Gael Turnbull:
Gael Turnbull, who has died at 76, wrote and promoted the cause of poetry for over half a century. Edinburgh-born, but resident in north America for many years, he promoted a transatlantic traffic that proved a great inspiration to British practitioners, though his vocation as a doctor left him in no doubt that there were things in life beyond all the fiddle of poetry and the poetic life.
His quizzical stance towards the art, and indeed his scepticism about the larger claims made for it, found expression in a card poem he sent out for last October's National Poetry Day, when the Scottish Book Trust enjoined readers to "transform your life with poetry". He wrote:
I remembered how it had thrust
several old friends
plus near and dear
into distress and penury
before deciding that the message must be intended as:
A timely
Health Warning from the Ministry of Benevolence
at the Scottish Book Trust.
This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy
on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 9:14 AM.
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