Veteran poet‘s spirit not bound by wheelchair

By Mike Loewe Grahamstown Correspondent

LEGENDARY Eastern Cape poet Don Maclennan, 77, is wheelchair-bound. His once rangy rock-climber‘s body is bent by degenerative motor neurone disease, but his spirit remains rippled, raunchy and riveting.

It was easy to be swept away by Maclennan‘s quiet simple words with their incandescent meanings as he launched his 18th collection of poems, A Necessary Salt, at the Rhodes English department last week.

No fewer than seven South African poets were in the department‘s common room along with more than 80 colleagues and students as Maclennan read, commented – sometimes between the lines – cracked jokes, and engaged with some of the students.

It was clear many in the room believed they were attending the last live appearance of an extraordinary South African literary force and friend, and the poems he read did indeed deal with an approaching death.

Maclennan, thin and stooped, said afterwards: “It‘s coming up. One has received a certificate to that effect three years ago, but one is not sure when.” He said of the reading: “I loved it. I loved it.”

He still takes a Poetry 1 tutorial once a week.
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n10_05032007.htm
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Don Maclennan
http://www.bridgewater.edu/~sgallowa/235/maclennan.htm
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