SHADES OF KHAKI
Poems by William Clarke

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This belated first collection comes from an author who was first published (1943) by George Orwell in Tribune.

William Clarke was born in London in 1908 and is largely self-educated. He served as a sergeant in RAMC during the Second World War, narrowly missing a watery grave at Dunkirk. He has lectured part-time to various organizations and is on the London Poetry Secretariat list. He has had some 300 poems published in a wide range of leading magazines ranging from The Times Literary Supplement and Reveille to Punch and The Poetry Review. He has been a regular contributor to Tribune.


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In A Glasgow Primary School

Perched on the several rungs of a gilded cage
They were like birds, like budgerigars, she thought,
Mechanically intoning what she taught
Without the comprehension that comes with age.
They were to be inducted at every stage
With the bright baubles the authorities bought,
The beads, the plasticine, the cardboard fort,
The illustrations on the printed page,
Till such time as their natural inclination
To leap and dance and play at catch and can
Beyond the barriers of circumstance
Was harnessed to a self-determination
Befitting more the dignity of man
Who may not linger where he must advance.

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SHADES OF KHAKI
Price £4.95 per copy post free (£3.30 post free to Associate Members)
Publication: 1976 (36 pages laminated paperback)