Friday Poem

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Friday Poem – ‘Instructions for the Coastal Walk from Clarach to Borth’ by Lynne Hjelmgaard

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Instructions for the Coastal Walk from Clarach to Borth’ by Lynne Hjelmgaard from her collection A Second Whisper.

A Second Whisper is Lynne Hjelmgaard’s moving new collection in which she looks back upon her life in New York, Demark, The Caribbean, and London. There are elegies to her late husband as well as to her mentor and partner, the renowned Welsh poet Dannie Abse, who died in 2014. Her lyrics are precise, warm in tone, and suffused with optimism for the future.

“The pictures that Hjelmgaard paints with words are… akin to pale watercolour…a quiet soundscape of inner thoughts and emotions…” – WriteOutLoud

 

A Second Whisper is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy from us.

Watch Lynne read her poem A Second Whisper on our Youtube channel:

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Friday Poems – ‘Harp/Telyn’ by Philip Gross and ‘Telyn’ by Cyril Jones

This week’s Friday Poems are ‘Harp/Telyn’ by Philip Gross and ‘Telyn’ by Cyril Jones from their new bilingual collection Troeon : Turnings. The book also features letterpress designs by the artist Valerie Coffin Price.

To turn, to dig, to plough, to upset, to translate… Bend, lap, journey, time… The Welsh word troeon unfolds meaning after meaning. In Troeon : Turnings, two poets confident in their own traditions meet in the hinterland between translation and collaboration – Cyril Jones from the disciplines of Welsh cynghanedd, Philip Gross from the restless variety of English verse.

Buy now

Troeon : Turnings is available on the Seren website: £12.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy direct from us.

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Friday Poem – ‘A Rosary’ by André Mangeot

This week our Friday Poem is ‘A Rosary’ by André Mangeot from his collection Blood Rain which was published in February 2020.

Resonant, complex, rich in heft and texture, these are mature poems that grapple with serious themes. Beautifully crafted, and partly inspired by the poet’s love of the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia, they address the natural world, its endangerment and other pressing global issues from multiple perspectives, and with great lyrical power.

‘A thought-provoking book for turbulent times.’ – Matthew Caley

Buy now

Blood Rain is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy direct from us.

Click below to see a video of André reading his poem ‘Bellwether’:

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Friday Poem – ‘The Reed Flute and I’ by Abeer Ameer

This week our Friday Poem is ‘The Reed Flute and I’ by Abeer Ameer from her debut collection Inhale/Exile. Abeer recently featured on an episode of the Babble podcast which can be listened to here.

Abeer Ameer writes of her forebears in her first collection, Inhale/Exile. Dedicated to the “holders of these stories”, the book begins with a poem about a storyteller on a rooftop in Najaf, Iraq, follows tales of courage and survival, and ends with a woman cooking food for neighbours on the anniversary of her son’s death.

 “…these poems remind us that even in the darkest times, there is light, and there is love.” – Katherine Stansfield

Inhale/Exile is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Watch Abeer read ‘The Reed Flute and I’ on our Youtube channel.

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Friday Poem – ‘Why the Brazilian Butt Lift Won’t Save Us’ by Tishani Doshi

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Why the Brazilian Butt Lift Won’t Save Us’ by Tishani Doshi from her forthcoming Bloodaxe collection A God at the Door.

Photo taken for Vogue India

Tishani is taking part in an event at the Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival this afternoon from 2pm! There’s still time to register to hear her reading alongside Joe Dunthorne. Register here.

A God at the Door is available to pre-order via Bloodaxe books

Register for Poetry Friends: Tishani Doshi and Joe Dunthorne at the Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival here

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Friday Poem – ‘On Allt yr Esgair’ by Christopher Meredith

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘On Allt yr Esgair’ by Christopher Meredith from his newly published poetry collection Still. In a unique publishing event, Still is published simultaneously with Christopher’s tragicomic short novel Please. Both are available on our website now.

Christopher Meredith’s new poetry collection Still, uses the title word as a fulcrum to balance various paradoxical concerns: stillness and motion, memory and forgetting, sanity and madness, survival and extinction. Lively and thought-provoking, this is a beautifully crafted, humane and intelligent collection.

“Lyrical, always surprising, Meredith ‘fixes stillness’ in absences here. His perfect ear tunes in so precisely – especially to the natural world, it’s ‘edge of sense’ – we are left haunted á la Frost, by a deep lonliness in the human condition.” – Paul Henry

Two book deal – purchase both Still and Please for the discounted price of £15.00.

Don’t miss the launch of both books at the Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival from 12pm on Sunday 18 April. Register for free via the festival website here. You only need to register ONCE for access to the entire four-day weekend.

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Friday Poem – ‘Slave Bangle, Wales’ by Maggie Harris

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Slave Bangle, Wales’ by Maggie Harris from the pamphlet Poems from the Borders. Maggie recently won the Poetry Wales Wales Poetry Award judged by Pascale Petit.

Poems from The Borders is part of Seren’s pamphlet series celebrating the spirit of place. Featured poems range from “the spine of the A470”, through Monmouthshire, over the dramatic Brecon Beacons, and also through the Black Mountains towards Hay-on-Wye, towns in Herefordshire and Radnorshire and along rivers, the Wye and Severn.​

Poems from The Borders is available on the Seren website: £5

Maggie’s short story collection Writing on Water is available on the Seren website: £8.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy from us.

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Friday Poem – ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ by Grahame Davies

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ by Grahame Davies from his collection Lightning Beneath the Sea which is currently £4.49 in our half-price spring sale.

Earlier this week we launched Grahame’s new book Real Cambridge, the latest addition to the Seren ‘Real’ Series.

Lightning Beneath the Sea is the first collection of poems in English by Grahame Davies, featuring the work that he has honed over the years as he has read them at literary festivals, conferences and events world-wide.  Well-known for his prize-winning Welsh-language poetry and fiction, and for his scholarly non-fiction.  He brings a native warmth, an intimate, conversational tone, and a raised civic awareness to these poems.

Lightning Beneath the Sea is currently available for £4.49 in our half-price Spring Sale

Browse our website for more fantastic half-price deals. Sale ends Sunday 28 March.

Browse Poetry

Grahame’s newest book Real Cambridge is available for £9.99

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Friday Poems – ‘Penny’ and ‘Glasffrwd’ from TROEON : TURNINGS

This week we have two Friday Poems from TROEON : TURNINGS, the new bilingual collaboration between poets Philip Gross and Cyril Jones and artist Valerie Coffin Price. ‘Penny’ by Philip Gross and ‘Glasffrwd’ by Cyril Jones.

To turn, to dig, to plough, to upset, to translate… Bend, lap, journey, time… The Welsh word troeon unfolds meaning after meaning. In TROEON : TURNINGS, two poets confident in their own traditions meet in the hinterland between translation and collaboration – Cyril Jones from the disciplines of Welsh cynghanedd, Philip Gross from the restless variety of English verse.

TROEON : TURNINGS is available on the Seren website £12.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy direct from us.

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Friday Poem – ’Hands’ by Elizabeth Parker

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Hands’ by Elizabeth Parker from her debut collection In Her Shambles.

Spiky, provocative, declamatory, these energetic poems sweep the reader along through their narratives. In Her Shambles introduces us to a poet who uses language with verve and zest. Her subjects range from a poem where family members are embodied by their own rivers, to carefully observed set-pieces inspired by relationships, from burgeoning first loves to break-ups.

“A radiantly-written and vigorous collection by a rising star of British poetry.” – David Morley

In Her Shambles is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy direct from us.