To live in Welshpool
To live in Welshpool in the 80s
when the Smithfield was central
(where Tesco is now)
was to be woken on Mondays a touch before dawn
by heaving lorries and braying beasts.
That was the only day
to hear Welsh on the streets.
Not much food there, then, for the learner – me.
I heard of a family of native Welsh speakers,
and cornered their tastiest son.
While stripping his sunburn in my single room
I learned more, and more, and mwy.
©Susan Walton 2017
This poem was written on a course at Tŷ Newydd that covered a range of ways in which existing works of art can give rise to new poems. This poem took R. S. Thomas’ ‘Welsh Landscape’ as its starting point; you can hear R. S. himself reading ‘Welsh Landscape’ here.
To read more about the whole course, see Tŷ Newydd’s blog.