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9th June, 2023

Friday Poem – ‘Cei Newydd’ by Paul Henry

Photo of a small wooden rowing boat drifting along in blue-grey waters.

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

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.

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.

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

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