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Posted on September 29, 2023September 29, 2023 by Seren Books

Friday Poem – ‘Lyrical Invention’ by Nerys Williams

Photograph of a town sign pointing in multiple directions. The grey town is blurred out in the background

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Lyrical Invention’ by Nerys Williams which was recently Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. The poem is published in her latest collection Republic.

51. Lyrical Invention
Coming from this “little shit place”, as a rugby coach told us in 2018, we learn adaptive strategies. We are mountain people, under the radar, speaking a language that offers protection from direct penetration. Home is broken down, parables of post-industrial, an adventure campground for another country.
Of course, relish the description by A.A. Gill we are “loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls.” Or, maybe dear reader, if you are into the burn Jeremy Clarkson appeals: “It’s entirely unfair that some people are born fat or ugly or dyslexic or disabled or ginger or small or Welsh. Life, I’m afraid, is tragic.” My friends this tragic life, as we sit in our demesne in soft rainfall. Ron Liddle’s “miserable, seaweed munching, sheep-bothering pinch-faced hill-tribes” comes into mind. Journalists who want our words silenced as “an appalling and moribund monkey language.” There is a danger in responding too quickly, giving ugly words a permanence, credibility.
Monolingualism is no crime, the curation of other languages is a tricky art, but monoculturalism, the impossibility of fielding doubt into your rhetoric? Doubt makes me wonder if there is a salt mill grinding in the sea. Or, that those mountains are fashioned by a giant god, breathing into life birds, trees and stones. Being didactic creates its own loss, disabling, poor creature with open mouth signing into the world. Leviathans straddling the shapes of their own grammar, splish-splosh. Instead, recall how Benjamin Britten’s This Little Babe translates into your language. Echolalia, how to find narrative accuracy not in the repetition of words, but in timing to music. Caught on quarter inch tape, a reel packaged and sent. “Oh, yes the choral” you nod “that old stereotype”. No, what I reference is the force of me, you, us a power of breath to fall and rise without issuing demands. Being here, colouring a lyric’s final iteration high notes fading against a cupola, the roof of a tin shed, the gambrel of a village hall, all the mercury bubbles unleashed.

This September, you’re invited to explore the unseen and the unsettling. From dark and menacing landscapes to the everyday terrors of domestic settings disturbingly close to home, these stories will horrify and delight in equal measure. Be prepared, for ‘this is a land of ancient power, and even more ancient beings...’ Pre-order the latest addition to our Welsh Gothic series, ‘Giving the Darkness Life’ on our website now.
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Stories by @markblayney1, Mary-Ann Constantine, @damianwalforddavies, Caradoc Evans, Dorothy K. Haynes, @lucie_mckhardy Arthur Machen, Elinor Mordaunt, John Llewellyn Probert, L.T.C. Rolt, @priyasharma1000, Edward Thomas, Elizabeth Walter and D.P. Watt
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@inpressbooks @books.wales #WelshGothic #SerenBooks #NationalYearOfReading2026 #SpookySeason #AutumnBooks

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This September, you’re invited to explore the unseen and the unsettling. From dark and menacing landscapes to the everyday terrors of domestic settings disturbingly close to home, these stories will horrify and delight in equal measure. Be prepared, for ‘this is a land of ancient power, and even more ancient beings...’ Pre-order the latest addition to our Welsh Gothic series, ‘Giving the Darkness Life’ on our website now.
.
Stories by @markblayney1, Mary-Ann Constantine, @damianwalforddavies, Caradoc Evans, Dorothy K. Haynes, @lucie_mckhardy Arthur Machen, Elinor Mordaunt, John Llewellyn Probert, L.T.C. Rolt, @priyasharma1000, Edward Thomas, Elizabeth Walter and D.P. Watt
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@inpressbooks @books.wales #WelshGothic #SerenBooks #NationalYearOfReading2026 #SpookySeason #AutumnBooks

We had a wonderful time listening to @megan.c.hayes talking about her memoir ‘Glimmering’ with Kath Little from @bardic_books at St Illtud’s church in Llantwit Major on Saturday. Diolch yn fawr to everyone who joined us and to Kath for hosting! Copies of ‘Glimmering’ are available now in your local bookshop.
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#Glimmering #Memoir #SerenBooks #IndependentBookshop #NationalYearOfReading2026

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We had a wonderful time listening to @megan.c.hayes talking about her memoir ‘Glimmering’ with Kath Little from @bardic_books at St Illtud’s church in Llantwit Major on Saturday. Diolch yn fawr to everyone who joined us and to Kath for hosting! Copies of ‘Glimmering’ are available now in your local bookshop.
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#Glimmering #Memoir #SerenBooks #IndependentBookshop #NationalYearOfReading2026

Ebooks available now! ‘In Search of Sea Dragons’, ‘Muslim Wales’ and ‘The Waters That Raised Us’ are now available from all major ebook retailers meaning you can take them with you on the go 🎉 Do you prefer reading ebooks, print books or both?
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@severn.sea.fossils @azimwales @tayloredmonds #Ebooks #Kindle #SerenBooks #BooksFromWales #LoveReading

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Ebooks available now! ‘In Search of Sea Dragons’, ‘Muslim Wales’ and ‘The Waters That Raised Us’ are now available from all major ebook retailers meaning you can take them with you on the go 🎉 Do you prefer reading ebooks, print books or both?
.
@severn.sea.fossils @azimwales @tayloredmonds #Ebooks #Kindle #SerenBooks #BooksFromWales #LoveReading

🏆@maggiepoet continues her winning streak having won the Guyana Prize for Literature Poetry Award with her collection ‘I Sing to the Greenhearts’! Available now in bookshops nationwide and on our website!
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#AwardWinning #GuyanaPrize #Poetry #PoetryBooks #SerenBooks

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🏆@maggiepoet continues her winning streak having won the Guyana Prize for Literature Poetry Award with her collection ‘I Sing to the Greenhearts’! Available now in bookshops nationwide and on our website!
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#AwardWinning #GuyanaPrize #Poetry #PoetryBooks #SerenBooks

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