International Dylan Thomas Day, 14 May 2023

 

Laugharne

Wishing all my friends 

a Happy International Dylan Day

2023

 

David and I enjoyed many happy visits to Laugharne and the Carmarthenshire coast from our Swansea home. You can barely make out the Writing Shed, but the Dylan Thomas Boathouse is the last white building beyond the castle on this side of the estuary, where the tidal stream bends to the left. You can see it more clearly in the photograph below.

Lidia Chriarelli* has once again curated an anniversary website to mark the occasion - here. My thanks to Lidia for including my Swansea-based contribution, a picture-poem. You will find it here, if you click the link and then scroll down. 

You might also be interested in Dear Dylan, an anthology of Dylan-inspired poetry and prose from Indigo Dreams Publishing, edited by Anna Saunders and Ronnie Goodyer. This volume (see here) was published on #DylanDay 2021 and contains one of my poems, 'Tentacles and Tar'. 

Laugharne, evening light

* There is an expansive interview with Lidia Chiarelli here in The Poet online; do take a look.

 

 

Marking #DylanDay 2021

 

Some of you will know that I lived in Swansea for twenty years, so #DylanDay is always an opportunity for me to remember visits to Cwmdonkin Park and Number 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (plaque above). 

 

I also like to recall carefree hours spent on the waterfront at Laugharne. You can see the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in the photo above and Dylan's Writing Shed perched somewhat precariously on the cliff in the photos below. 

 

 

There is often a Grey Heron on the shore, and not infrequently a Curlew or two.

 

 

This bird's eye view of Laugharne (below), with its tidal estuary, castle, boathouse and writing shed, brings back a number of particular memories, including a day when I attended a Creative Writing workshop facilitated by Aeronwy Thomas as part of the Laugharne Festival. 

 

The southern and western areas of Wales are not, of course, the only locations linked to the poet. Dylan visited New York on four occasions in the 1950s. I spent a few days there in 2012, enjoying a meal in Greenwich Village and the long elevator ride up the Empire State Building as the light began to fade. 

 

This year I am delighted to have a poem on Lidia Chiarelli's Immagine e Poesia #DylanDay website and also to have a letter addressed to DT and a poem in a new anthology called Dear Dylan, edited by Anna Saunders and Ronnie Goodyer, and published by Indigo Dreams Publishing. 

Dear Dylan is published today, and you can purchase a copy and read more about it here. I am looking forward to the 'Dear Dylan from the Birthplace' Zoom event this evening. 

'Dear Dylan'

Cwmdonkin Park, Swansea

My poem-and-letter submission [9/2019] has been accepted for the 2020 Indigo Dreams Publishing 'Dear Dylan' anthology (to be edited by IDP poet and Cheltenham Poetry Festival Director, Anna Saunders). My poem has a Cornish setting since Dylan and Caitlin got married in Penzance, but my letter is based in Swansea, which was my home for nearly twenty years.   

And, on the subject of poets with a Swansea link and the surname Thomas, we have just ordered a copy of Jeff Towns' new edition of 'Swansea Village' by Edward Thomas. My copy has been tucked away until my birthday, but I'm told it includes contributions from Jeff Towns, Peter Thabit Jones (who published my chapbook), Andrew Green and Peter Stead.