so very much! It is wonderful

[StrawberrySheffields]

Superb! I adore Lawrence Durrell, and I must say.. This poem is marvelous.

Bravo.

[keswickpoet]

of course.

[Idlinfarm]

Thank you for this. His brother, Gerald, was interesting, too.

[Amiduffer]

Shouldn't a character like that deserve a better punch line?

[andrewnorris1]

Lawrence Durrell was one of those people who floated in and out of Anais Nin's journals, and I still have the intention to float through his world some day. Glad to see he makes an appearance in your world too. The Alexandria Quartet is creeping up my book list, I might get to it one day.