Whittingehame Club 

 

 

October 16th, 2015
David Cohen

z"l (63-67)

David Cohen passed away last week and his funeral was held in Barcelona last Friday

He is relieved and undoubtedly smiling from above given that now, one of his wishes was fulfilled…. he did not want to suffer any longer and yearned to leave this world. Dear David, I shall miss our weekly telephone conversations or our even more sporadic encounters over a friendship lasting over 50 years ever since our teens at Whittingehame College in Brighton. 

David Cohen, a young fellow from Brazil, although only 16 or 17 , he was already way ahead of his years. Being perfectly fluent in 4 languages – Spanish, French, Portuguese and English plus some Hebrew and Italian he was comfortable with anyone he came across. Way ahead of his age-group, he was an avid follower of fashion and knew how to spot the finer things in life, he could distinguish a Dior dress from a Chanel one, cashmere from vicuna, a Ferrari from a Maserati!!. I was always struck by his memory and his ability to recount in minute details about places and people from the Sixties and Seventies.  When we met up it was like a walk down memory lane.

Alas, in his final decade he did not enjoy good health, but with the angelic Beatrix at his side he could not have been luckier. He was brought to rest in Barcelona and is survived by an only son, Adam. 

Rest in Peace, Dear David
Baruch Dayan Emett

Danny


May 21st, 2015
Danny Nir

It is so heartwarming to see so many Whitniks, after so many years of the school closing, still remaining in touch with fellow Whitniks, and feeling the loss and offering sincere condolences to our dear Danny Nir, and to his family and friends. I was fortunate to have attended Whittingehame for 10 years. 1954-63. It was truly some of the best years having built so many lifetime friends. These e-mails only prove that friendship built will never be forgotten. I joined the school with my two brothers when I was 8 years old, as at the time the standard of Education in Turkey was pretty dismal.  The experience and education over the years, was PRICELESS! For all those who had the opportunity to attend, you have obtained a well founded education and lifetime friends. May we only celebrate good occasions from now on, and enjoy the family and friends for many more years to come. We owe our parents love and lifetime thanks for having given us the opportunity to have attended one of the finest schools and last but not least, to the entire staff who gave their 100% devotion to ensure each student received the individual attention and guidance throughout the years of his education. For that, we are all grateful.

 Wishing all Whitniks continued success, enjoying your family and friends for many more years.

 Our sincere condolences, and we can be sure Danny will always be remembered, and remain close to our hearts.
Cheers!
Ebu Cohen (Kohen)


30th April, 2015

Congratulations to David Pollard who has just published Self Portraits, his fourth book of poetry. 
 

 


On
Self-Portraits

 
Each of these poems stand alone as a finely constructed piece in its own right, but collectively Pollard’s book builds and offers great insight into some of the most influential artists throughout history. This collection is enjoyable. The depth of the verse is delightful, providing fresh perspectives on art and poetry. Self-Portraits is highly recommended read, and I hope you enjoy pouring over each page just as much as I did.
                                                                         Mhairi Anton DURA

 

This is a remarkable and illuminating collection. It has already rewarded more than one reading and I am sure it will richly reward many more.

Glyn Pursglove Acumen

On Finis-terre
 
I am awe-struck by your long poem. I have taken my time reading it because I wanted to be able to concentrate on it properly with the essential energy. It has such startling, accurate images, such lovely rhythms in its speech patterns, and repetitive echoes of images which unify the whole work (rather akin to the Four Quartets). Internalised images, classical allusions used to great effect, clever play on words, painterly colour – all with so many layers and levels of meaning.

Patricia McCarthy

 
This is a work to which I will return again and again

Jason M Worth

 


Pollard's new amplitude stretches his linguistic brilliance with a human resonance, confirming his unique voce and arguing - perhaps too quietly -  for an essential place in British poetry

Simon Jenner

 

On Bedbound

 David Pollard, with his nuanced, sparse and intense testimony from the bedside of a life coming to an end, fits very well into the series. 17 of the poems are addressed to the woman whose life is ebbing; the 18th underscores the death by talking of her in the third person for the first time. Pared of all punctuation, shifting subtly from one impression or memory to another, the poems repay, and even demand, a number of re-readings

 Alasdair Paterson for Stride

 

Pollard’s third collection is a virtuoso, volume-length series of self-portraits. Real ones, that is: imaginary self-interrogations through the medium of self-portraits that can be visited online or at galleries and other sites the world over.  They feature artists from ancient Egypt, through the Middle Ages and the Renaaissance, to the present day. Each artist re-instruments the very act of painting or drawing, making marks on a life that persists from the other side of the canvas, glass, or other mediums of death. Pollard kerns the signature of his chosen artist, re-configuring himself by what he finds into different forms, sometimes traditional sonnets, sometimes terca rima, yet always the art speaks through the words, the artwork dictating the rhythms and language and thus respeaking the artists’ reflections in paint.

In these imaginative confidings Pollard’s previous brilliance in the themed series of lyrics on his father which concluded patricides and his Keats Correspondence in Risk of Skin, once again show his keynote linguistic torsion. Here he reaches a new tenderness - coming soon after the magnificent bedbound (Perdika, 2011) on a dying woman of 101. Pollard’s new amplitude stretches his linguistic brilliance with a human resonance confirming his unique voice and arguing - perhaps too quietly - for an essential voice in British poetry..

David Pollard was born under the bed in 1942 and has been furniture salesman, accountant, TEFL teacher and university lecturer. He got his three degrees from the University of Sussex and has since taught at the universities of Sussex, Essex and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published The Poetry of Keats: Language and Experience which was his doctoral thesis, A KWIC Concordance to the Harvard Edition of Keats’ Letters, a novel, Nietzsche’s Footfalls, and three volumes of poetry, patricides, Risk of Skin and bedbound (translated into Galician). He has also been published in other volumes and in learned journals and poetry magazines.

Brother Rufillus, Maestro Mateo, Giotto, Fra Angelico, Lippo Lippi, Bosch,  Mantegna, da Vinci, Dürerk  Cranac, Michelangelo, Raphael, Baldung, Titian, Holbein, ,Bronzino, Vasari, Tintoretto, Veronese, Anguissola, Barocci, El Greco,  Carracci,  Oliver,  Wtewael, Caravaggio, Rubens,  Gentileschi, Poussin, Velazquez, van Dyck, Rembrandt,  Rosa, Metsu, Vermeer,  Rigaud,  Hogarth,  Chardin, Reynolds, Fuseli  Goya  David, Gillray, Lawrence, Hazlitt, Blake, Friedrich,  Turner, Haydon, Cruickshank, Severn, Delacroix, Palmer  Daumier, Courbet, Rossetti , Pissarro, Manet, Whistler, Cezanne,  RodinMonet  Gauguin,  van Gogh,  Sickert,  Hiroshige,              Munch,  Kollwitz, Matisse,  Churchill,  John , Bell,  Picasso, Braque, Rivera,  Kokoschka,  Chagall,  Morandi, Lartigue, Kahlo, Guttuso,  Bacon, Carrington, 

Freud,  Tąpies,  Warhol, Wallinger   

 

Notices

On Risk of Skin
I have only grazed the collection's surface in this review; any one of these poems merit the attention of at least six hundred words.   

Beth McDonough DURA

 
He can be found at:  davidpollard.net  and on Wikipedia

 


See more of David's works on this website,   click Correspondence -> Letters to the Editor

 

            

 

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