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VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY TWO OF FIFTY-TWO, RON LEWIS.

Ron Lewis is a retired T.V. journalist and reporter, He started his career with The Cambrian News in Aberystwyth, moved on to writing for The Western Mail and then found himself working in Pontcanna, Cardiff as part of the news team on the newly founded Harlech Television, H.T.V..

Ron now lives with his family in the subtly stunning countryside of west Carmarthenshire in the parish of Merthyr where the River Cywin cuts through a rolling landscape of fertile tree-covered hillsides.

Earlier this year Ron gained a First Class Honours Master’s Degree at Lampeter University in Creative Writing.

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY ONE OF FIFTY-TWO, HUGH REES D.F.C.

A Professor at Aberystwyth University, a Fellow of The Royal Society a peson, like so many others, who never talked about the war. He did, however, leave a diary, which hopefully we will look at a later date. Hugh’s family lived in Llansteffan and his father was the local policeman, P.C. Owen Rees.

I hope the film reflects the respect and gratitude that we always will have for those who fought during the Great War and especially those at Mametz Wood 103 years ago.

In the video his son, Hubert Rees, is interviewed following a lecture on his father’s diary of the war.

Hugh’s plane was shot down during a daylight raid on a synthetic oil plant near Homberg in the Ruhr Valley. All were RAF crew, except the bomb aimer F/O Westwood, who was a New Zealander. He became a good friend of Hugh’s, and was a visitor to Llansteffan in 1945, as reported in the local press at the time.

After capture, Hugh was taken to Oberursel, near Frankfurt. This was an interrogation centre for captured aircrew. He was later moved to Stalag Luft 1. The camp housed about 9,000 allied air force officers by the end of the war, mostly US aircrew (about 7,500).

His diary gives an awareness into life at the camp: food shortages, communication with home, his hobbies while held captive and the general living conditions that they endured. He also gives an insight into the relationship with his fellow American captives.

Many thanks to the following websites that have helped Hubert collect images and facts about his father’s wartime experiences.
75nzsquadron
Stalag Luft

Footnote: Colonel Hub Zemke

Zemke was a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. He established his leadership of the POWs at Stalag Luft 1, developing working relations with the German commandant and staff. He achieved some improvements in living conditions. Toward the end of the war, Zemke suspected the Germans might try to kill the POWs rather than allow them to be liberated by the advancing Russian armies. In preparation, Zemke prepared a force of commandos and stockpiled weapons, (mostly home–made grenades), in order to resist any such attempt.

As it became apparent that war was lost, the Germans became more cooperative, especially as Soviet armies approached from the east. When the prisoners of Stalag Luft I were ordered to leave the camp by the camp commandant, Zemke refused the order. Zemke and his staff negotiated an arrangement for the Germans to depart quietly at night, bearing only small arms, and turn the camp over to the Allied POW wing. To avoid conflict between POWs and guards who had been particularly brutal, Zemke's staff kept the arrangement secret until the morning after the German departure. Zemke then cultivated friendly relations with the arriving Soviets, using his fluent German and some Russian language picked up during his time with the Soviet Air Force. Ultimately, in Operation Revival, Zemke arranged for the POWs to be flown to American-held territory by U.S. B-17 bombers shortly after VE day.

VOICES OF THE GREAT WAR JULY 2016

A video from the archives - in July 2016 Seimon and myself organised a day of commemoration. It was 100 years since the Battle of Mametz Wood took place on the Somme during the Great War of 1914-18.

We invited local people and musicians to come along and tell their stories and sing their songs of the war. We videod and recorded their oral history and their musical performance. The Open Day at the Tin Shed Museum in Laugharne was an amazing emotional day and thanks again to all those who cointributed!

I hope the film reflects the respect and gratitude that we always will have for those who fought during the Great War and especially those at Mametz Wood 103 years ago.

It’s not too late to enter the stage and Visual Arts competitions at the North American Festival of Wales in Milwaukee (Aug. 29 - Sept. 1)! 

Once again, we have seven different stage competitions in singing or poetic recitation - suiting all ages and different levels of proficiency in Welsh.  Singers can join our Semi-Professional competition to win the Welsh North America Prize - a generous cash scholarship for travel to compete at next year's National Eisteddfod of Wales (Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru) in Tregaron (Ceredigion).  We’ve also got Instrumental Solo, open to unaccompanied soloists on any musical instrument.  All stage competitions are on Fri. and Sat., Aug. 30 and 31, and are time-limited to help you enjoy the rest of the Festival!

Also, the new Visual Arts Competition is open to entrants submitting visual artistic submissions (painting, sketch, sculpture, etc.) based on a Welsh theme, for popular adjudication at the Festival (setup is Fri., Aug. 30 and viewing is that day and Sat., Aug. 31).  We will only need a description of your piece before the deadline.

Go to the link shown here for information and guidelines on all of our competitions!  You will also find there our new online entry form for the stage competitions and Visual Arts… deadline is August 20, so fill out your form today and we’ll see you soon in Milwaukee! 

