There is a pub in Swansea that has on its door the sign: "Please don't drop cigarettes on the floor as they burn the hands and knees of customers as they leave". Dylan Thomas may have been a frequent guest to the premises (he was to many, common knowledge) and, as the media pointed out, he (or his bust, to be precise) looks as if he were leaving the very pub sculpted by his friend Oloff de Wet only two years before the poet's premature death brought about by severe overindulgence in spirits. The sculpture is thought to be the only one of him made when he was still alive and can be seen at The Saison Poetry Library in The Southbank Centre. Mr Google provided me with a better picture of the bust so you can see how neatly the sculptor balanced the poets head on the unkempt tie:
Robert Gurney shared a few interesting facts regarding the making of the sculpture:
'Dylan used to stay with my first wife's parents. (Tony Van den Berg was a big noise in the BBC). They watched Oloff de Wet create Dylan's bust in their living room. Dylan used to chase Ursula, Tony's wife, around the kitchen table. She had been a beautiful model.'
Thank you, Robert. It is fascinating to learnt these little details first-hand!
Poets, artists... Do they really have to drink and indulge otherwise in order to create? Maybe they do. I'm not the one so it's not up to me to give the verdict. However, nowadays we are told that everyone is an artist. Are we?
There are so many talented people who died young having created so much. You may want to watch a film about the short but rather disturbed life of a Polish poet. I am talking about Rafal Wojaczek and here is a link to the film with subtitles. I have a young and very well-read bilingual friend who is a big fun of Wojaczek's poetry. Should I be concerned about him?
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