the disappearing (a manifesto)

I’ve loved working as a community poet for over a decade now; taking poetry and the spoken word into communities across Wales; encouraging others to find their creative voice. It’s a rewarding and challenging role and one that I’ll continue as we begin the transition into living in a van this autumn/winter. I truly believe […]

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The call of Llyn Tegid

I’ve become obsessed with Llyn Tegid again. It hits in waves so that I dream of her often until the need to pay a visit becomes overwhelming. This lake of myth has woven herself more tightly into poetry and workshops over the years and I wrote more about her on a Dark Mountain blog recently […]

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Newspaper loyalty

Just a quick #postnewspolitics today. Taken from The Guardian.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the oscillating love/hate I’ve had for The Guardian over the past few years. A decade ago I’d buy it religiously especially on Saturdays (and the Observer on Sundays). I felt a real affinity with the columnists and political writers. What […]

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Post News Politics

Last year I launched a project charting our print newspapers’ response to Brexit. It was a depressing time and after thirty days I was left unable to read a newspaper for weeks. I named it, predictably, #thirtydaysofBrexit. Now that May has called a snap election and the UK is about to go thermonuclear I’m reviving […]

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Tree Charter Champions

It’s Easter Saturday and I’m on the train home from Cardiff where I’ve been performing alongside writers I have a lot of respect for including Clare e Potter, Dan Tsu and Philip Gross for All That The World Allows. The event, held in Bute Park, was part of a Tree Charter project organised in association […]

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Feeding the Soul

In the past week I’ve been to two diverse and inspiring poetry events. Perhaps diverse isn’t exactly the right word as from the surface they will have looked very similar: a room of around 30 people sitting with wine or tea, a guest poet, an open floor… but both offered exactly what I need right […]

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The two-faced mask

When I think about why we create it seems like an insanity. Producing any form of literature must be the most futile existence: the months and years of work and craft that go into writing a novel or poetry collection can feel as if your intestines are being forcibly removed and piled onto a plate […]

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The Welsh Agenda

This week I was honoured to feature in The Institute for Welsh Affairs, The Next 30 / Wales’ Rising Stars: 30 people working to make Wales better over the next 30 years. I had no idea I had been nominated so it was a complete shock to discover the inclusion recently. Reading through the list, […]

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Post-News Poetry 

  Today was a lovely lovely workshop to finish off a mini-work-stay in Cardiff. I was invited by Literature Wales to work with year 9s at Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni in Blackwood as the class recently won the Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru Cipio’r Castell slam award. The winning poem, performed by four hugely talented young women, […]

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We Are Wrexham 

I was recently asked to write a piece responding to a derogatory article written about Wrexham in the Spectator back in the 1800s. This poem is called We Are Wrexham and seeks to embrace all the elements and people that make up this crazy old town. On Sunday I filmed it with the wonderful crew […]

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