Y bardd gafodd ei sbarduno gan y Sîn Roc Gymraeg “Roedd e’n creu ymwybyddiaeth bod sawl math o Gymreictod, a bod dim rhaid i chi fod yn hollol bur, bod dim rhaid i chi fod yn berchen ar garafán” NON TUDUR. Linc GOLWG fyma- here
Listening to Republic Writing Republic I found that post punk music of the 80s and 90s became key in an attempt to articulate a relationship between community, language and culture. Given the current preponderance of School Disco compilations, initially it might seem that retreating to the music of the 80s and 90s is another variant in communal nostalgia. This is not the intention of Republic. I believe that music carries an energy for future action and desire for change. What you learn over the years changes how you listen to those important early albums. Context shifts meaning. Republic is an anti-memoir, it came from a need to transcribe the voices of a community… Read More →
I’ve been writing on Syliva Plath’s engagement witn BBC Radio as a writer and poet – August 19th 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of the broadcast of Plath’s Three Women on the Third Programme . Produced by Douglas Cleverdon this was Plath’s only commisioned work for the BBC. Set on a materinty ward it follows the late pregnancies and birthing experiences of three unnamed patients. It is a remarkable work for its time addressing issues about consent, medical intervention, gynaecological rights, miscarriage and abortion. The research has been inclluded as an essay “Sylvia Plath’s Three Women: Producing a Poetics of Listening at the BBC” in this insghtful book of essays. The… Read More →
Yn ddiochgar ofnadwy i Sioned Rowlands ac O’r Pedwar Gwynt wnath roi sbardun i sgwennu yn y man cynta; Thanks to Sioned Rowlands and O’r Pedwar Gwynt who asked (original in Welsh https://pedwargwynt.cymru – subscription) It is no secret that Datblygu first found their followers outside of Wales. As a teenager I attended gigs in remote country hotels where many of the Welsh speaking audience did not “get” Datblygu. The adulation of Dave in Wales has been very much a belated affair. I am certain David R . Edwards would curl his lips with bemusement at any overt hagiography. Unlike many writing eulogies for David R. Edwards, I never met… Read More →
This article- prose document has been published in Welsh in O’r Pedwar Gwynt https://pedwargwynt.cymru (Diolch mawr i Sioned Rowlands) In the Californian sky you notice a web of lines between the telegraph poles. A cat cradle of connections. The loops of electricity create heavy black threads in air. Your eye catches the odd yellow plastic ribbon tied around a pole’s waist. It is 1991 and these are markers of the first Iraq war. Berkeley has not always been so hospitable to its returning veterans. The following spring there will be a curfew in this city. Rodney King’s savage beating by the LAPD, and the acquittal of the police… Read More →
REVIEW FOR POLLARD FIRST VOLUME PRIZE 2020 – JUDGING PANEL Pollard Prize Announcement 21st April, 2020 Isabelle Galleymore’s stunning first volume Significant Other, describes encounters between the natural world and human consciousness. The volume’s spare, if not condensed lyrics, represent minute acts of perception. Galleymore’s tightly-wrought poems document our world during a time of ecological crisis; these poems represent the Anthropocene. Using the lyric form as a recording of precise detail and as an anatomy of emotion, Galleymore creates a compendium of our creature world while narrating stories of human love lost. The intertwining of personal narratives with a documenting of natural world, complicates the relationship between… Read More →
Originally published in Welsh in O’r Pedwar Gwynt (Dec 2018) Arriving at my final destination, I am slightly disoriented. I am travelling from Dublin to a work meeting in Northern Ireland. I have changed my train at Belfast and have caught another train to Coleraine. This is the furthest north I have travelled since living in the Irish Republic. Initially, I am greeted by friendly signs advertising the Bushmills whiskey distillery. There is also a North Coast Guided Tour for Game of Thrones departing from Coleraine’s Railway Place. During this short visit, I am reminded, by the loud conversations of a film unit during my motel breakfast, how important the success… Read More →
First Published in Welsh in O’r Pedwar Gwynt 30th May 2018 https://pedwargwynt.cymru/dadansoddi/gol/diddymur-wythfed-diwygiad With thanks to editor Sioned Puw Reynolds and Angharad Penrhyn-Jones We are walking behind a giant uterus. The uterus is made out of pink fluffy material. There are two feet visible underneath. Two wooden poles prop the most magnificent fallopian tubes and ovaries I have ever seen. As we speed up, one ovary keeps on bouncing off my daughter’s head. ‘What is that?’ she asks pointing above ‘Those are called fallopian tubes’ I answer, giving her a very elementary lesson in biology. People around us smile, they can hear the biological terminology in the midst of our… Read More →
CLICK BELOW Dublin Review of Books – Review of Cabaret (February 2018)
