Clive James makes poetic appeal for a final trip home to Sydney
Clive James, who is terminally ill and too unwell to return to his native Australia, has said he would like his ashes scattered in Sydney harbour – presuming they are not seized by customs on arrival.
The London-based broadcaster and poet, 76, has written a poem that he would like inscribed on a plaque at Dawes Point, a Sydney suburb overlooking the harbour.
Published in The New Statesman’s summer issue, the poem, Return of the Kogarah Kid, has a footnote that reads: ‘‘In my will I have left instructions that my ashes should be scattered into Sydney Harbour from Dawes Point, presuming that a box of ashes is allowed on the aircraft, that the customs officers at Sydney airport do not rate ashes as organic matter, and that there is no ordinance against ash-scattering within the confines of Circular Quay.
‘‘In the event of a small bronze plaque seeming possible and appropriate, the above poem is meant as a suggested wording for an inscription.’’
James has lived in Britain for more than 50 years, becoming a household name as a humorist, critic, TV presenter and memoirist.
He was diagnosed with leu- kaemia, kidney failure and lung disease in 2010, and told the BBC in 2012 that he was ‘‘approaching his terminus’’.
He wrote a poem in 2014 entitled Japanese Maple and said that his death was ‘‘near now’’, but has since joked of his embarrassment at writing valedictory works and then continuing to survive.
In fact, the tree mentioned in the poem has died already, he revealed last week.
In Return of the Kogarah Kid, he wrote of Dawes Point: ‘‘Here I began and here I reach the end/ From here my ashes go back to the sea/And take my memories of every friend/And love, and anything still dear to me/Down to the darkness out of which the sun/ Will rise again’’.
Writing about Sydney, he adds: ‘‘It is just/That we, who learned to breathe the brilliant air/And first were told that we were made of dust/Here in this city, yet went out across/The globe to find game, should return one day/To trade our gains against a certain loss/ And sink from sight where once we sailed away.’’
James revealed in an interview last week that experimental treatments had prolonged his life.
He also revealed that his estranged wife Prudence Shaw, who asked him to leave the family home four years ago after discovering he had a long-term mistress, now visited him regularly.
He told the Mail on Sunday: ‘‘I’ve made every possible mistake, but I’m still here, still married, which is quite incredible, considering my weaknesses.’’
James said he felt he was being taken more seriously as a writer now that he no longer appeared on TV.
He added: ‘‘I’m not being heroic when I say I’m not scared. It’s all been an adventure, and it has been a blessing to have the extra time. I’ve never written better, because my mind has never been clearer or with fewer distractions.’’