Gareth Writer-Davies 

Poetry


29/01/25

Today I am featured on the website Lothlorien Poetry Journal with four poems. A kind message from the editor never does any harm to a poet;


Thank you for sending me these fascinating poems. It is a pleasure to read and step inside your beautifully crafted work and I have now published your four sublime poems on the LPJ Blog. I like your originality of voice, subject and language, the internal atmospheres and imagery in place and time in each of these poems and look forward to reading and considering more of your wonderful work Gareth.


https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/search?q=gareth+writer-davies


ROCK SALT


comes in all shapes and colours, direct from the Himalayas

on the label is the mighty range


like a ridge of toblerone

something else I bought at the airport


as I spend my retirement, jetting

from Bangkok to Naples


grounded by Covid (a temporary distraction)

I season my dishes


and pass the time on eBay

ordering t-shirts from Vietnam, sex toys from China


the weather is wonderful in Serbia, less so in the Arctic

ice clinks, melts in my gin and tonic


as I distract myself with dreams of flight

await further instructions



AN UNATTENDED FUNERAL


a magpie croaks and jabbers

as the coffin arrives


woven willow

like a pharaonic basket of supplies


for the after-life

which you didn't believe in


the church echoes

with a prayer for the dead and the dying


you lie on a rented pedestal

as planes fly low


departures from the here and now

you are off


to somewhere hot and amazing

blazing


that you were fit and frisky

one minute


and six months later you are here

whisky at the wake


family and friends sub-dividing

keeping close the secrets they’re hiding


it's all ordained (some might say)

they get in their cars and drive away


the magpie squawks for his mate

come nest with me before it's too late




THREE GLAZED BISCUITS AND A NEEDLE AND THREAD


The busy needle punctures taut cloth

tiny holes back-filled by busy binding thread.


Hot out of the oven biscuits firm up on Mother's

1960s cooling rack that I rescued from the red skip


when we sold her last home to pay late bills and rent

a bed in the new retirement hub, where she began


to bake and roughly stitch by hand, handkerchieves

coasters for the mirrored communal dining space.


Three biscuits shine with pink and white glaze

as squinting I sew on a button, her thimble clacking


for the sake of making good and mending what is worth

keeping. Crumbs and thread, three crisp bobbin bakes


as we clear her sunlit bedsit of needlework and quilts.

We have promised not to speak, as we repair all the small tears


those thick fingered attempts at sobriety, late, hollow-cheeked

tremendous as she took one long breath, tried to make things right.



GOING TO THE OPERA


I used to go with a member of the chorus (I mean we were sexual

partners) She was already up on the stage, acting up a storm and

adding colour. It was just a job to her though the tours were frolics.


Any rough old plot is better with music and when the orchestra

swells and the Marriage of Figaro really hits its straps, you stop

thinking of her starkers and forget the director’s terrible reputation


for oropharyngeal violence, as there’s enough of that entering stage

left as the Italian bass gets his solo. If it wasn’t for bad behaviour

would opera be so popular and rake in government money?


When there are crooks treading the boards like pantomime dames

we are less likely to spot crooks in the boardroom. Music falsifies

adds glamour and intrigue to some pretty sordid and indecent conduct.


At some point most of us compromise our heart and ambitions

and opera is misery made beautiful. This alone is worth the subsidy.






Very happy to have my poem, A Lack of Sleep Will Be The End of Me in the Winter edition of London Grip. A prestigious website for poetry with some good names in this latest issue.

londongrip.co.uk/2024/11/london-grip-new-poetry-winter-2024/ 


A LACK OF SLEEP WILL BE THE END OF ME


and I am awake, in the middle of the night

fretting


that I am naked in residential streets

no matter


no chaffy gossips peeking through curtains

calling police


there is no sex-feast in public gardens

nor five fingered shopping


I am fresh, clean shaven

like a film star Adam


my only weapon 

words of narration


as if in a documentary, an approaching man

who grows larger


and larger (with a microphone)

what went on here and how do you feel about it?

 



04/11/24

Received my copy of These Pages Sing today through the post, a glossy and very well put together Welsh literary magazine in which my poem IN THE RADNORSHIRE HILLS appears. I'm very happy to be in such a terrific production.

   






27/10/24

Sadly, this is the last edition of the fine Scottish poetry magazine Dreich, which I only discovered a couple of years back but was happy to sneak some poems into. But happy 100th to the mag and its editor Jack Caradoc! Here is my poem SWANS ON ICE   

19/10/24

Very happy to be shortlisted for the 2024 Bridport Poetry Prize. I was previously shortlisted twice but this news comes at a good time with a couple of proposals in the fire.

bridportprize.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Bridport-Prize-Shortlists-and-Novel-Longlist-2024.pdf 


22/08/24

Lovely to get an acceptance from the quality magazine The Amphibian for my poem CAT LOVE which in a twist portrays cats not as joyful companions but as harbingers of death one of their many folkloric roles

CAT LOVE

A cat knows when it’s going to die and so it was with my Mother.

