Poète, écrivain et
dramaturge écossais né en 1951 dans la
banlieue d'Edimbourg. D'origine modeste, Brian McCabe est
bien connu pour ses lectures publiques en Ecosse, en
Angleterre ainsi qu'au Canada, au Danemark et en Allemagne.
Après des études de philosophie et de lettres
à l'université d'Edimbourg, il a obtenu en
1980 une bourse du Scottish Arts Council ; depuis lors il
exerce son métier d'écrivain en freelance. Il
a publié à ce jour trois recueils de
poésie, deux recueils de nouvelles, ainsi qu'un roman
: The Other
McCoy. Quatre de ses ouvrages ont
été récompensés par le Scottish
Arts Council. Brian McCabe écrit également des
pièces pour la radio ou la télévision
et participe régulièrement à de
nombreux festivals. Il vit aujourd'hui à Edimbourg
avec l'écrivain Dilys Rose et leur fille
Sophie.
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MAKING
SENSES
A cloud has given up trying to be
an early nineteenth-century shipwreck.
Below it, smoke from a bonfire of leaves
is queuing up into a questionmark:
What, no wind? And it seems to question me:
with these pieces of a black, white and pink
jigsaw, what other picture can you see
but cows? Does the evening stoop to drink
its own shadow, or the beauty queen of trees
tremble, get ready to drop the pretence
of that multicoloured hair-do of leaves?
I am a man and I make my man-sense
of a cloud, the smoke, some cows and a tree.
But no landscape can make sense of my me.
(One Atom to Another,
Edinburgh, Polygon
© Brian McCabe, 1987, p. 17)
WE
are tired of appearing as diagrams
in medical encyclopaedias
and close-ups in t.v. ads
for Anadin and Oil of Ulay.
We can't go on eviscerating
for the camera in Casualty.
We have lost the desire to star
in hard-core XXXX videos
available by mail-order only:
Or to be posted in litter-bins -
botched parcels to be sorted
into freezer-drawers in a morgue.
Or to lurk in buckets like
stunned eels awaiting deliverance.
At one time - loyal employees
of an old-fashioned firm
we refused to be transplanted.
We were imperfect but faithful.
Now we have developed the ability
to move from one host to another
by helicopter. Packaged in ice,
marked 'URGENT - CHICAGO',
we are ready for reincarnation.
We know the art market.
We are willing to cross species.
We have come to terms with fame.
We want change. We demand evolution.
(Body Parts,
Edinburgh, Canongate Books,
© Brian McCabe, 1999, p. 63)
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