NADOLIG
Nos
Seren
Addewid
Cyflawniad
Twyllwch yn llawn lleisiau
Diwedd unigrwydd.
CHRISTMAS
Night
A star
A promise
A fulfilment
Darkness full of voices
An end to loneliness
NADOLIG
Nos
Seren
Addewid
Cyflawniad
Twyllwch yn llawn lleisiau
Diwedd unigrwydd.
CHRISTMAS
Night
A star
A promise
A fulfilment
Darkness full of voices
An end to loneliness
CHRISTMAS
The smallest words mean the most
Joy
Hope
Love
These things
Not things
May you receive them all
A star of particular promise
A light that has sought and found you
The child of your heart
Arrived
Waiting beyond the door.
CHRISTMAS STARS
The stars, a rowdy, cheerful crowd,
ran to their places, prompt to the call,
and how they sing! since then,
a nightly choir.
Only the comets − their slow tears −
betray the sorrow underneath that steadfastness,
for haven’t they seen it all?
− what we do down here,
warping the darkness that they love
into sly coverts for our filthiness.
Poor stars. Don’t grudge them their reprieve
each year, when their paragon,
their Star of stars, leader of kings,
sets out once more and triumphs;
finds his place, finding the child,
perfect as every new-born.
Here! the Star declares to each of us,
Surely you see – surely – that you
are a Child Awaited, you
arrived − naked and loved − and you,
gift-bearer of nothing,
can stoop under this lintel,
step clean through the needle’s eye.
I’ve recommended three poets in Part Two of this fascinating list of reading tips from Welsh journal The Lonely Crowd: Glyn Edwards, Glen Wilson and Jean Bleakney.
Damian Smyth of Arts Council of Northern Ireland notes writers from Ireland who feature in Parts One and Two of this exceptionally-useful series of bestofs … much here to pursue, purchase & read . These include Caitlin Newby and Scott McKendry.
Notice taken here of Eilís Ní Dhuibhne’s gripping memoir Twelve Thousand Days: A Memoir of Love & Loss; Ciaran Carson’s final collection Still Life and & Frank Ormsby’s The Rain Barrel.
In the midst of the general election hurly burly an important consultation is proceeding in Wales: an inquiry into whether Wales should acquire greater powers over broadcasting. The deadline for submitting evidence has been extended from today, 9th December to Monday, 20th December. Whatever its outcome, this inquiry marks a key developmental stage in the process of devolution in Wales. Continue reading Devolution of Broadcasting, Wales
All Things Considered – 9am on Sunday 8th December – reviews the year in Film. I had great fun doing this with Peter Francis, Warden of Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden and musician and tech entrepreneur, Nigel Ipinson Fleming. Roy Jenkins steered our debate.
Re-entry, Ulster – on the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing of 1969
Ma feither caa’d Wee Tam’s The Mune,
Fer the eyefu’ frae the gutter o’ thon Deil’s Den,
The mair, tae a weefla, Iniquity, a stern kirk-wurd,
Glamoured thaim cowp’d Deil’s Ain.
Yit, canny, A luik’d ap tae Him, the Lord
That wrocht the stars, the mune.
But thon ither god, the Yankee wan, ris then.
A lairnt new wurds − Trajectory, Jettison −
And I sloughed off my pleghmy, chagrining ain.
Fiftie year on, wised-ap, A’m bak tae yirth agane.
TRANSLATION
Re-entry, Ulster – on the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing of 1969
My father called Tam’s pub The Mune,
Citing the view from the gutter of that Deil’s Den,
Though, to a boy, Iniquity, a solemn, churchy word,
Shed glamour on those fallen Deil’s Ain.
Shrewdly enough, I still looked up to Him, the Lord
Who made the stars, the moon.
But that other god, American, rose then.
I learned new words − Trajectory, Jettison −
And I sloughed off my own − my phlegmy, chagrining ain.
Fifty years on, and wiser, A’m bak tae yirth agane.
by Angela Graham
First Published in The Bangor Literary Journal August 2019
Issue 9: The Open House Festival Edition
Cover Art: ‘Discworld 6-5’ by Les Sharpe
My review of Paul Murphy’s autobiography appears in the Autumn/Winter edition of Current Affairs magazine the welsh agenda.
Baron Murphy of Torfaen is a Welshman with a particularly close connection to Northern Ireland. Continue reading the welsh agenda – Review of ‘Paul Murphy – Peacemaker’
I am thrilled to receive an award from the Support for Individual Artists Programme (SIAP) of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Lottery funds.
This will help to fund a project on Place and Displacement. I will be working in poetry, memoir and fiction.
I appreciate this support very much in what will be a challenging undertaking.
I am delighted to have won joint Third Prize in the Almost Dancing Poetry Competition and Heather Newcombe Award. The Award honours the late Heather Newcombe, a poet who established the Let Me Take You To The Island Writing Festival on Rathlin in 1997.
Heather was a driving force in the Ballycastle Writers’ Group who run the Competition and Award. Entries were judged by poets, Joan and Kate Newmann.
The Group launched its anthology of work by the Group members, ‘An Unfinished Thought’ on 29th October.