A Fertile Waste Land

blogpoetryreview
Written By Jason Conway

All praise to the BBC iPlayer! I have just listened again and again to the Poetry Please mash up of T.S. Eliot, Ted Hughes and Lia Williams reading The Waste Land and I am in the mood to hug someone.

The poem comes more vividly to life, in the inspired hands of the editor, than I have ever heard before; Eliot may sound like Oliver Postgate with a serious bout of constipation, and he may (surprisingly for someone so fastidious with his explanatory notes) be thoroughly dismal at pronouncing the foreign words he employs but, playing off Hughes and Williams, his somewhat strained intonation becomes infinitely more bearable.

“Eliot [sounds] like Oliver Postgate with a serious bout of constipation”

It's been so long since I listened to Ted Hughes read anything that his voice, which rumbles like small mountains dancing, came as a glorious surprise when I first heard it blasting from the car stereo on the motorway up from Wales on Sunday. Lia Williams, whilst occasionally a little too actorly (she could learn from the simplicity and power of Hughes's emphasis on meaning over technique), teased an unexpected lightness from the poem.

The three intertwining voices created an atmospheric clarity, a deeper understanding of Eliot's poem. For me, it felt like rain on my tongue after a long drought. This was great radio; challenging and beautiful. If only there were more broadcasts like it.

To listen again, click here.

Jason Conway

I'm a creative guru, visionary artist and eco poet based in Gloucestershire UK.

I love designing Squarespace websites for clients as well as providing a full range of graphic and website design services. My clients are passoinate entrepreneurs that are making a positive difference in the world.

Clients can hire me for brand and marketing strategy, content research, content writing and content management, social media training and management, blog and article writing, book design, book cover design, self publishing help, packaging design and sign design.

I'm a creative coach helping passionate and ethical business owners to create sustainable businesses geared for a healthy work life balance and helping to break through blocks and regain or maintain focus. I use creativity as a key problem solving tool and motivator.

As an artist is create inspirational works of art for private and corporate clients, from full size wall graphics and installations for offices, conference areas and receptions, to cafe's and restaurants to health and wellbeing centres. Any wall or space can be transformed with large scale art, which is a key motivator for staff and can reduce work related stress. I also accept private commissions for paintings, sketches and illustrations.

As a published poet I write about the joys of nature and the human devastation of it. I also write poems for brands and businesses to engage their audiences in new and more thought provoking ways.

https://www.thedaydreamacademy.com
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