Nefertiti in the Flak Tower: Poems

by Clive James

Clive James’ power as a poet has increased year by year, and there has been no stronger evidence for this than Nefertiti in the Flak Tower. Here, his polymathic learning and technical virtuosity are worn more lightly than ever; the effect is merely to produce a deep sense of trust into which the reader gratefully sinks, knowing they are in the presence of a master. The most obvious token of that mastery is the book’s breathtaking range of theme: there are moving elegies, a meditation on the later Yeats, a Hollywood Iliad, odes to rare orchids, wartime typewriters and sharks – as well as a poem on the fate of Queen Nefertiti in Nazi Germany. But despite the dizzying variety, James’ poetic intention becomes increasingly clear: what marks this new collection out is his intensified concentration on the individual poem as self-contained universe. Poetry is a practice he compares (in ‘Numismatics’) to striking new coin; and Nefertiti in the Flak Tower is a treasure-chest of one-off marvels, with each poem a twin-sided, perfect human balance of the unashamedly joyous and the deadly serious, ‘whose play of light pays tribute to the dark’.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.

Reviews

[Andy Wasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clive James’s 2012 collection finds the poet in a reflective mood as he looks back at his youth and ahead to his own oblivion. James’s maturity as a writer and his virtuoso command of the classics are on clear display. Here, for example, we find a sonnet about Dante, exalting the form and shape of printed words as well as the meaning behind them and their effect on James’s life. Elsewhere his ‘Hollywood Iliad’ asks the reader to consider the thinness of modern heroes, and his wistful ‘Spectre of the Rose’ notes with regret that as he ages roses bloom ‘perfect too late for me, too soon for you’. James’s leukaemia is a present concern throughout, and he turns frequently to his own mortality. In this way, ‘The Light as it Grows Dark’ and ‘The Shadow Knows’ set the seal on perhaps his strongest collection to date.

[Mithun Samarder · Rating 5 out of 5]

৪০ টা কবিতা আছে এই বইতে। এই প্রথম কোন অস্ট্রেলিয়ান কবির কবিতা পড়লাম। খুব ভাল লাগল কবিতার বইটি। ২০০৮ থেকে ২০১১ সালের মধ্যে লেখা কবিতাগুলো নিয়ে গঠিত Nefertiti in the Flak Tower সংকলনে ক্লাইভ জেমস তাঁর পরবর্তী জীবনের দিকে এগিয়ে গেছেন সেই একই কাব্যিক নৈপুণ্য, গভীর আবেগ ও সহজাত প্রজ্ঞার মাধ্যমে—যা তাঁর সমগ্র সাহিত্যজীবনকে সংজ্ঞায়িত করেছে।

বিষয়ের ব্যাপ্তি এখানে বিস্ময়কর—আছে আবেগময় শোকগাথা, প্রৌঢ় বয়সের ডব্লিউ. বি. ইয়েটস নিয়ে ধ্যান, এক “হলিউডীয় ইলিয়াড”, বিরল অর্কিড ফুল, যুদ্ধকালের টাইপরাইটার ও হাঙর নিয়ে রচিত ওড, এমনকি নাৎসি জার্মানিতে রানি নেফারতিতির ভাগ্য নিয়েও এক কবিতা।

এই সংকলনের বিশেষত্ব হলো প্রতিটি কবিতাকে একটি স্বয়ংসম্পূর্ণ মহাবিশ্ব হিসেবে কাব্যিকভাবে উপস্থাপন করা। “Numismatics” কবিতায় তিনি কবিতার চর্চাকে তুলনা করেছেন নতুন মুদ্রা নির্মাণের সঙ্গে; আর Nefertiti in the Flak Tower-এ প্রতিটি কবিতা হয়ে উঠেছে আনন্দ ও গাম্ভীর্যের দ্বিমুখী ভারসাম্য—‘যার আলোর খেলা অন্ধকারকেও শ্রদ্ধা জানায়।’

ক্লাইভ জেমস (১৯৩৯–২০১৯) ছিলেন একজন সম্প্রচারক, সমালোচক, কবি, আত্মজীবনীকার ও ঔপন্যাসিক। তাঁর প্রশংসিত কাব্যগ্রন্থগুলোর মধ্যে রয়েছে Sentenced to Life এবং দান্তের The Divine Comedy-এর অনুবাদ—দুটিই Sunday Times-এর বেস্টসেলার। কবিতা নিয়ে তাঁর অনুরাগ ও গভীর জ্ঞানের নিট ফল Poetry Notebook নামে সমালোচনামূলক গ্রন্থে প্রকাশ পেয়েছে; আর জীবনের শেষ বছরে লেখা তাঁর প্রিয় কবিতার ব্যক্তিগত টীকা-সংবলিত সংকলনটির নাম The Fire of Joy।

[Stephen Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly enjoyed this but there is a strongly morbid theme throughout as James endeavours to wring every last ounce of his talent out before what he presumed would be his imminent demise. As it was he had a few more years left in him. I do not read poetry and hoped this would be accessible which it is broadly, although a classical education would certainly have helped with several passages. I remember Clive James on Television and if you do, Iliad, will immediately remind you of his delivery in that show. There are tributes to his partner and others he worshipped though, in framing them one wonders whether his ambition is to capture his awe of them for us, or our awe in his writing. It may be a petty quibble but the point (excuse the pun) of the pyramid was not to celebrate the architect. That cannot help but diminish the subject. Imagining many of these as a collection left for family and friends rather than a deliberately planned publication, is therefore much easier, for me at least. And James has succeeded. He has made a slightly beyond middle aged man, who knows what's over the horizon but prefers not to look, reflect..."I feel the waves arrive Like earthquakes as I walk and not until I'm gone will I forget the thrill...

