For my first blog of 2019 let me first wish all followers and
readers all the very best wishes for a happy and healthy year.
We are all aware that we live in uncertain times – for the planet
and ourselves. I also know many people who
are facing personal difficulties and tragedies. May you all find some peace.
The poem below is the first one in my second poetry collection,
Breakfast in Bed, which will be published later in the year by Indigo Dreams
Publishing.
I was delighted when I heard in October from the lovely people at
Indigo that they wanted to publish my work. They are a great publisher, and I
have a number of poetry friends who are already published by them, some of them
I first met on Jo Bell’s 52 writing project in 2014 (Write a poem a week for a
year). Check out the Indigo Dreams shop here: https://www.indigodreams.co.uk/buy-4-get-1-more/4594495985
I am also pleased to say that several of my poetry colleagues in
west Wales will be publishing collections in 2019 too. At least three others
from the workshopping group PENfro Poets
(which grew out of the PENfro Book Festival nearly seven years ago) will have
new collections out this year. I’ll post about them when their books arrive.
I am grateful to the fabulous website Algebra of Owls -- https://algebraofowls.com/poetry/
-- for publishing this poem back in November. This
is the first poem in my forthcoming collection:
Alone
and together
A
city that snares
slow
rhythms
(Federico Garcia Lorca)
A river flows through
afternoon’s slow heat,
Lorca’s pace
(together and
alone
juntos y solo)
babble at café tables
rises and drops into shadow
by the waterside
sun falls through trees,
the flicker of fresh leaves
in green spring
(solo y juntos
alone and
together)
wine is red, time is yellow
the rhythm of the river is ours
for this hour adrift
