Some new work

An audience on video

The say you can’t see an audience from the stage
But looking back over the jellied images, washed and wrung out over
Years of play, the stars shone.
There they were – newsreaders, humorists, sportsmen,
And their wives, juggling their breathing through laughter,
As the funny man danced out in front of them,
Lit so no shadow would fall on him.
It was like looking at the night sky – a spread of echoes.
Events that happened years ago, revealing themselves,
Disclosing their final moments, then disappearing.
Watching the adult stars of my childhood,
Dashing across a black screen, existing in laughter only,
Then silenced was enough to fill a few minutes of my time,
From their lifetime’s achievements.

"He writes of not of the heart, but of the glands"

It is with a strange reluctance that I sent off for the Academi Cardiff Poetry Competition 2009. I sent off Citizen Ken and Shepherd of the Landes.

It is hard to remember writing them, how I felt when they were finished. My two favourite pieces that i have written. They were both outcomes of my ability to have a clear vision in my mind and write about it straight, with a clarity that, I feel, doesn't deserve much post-editing.

I haven't had that ease of writing for a while. Like Faulkner says, I am writing from the glands, the idea that I should be producing poetry because, I believe, I am a poet. But the need, the want and the drive are not necessarily present all the time. I need a little more heart these days.