Welcome to Poetry Mine

Croeso & welcome to Poetry Mine, the website behind the book of the same name.

I am pleased you have found me. Whatever your intention, I am sure you will discover poems in the book’s collection to provoke, stimulate and enjoy.

Interested in poems with Welsh settings? You have arrived at the right place. I enjoy returning to my roots and garnering ideas for what I term my 'Welsh’ poetry. Visiting and revisiting people and places (Nantyglo, Y Fenni, Crickhowell, Ebbw Vale and The Eisteddfod) generates ideas for numerous poems and unexpected surprises:

…nerves twanging away
like Welsh longbows at Crécy
arrows parried by the work ethic…

Mam

For bi-lingual Welsh speakers Nantyglo, the first poem in the collection is written in English and Welsh. The invasion of English speaking workers into my own county of Monmouthshire during the Industrial Revolution virtually wiped out the Welsh language in that area of South Wales:

Of course, the experience of climbing the mountains of the Welsh valleys especially The Milfraen and Mynydd-carn-y-cefn, either side of my childhood village and those of the Vale of Usk such as The Sugar Loaf or Pen-y-fal, Blorenge and both the Skirrids encircling Abergavenny is inspirational to a poet seeking new themes.

...our own language dug up and cast aside on rubbish tips of profit
so we were left with scraps of words quickly devoured
before starvation led us to a forced diet of foreign words...

Reclaiming the Language

You will also unearth poems from settings beyond Wales – the English counties, (Panxworth Church/Norfolk, Calke Abbey & Roston Chapel/ Derbyshire, Tipton Cut/ Staffs., Dymock Church/Glos.) France, Tied Up Spain, Heat Crete, Perito Moreno Glacier Argentina - and meet people who I trust, will capture and hold your attention: coal miners, the unemployed, relatives and even a young woman in a bathing costume on an old railway poster:

…white towelling robe
hanging from limp wrists
as if a Roman consul…

The Broads

Now I have helped you dig into Poetry Mine, I hope it will tempt you to buy the book behind the website; to enjoy the poems, and perhaps find one to inspire you to write one of your own.

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