New Poetry- Poetry Wales December 2018
New Poetry published in Poetry Wales 54:2 (December 2018) With thanks to editor Nia Davies.
Brexit’s Hard Hit Neighbours
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 →
UTERUS/ Walking in Her Shoes: The Eighth Amendment Repealed
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 →
Review of Cabaret: New Dublin Review (February 2018)
CLICK BELOW Dublin Review of Books – Review of Cabaret (February 2018)
Memoir of a virtual community in the 1980s (or, being a young woman into Welsh language music)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN WELSH IN O’R PEDWAR GWYNT FOR WELSH MUSIC DAY (FEB 9TH 2018) WITH MANY THANKS TO EDITOR (s) SIONED PUW ROWLANDS AND ANGHARAD PENRHYN JONES (and all bands concerned). Writing in the sixties, American poet Frank O’Hara playfully encouraged the ‘Mothers of America’ to send their kids to the movies. He reasoned that doing so meant they would not get stuck in their room ‘hating you prematurely since you won’t have done anything horribly mean yet’ (Ave Maria) . If O’Hara had lived to see the 1980s, and been Welsh speaking, these lines might have been updated to: ‘Mamau Cymru plis gadewch i’ch merched fynd i gigs Cymdeithas… Read More →
At Passa Porta, Brussels with Hedd Wyn and Francis Ledwidge
Originally Published as Blog for Poetry of Loss / Barddoniaeth Colled, Llenyddiaeth Colled (Literature Wales) May 2017 Arriving at Passa Porta, near Place de La Bourse in Brussels, Nathalie, the centre’s coordinator, shows me round the apartment. This is after helping me with luggage up a winding banister. The suitcase contains some of the heavy library that I felt was necessary to the writing project. Here is a desk in the study bedroom. This is yours. The apartment – which includes an adjunct office space and meeting rooms for Passa Porta- offers the wonderful height of the 19th Century building. It is through those huge windows of the meeting room,… Read More →
Poem: Faiyum Fetishist
Faiyum Fetishist Published in The Stony Thursday Book (2014)* Manchester Museum I own this space whispers the Faiyum portrait above his exoskeleton. Although he fails to blink, his hands tap a tune. So ungenerous, so ungenerous the melody goes. Tagged in a glass cabinet with other gods: God of Taxonomy, God of Embalming. My nasal cavity bears little resemblance to this face, a rattle in a husk. Held together with bandage and plaster harnessed to a figure of humanity. Encaustic, faced into feeling bright-eyed serious boy. Let me marry you this instant.