Friday Poem – ‘Cei Newydd’ by Paul Henry

~ Seren Books

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Cei Newydd’ by Paul Henry from his Wales Book of the Year shortlisted collection As If To Sing.

This cover shows an abstract painting by the artist Antony Goble. A woman with blue skin dominates the image in a vibrant orange dress. She is balancing an urn on her head and holds a red crow in her hand. The text reads: As If To Sing, Paul Henry

The power of song, to sustain the human spirit, resonates through As if to Sing. A trapped caver crawls back through songs to the sea; Welsh soldiers pack their hearts into a song on the eve of battle, ‘for safe-keeping’; a child crossing a bridge sings ‘a song with no beginning or end’… Rich in the musical lyricism admired by readers and fellow poets, As if to Sing is an essential addition to this Paul Henry’s compelling body of work.

Cei Newydd We drifted out one afternoon on a dinghy’s water-bed, woke to no sight of the shore. We had not been born. A panic of oars scratched the wilderness and the harbour came back to us, our mothers on the pier. The salt on the fishing nets tasted the same. Soon, Brown Helen, we shall drift out again.

As If To Sing is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Voting is now open for the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award. Vote for your favourite book on this year’s shortlist via the Wales Arts Review website.

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Click below or scan the QR code to preview the first 15 pages of As If To Sing

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