She was wheeled into the nursing home and turned her face


to the wall. Then as the dementia sweetened, became quite

the old dear, flirting with the nurses and peeing only when told to.


She made friends with the house cat (a species she had hated)

enjoying the warmth that emanated from fur and cat humour, ironic


as she was often called catty and like a scar had worn it proudly.

Then the dreams started like a campaign of bombing, dark nights


lost in a forest of bones, days burning through to ashes. The cat

having seen this all before, abandoned her for another.


Mother couldn’t wait to die, so we arranged it, with words of treason

and a morphine trigger and the cat returned for a day or two


like one of those Dickensian nurses with sly, deep pockets.

I admired the cat for its sense of timing. Mother died and was found


mid-morning, tabby licking her paws and chasing a feather. At least

a cat is all cat until the gig is up; they don’t linger or dream of their demise


it’s not in their nature, to question the one thing that is certain. Neither

did Mother, though she had five years to grieve it, losing her self


to tea cups of sulphur. Cats don’t back down and nor did she.

But once God has a mouse, he has his fun, then kills it.


 https://theamphibianlit.wordpress.com/ 

29/07/24

Extremely happy to have five poems in the Lammas edition of Littoral Magazine It's a nature, spirituality issue which is really up my street; below is a link to a PDF where the new issue is available for free. Littoral also has a publishing arm for any poets seeking publication. Thank you Mervyn.   

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mtb8-LcGsI7tM98fXIPhkt0pjiL68IrW/view?usp=sharing



26/07/24

I've been waiting for this magazine for some time, as the poems were taken by the editor last Summer with the proviso that issue 40 had a long time delay. I agreed as this is a fine long established magazine and I am in the company of some fine poets in this issue. Both poems are about trash and what we do with it; Golden Dustmen has a political point to make.  

19/07/24

Very happy to be in Haiku Avenue 3 with three haiku; the magazine is available at the link below. Something of a departure for me as when I write form poems I tend to write sijo, but concision comes naturally to me so perhaps there will more haiku in my writing. 

https://amzn.eu/d/0iZpJPml


02/05/24

Very happy to be in the eighth issue of the fine magazine The Madrigal with my poem Now It's Been Two Years. Written about the aftermath of my Mother's death I think it has a wry sadness, though others might call it bitter/sweet. Thank you Helen and Tomás.

https://www.themadrigalpress.com/post/now-it-s-been-two-years

 

NOW IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS

and the frost feathering the windows

is outside


which you always complained about

the house


was too damn hot

and you couldn't catch your breath


the cat

got your worn out tongue, Mother


we kept the rest

in a jar


thinking that if anyone could make a sign

you could


are you now ready as bonemeal

to be spread


to grow a tree in a memorial garden

or feed a hungry fox?


we made you mute (sorry about that)

but I've left the window open a crack


take a deep breathe of dust

emanate


I have a fine mesh net in one hand

in the other a hoover




25/04/24

In the post today I received my copy of Issue Ten of Spelt Magazine, which contains my second placed poem in the Spelt Poetry Competition. A fine, well produced magazine that is worth a purchase. 

19/03/24

I'd rather forgotten this, but news that my poem PURBLIND AND FONT is the introduction to a chapter of a book launched at the Institute of Pyschoanalysis last week. An unusual style of poem for me and based on observations of my own Mother's dementia. 

22/02/24

I'm very pleased to have received my copy of DREICH today which features a couple of my poems, IN THE GARDEN and ON THE ESPLANADE.

Curated by Jack Caradoc this issue is available via the website at hybriddreich.co.uk/ 

02/02/24

I was very pleased to appear at the Poetry Pharmacy in Bishop's Castle, run by the lovely Deb Alma, under the Verbatim poetry banner. A splendid space to perform in and a large, receptive crowd; what could be better for a poet at the end of a dull January, with new books to read from! Great quality of open-micers; I would recommend Verbatim poetry evenings (last Wednesday of each month, if you're in the area)

https://www.poetrypharmacy.co.uk/about 

02/02/24

Very pleased to find earlier this week that I was runner up in the Mid Wales section of the Cambrian Mountain Society with my poem Red Flags which is about the mass evacuation of The Epynt near Brecon during World War 2. There will be a celebration of the prize winning poems on March 2nd at the library in Pontrhydfendigaid from 3pm to 6pm which will also be a celebration of the two languages of Wales. More details on the link below;   