[Amy Christine Lesher · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I won an ARC.

I never feel comfortable talking about poetry, even though I have an English degree. What I can say is I loved this book.

[Griflet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moved despite myself :)

[Patrick Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So talented it almost makes me nauseous. Too early for the canon?

[Ely · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first time reading anything by Clive James. I was impressed by the way he writes, but my favourite kind of poems are the ones that really make me feel something and these just didn't.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry that actually rhymes, and follows standard poetical practice. Most refreshing, and the themes are universal. Good on ya Clive!

[Nav · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admit its charms must have missed me.

[John Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost a homage to Larkin-- with a great deal more humor

Clive James, author of "Cultural Amnesia" and translator of Dante's "Divine Comedy" has written a collection of poems that recall some of the more serious poets of the 20th century--Philip Larkin, William Empson, (at times, even, Giacomo Leopardi).

What makes this a fun read is that one gets the impression of a honest man taking a look at his life from the rare view of impending mortality, perhaps? His geological bent, made evident in his earlier poetry collection "Opal Sunset", is also present here. He blends the awareness of death with the natural world beautifully in one of my personal favorite poems from this collection, "On a Thin Gold Chain"--

"While that slight trinket echoing your eyes
Swam in its colors. What a long, long game
We've played. Quick now, before somebody dies:
Have you still got that pendant? Can I see?
And have you kept it dark to punish me?"


In "Butterfly Needles" we see the poet gazing into fate with a raw bravery few are capable of, indeed:

"Take it easy, mister. Sniff the real estate you're ruling:
You, the last one here.
A butterfly died once and now the whole damned planet's cooling
At the wrong time of the year.
Stand up too quickly and you hear the headsman chuckle
And the words "Sleep well" are far too near the knuckle,
And for your next trick, you will disappear"

He retains an awareness of eroticism, and an acknowledgment of the passing of youth. The last stanza of "The Buzz" is another example of the poet's searing honesty:

""But there is nothing you love fails to see
Except the future. Bodies and their connection
Are all creation, shorn of history.
These are the only humans who exist.
Whoever thought to his s or to be kissed
Or hit the sack from every known direction
Except them? Visions radiantly true
Don't change with age. those that have had them do."

The central poem describes the survival of a statue of Nefertiti which was on loan to Berlin at the onset of World War II. In order to preserve it the statue was placed in a flak tower, a huge fortified building one square block or more in size which housed anti-aircraft guns that fired over 8000 shells per minute. The tower was impermeable and the statue survived. "Vertical Envelopment" describes in counterpoint the author's experiences in a Dakota paratroop transport earlier in his life and in a cancer ward decades later.

This is the best poetry I have seen from Clive James, and would recommend it to any lover of poetry.

[Ivor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slim volume of poems , i read it all in the course of an hours train journey in the run upto Xmas . Its a varied collection but the main theme i picked up was about love, relationships and the potential of loss. Of course as the reader , i may have conveyed my own personal feelings into the interpretation of these poems following my won relationship breakup. Clive James has been ill for some time and knowing his time is finite, the sentiment of a number of these poems struck home , not like a sledge hammer as is often the case in some verse, but more a reminder that we need to feel life not just journey through it.

The line " Perfect, too late for me , too soon for you " summed up my feelings at the time and demonstrates the power of how good writing speaks to a reader individually, privately resonating with their inner emotions within the confines of printed paper.

I know i will read this volume again and suspect it will become a permanent addition to my shelves in the future.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A couple of years ago I heard Clive James read his deeply moving poem Signing Ceremony on the radio, and I've been looking for it ever since. Then, poking about in the fantastic Whitby Bookshop a couple of months ago, I found this collection of his poems from 2008-2011, filling the gap between Angels over Elsinore and this year's Sentenced to Life. The very first poem in the book is Signing Ceremony, the most affecting poem about a long marriage that I have ever read. James's subject matter ranges very widely, from the title poem about the precarious wartime existence of the now iconic painted head of Nefertiti, to tributes to his old friend and fellow poet Peter Porter, and to Geoffrey Hill and Yeats; and then there are poems that foreshadow the themes of lost time and mortality more fully explored in Sentenced to Life. The most affecting and unforgettable of these is The Light as it Grows Dark, a formal, tightly structured poem of tenebrous beauty.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

James' virtuosity does not dim with age, in fact time seems to have burnished his art more finely. These poems shine with his talent, and the love and culture which have informed his life's works. But the brightness of these poems is deepened by the fear of his impending death and the sad awareness of his continuing fallibility, which hurts those he loves and has resulted in his spending this endgame of his life alone.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

After adding books to owned books[shelf goodreads provides] I lost ratings and review. Will attempt to add the review. Books won on goodreads giveaways that is missing review due to this are books I have enjoyed. On a later date I will attempt to remember what I have written about them and will rewrite them.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good poems, others a bit obscure. I wanted to read some of Clive James's poetry as I did a book evening with him a little while ago, and hearing him read them was a joy.

[Chris Purser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clive James writes with ease it seems. I found this collection very easy to read . Recommend people who want to read an easygoing poetry collection,read this.