40. The Death by Heroin of Sid Vicious by Paul Durcan - A Friend to John

In this episode, acclaimed film, TV and Theatre Director John Crowley talks about the poem that has been a friend to him: 'The Death by Heroin of Sid Vicious' by Paul Durcan. 

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BAFTA winner and Tony nominated director John Crowley is internationally acclaimed for his work both on the stage and the screen, with credits including The Goldfinch (2019) and Brooklyn, which was nominated for three Academy Awards (including Best Motion Picture) and won the 2016 BAFTA for Best British Film.

John visited The Poetry Exchange in London. He is in conversation with The Poetry Exchange hosts, Michael Shaeffer and Fiona Bennett.

Fiona reads the gift reading of 'The Death by Heroin of Sid Vicious'.

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The Death by Heroin of Sid Vicious

​by Paul Durcan

There – but for the clutch of luck – go I.

At daybreak – in the arctic fog of a February daybreak –

Shoulder-length helmets in the watchtowers of the concentration camp 

Caught me out in the intersecting arcs of the swirling searchlights.

There were at least a zillion of us caught out there –

Like ladybirds under a boulder –

But under the microscope each of us was unique,

Unique and we broke for cover, crazily breasting 

The barbed wire and some of us made it 

To the forest edge, but many of us did not

Make it, although their unborn children did –

Such as you whom the camp commandant branded 

Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Jesus, break his fall:

There – but for the clutch of luck – go we all.

‘The Death by Heroin of Sid Viscious’ by John Crowley - from A SNAIL IN MY PRIME: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, The Harvil Press, 2011

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