https://www.cambrian-mountains.co.uk/poetry/2023/ 

RED FLAGS


on The Epynt

there are blocks of conifers like sombre mansions


replicating châteaux and schlossen

sylvan war games


from the last century

wooden tanks and inflatable paratroops


we’re all safer for it

though when the bombshell was dropped


by the suave English captain and pretty ATS girl

hedges were still cut


ditches dug and the sabulous fields ploughed

as the war wasn’t going to last forever


sixty odd years later

the war in Cilieni and Gwybedog loiters like a trespasser


and farmhouses have been blasted to wind

for no reason but a soldier’s lesson



the squares of conifers will be harvested

and some profit made from shrapnel



but you can’t put a price on coercion and gunnery dispersal

or our Father’s house



nor a Mother’s hope for her children

the end of all that



came to The Epynt whilst the whole world was raging

shoot the horses



and blow up the chapel

red flags are a threat as well as a warning





24/01/24

It's been a delight over the last few months to see a new poetry night in Cardiff emerge, especially in an under-served part of the city. This is Tiger Bay Poetry, held about every month at the once-famous, now reborn Casablanca Club in Cardiff Bay. The indefatigable and charming host each evening is Québécoise Natasha Gauthier, who has managed to attract some top names in Welsh poetry to perform, including Chris Meredith and Mike Jenkins, to name just a couple. Diversity is a speciality as well as showcasing up-and-coming talent. More power to her elbow and long may it continue!

23/01/24

I was delighted to watch Damian Walford Davies perform at Tiger Bay Poetry last week, where he read from his latest volume, Viva Bartali! As a couplet poet, I was intrigued that the whole volume consists of poems written in nine couplets.  This form works well in what is an obsessive collection exploring the life of Gino Bartali, Italian champion cyclist and unsuspected resistance agent during WWII. Damian divulged that he had no interest in Bartali or cycling before coming across his story; he is now a keen cyclist! I thoroughly recommend this book, available from Seren.

Images courtesy of Seren  

23/01/24

On 31 January, I am appearing at The Poetry Pharmacy's Verbatim open mic night in Bishop's Castle. I shall be reading new poems as well as from previous publications, including my last collection, WYSG. This will be my first gig of the new year and I'm very much looking forward to performing at this quirky venue. It will be great to catch up with poetry friends and hopefully make new ones!  

14/11/23

My poem, Before Testing Positive Again for Covid, is now up on Wishbone Words (Issue 12) 

This issue is all about chronic illness; they are some very affecting poems in this issue.

https://wishbonewords.com/

 

13/11/23

I am one of the featured poets in issue nine of Fenland Poetry Journal, with my poem Ty Bach. A renovation project for a building and myself. 

08/11/23

I received my copy of Cake Magazine today (issue 13) which contains three poems of mine; Looking Up, The Green Muse and Frog Spawn on Cefn Cyff. The last poem I was especially pleased to have printed as Cefn Cyff is part of the Brecon Beacons and I'll never forget finding frog spawn at 700m and wondering how it got there. This issue, which is edited by the English and Creative Writing Department at Lancaster University also features an interview with the celebrated poet Paul Muldoon.

 

06/11/23

My poem Gilestone Standing Stone is poem of the day today on Ink, Sweat and Tears. Very pleased to have a poem with a local theme up on this prestigious site. The stone is quite difficult to find, hidden in a hedge, but once found one marvels at the size; now the farm on which it stands is the subject of some controversy following a sale to the Welsh Government; just another story for the stone to tell.

    

12/10/23

My poem Sudden Faith of a Junior Choirmaster can be found in the latest issue of The Pomegranate, a bi-annual art and literary magazine based in London. The wonderful illustration is Opus58 (2021) by the American painter Shelton Walsmith.   

11/10/23

Travelled up to the Wirral Poetry Festival to read my poem Above Aberaeron which finished first in the Wirral Poetry Festival Competition. The awards ceremony was on the last afternoon; congratulations to the other winners and commended poets. I really enjoyed the poetry slam in the evening, where my partner performed excellently. Many thanks to the organisers and the chief judge David Costello, who said he was surprised it was me as it wasn't in my usual style.    


01/09/23

La Vie Rurale was awarded second place in the 2023 Spelt Poetry Competition. I'm very pleased and the judge Jane Burn said some lovely things;

La Vie Rurale was a poem that crept up on me, revealing itself, through aesthetically lean couplets, so very carefully from verse to verse. Its concept is expressed so carefully, delicately and achingly. I found so much ‘room’ inside it as a reader – its spareness in the handling of its subject was to its benefit.....Click on the link above to see more!

12/08/23

The National Poetry Library, housed in London's Royal Festival Hall, is the largest collection of modern poetry in the world. I've been in London this week helping my daughters move and I popped in for a visit. I was pleased to see they had a copy of my latest collection, Wysg, along with my other publications. The Library is free to visit and is a wonderful resource for poets and poetry lovers--make sure to drop in if you're in London.

12/08/23

I have three poems appearing in the first issue of RECESSES poetry magazine.  I've also had acceptances from Ink, Sweat and Tears, Pomegranate and Wishbone this week for publications in the Autumn; details in due course.

09/08/23

I've recently had some good news: first place in the Wirral Poetry Festival Competition. I'll be attending the prize-giving ceremony on The Wirral in October, but in the meantime you can read it in the Poems section.