(NAFOW Eisteddfod link: http://thewnaa.org/ eisteddfod-competition.html  )

A new novel by Welsh author Sam Adams was inspired by a family Bible. The novel called  In the Vale , published by Y Lolfa, is a family saga that takes the reader from London to the Vale of Glamorgan and outwards into the social ferment and bloody turmoil of the Napoleonic era. It was inspired by the Williams family, who lived in the Vale of Glamorgan. George Williams, Rector of Llantrithyd was the Bible’s original owner, and used it to record the births and deaths of his and his wife Sarah’s children. Sam Adams received the Bible, which has been passed down from father to son since his great-great-great grandfather’s time, from a cousin.  

Author Sam Adams said:

“To be in possession of only half a story is frustrating – you want to know the whole thing!

George was an impoverished curate when he married, and was gifted the rectory, the land and income that went with it as a result of the marriage, which (very oddly) was announced in the  Gentleman's Magazine  in London. There the bride’s address was listed as 'Ash Hall, Ystradowen', the home of Richard Aubrey, youngest son of Sir Thomas Aubrey of Llantrithyd Place.

How did this union come about? Why isn't the name of their first child, George, recorded in the Family Bible? These were among the earliest puzzles that tormented me.”  

This led to much research in libraries and on-line searches for any information linked with George Williams and his family. Successes included the discovery in a library at Saint Fagans of a diary kept by John Perkins, a gentleman farmer of Llantrithyd – and a friend of the Reverend George Williams.  

“The story of the Williams family was unfolding during one of the most turbulent periods in European history – the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The strife and suffering caused by conflict affected everyone, at home and overseas: military action, disease, a bad economy. These were the realties of the time. While in a familial context, George and Sarah’s first son, also named George, died in infancy due to being vaccinated against smallpox,” says Sam Adams.

“I have tried to recapture, through choice of vocabulary and cadence of expression in dialogue, narrative and description, the tone of the period, while seeking to fill imaginatively the many gaps in a story of real people against a background of bloody turmoil.”  

Sam Adams has been involved in Welsh writing in English since the late 1960s. He is a former editor of  Poetry Wales  and former chairman of the English-language section of Yr Academi Gymreig. His scholarly writing includes editions of the  Collected Poems  and  Collected Short Stories  of Roland Mathias, and three monographs in the Writers of Wales series, the latest on  Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn Prichard , who is also the subject of several articles published in the  Journal of Welsh Writing in English . He has contributed poems and well over a hundred ‘Letters from Wales’ to the Carcanet Press magazine  PN Review . His work from Y Lolfa includes, in addition to  Prichard’s Nose , a collection of poetry and  Where the Stream Ran Red , a delightful and moving history of his family and of Gilfach Goch, the mining valley where he was born and brought up.   

In the Vale  by Sam Adams (£9.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

VOICES FROM WALES - NINETEEN OF FIFTY-TWO, CARMARTHEN VELODROME

For years Carmarthen Park was my rugby home. Privileged to play in an amphitheatre of sport, surrounded by a disused cycle track. Century-old photos showed the park as the sporting hub of the town and county.

As a supplement to my rugby training I always loved cycling and would occasionally find myself pedalling around the rugby ground, making sure I missed the surface cracks and the increased number of potholes that appeared as the years passed.

A £580,000 project to redevelop the site and make it a cycling hub for West Wales started in 2017. At 405 metres long track consists of more than 200 concrete panels. It was officially reopened two years ago, 117 years after it hosted its first ever cycle race

The track is located in the heart of Carmarthen Park. It has a history that goes beyond just cycling having been the scene of two National Eisteddfods and continues to be the home playing field of Carmarthen RFC.

VOICES FROM WALES - EIGHTEEN OF FIFTY-TWO, THOMAS SKEEL – A NAPOLEONIC SOLDIER FROM LAUGHARNE, CARMARTHENSHIRE, PART 2

In the second part of Thomas Skeel the 15 minute video showcases John Bradshaw recollecting the diaries of the landlord of The Ship Inn, Laugharne, Thomas Skeel. Skeel enlists into the 40 th Regiment of Foot and talks about his part in the fight against Napoleon in the Peninsular Wars of the early 19 th Century.

AmeriCymru: Hi Elizabeth and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. Care to introduce your collection The Language of Bones for our readership?

Elizabeth: The Language of Bones: American Journeys Through Bardic Verse features Celtic-style poems that bear witness to the power of place and cultural memory. It is a poetic journey from Jamestown, Virginia, to Muir Woods, California, that gives voice to the unspoken, the overlooked, and the forgotten. As I walked along paths that bear the weight of so many triumphs and tragedies, I felt compelled to document those stories in a manner that reflected the timeless elements of the terrain. Traditional Welsh meters like the rhupunt, the clogyrnach, the cyhydedd hir, and the cywydd llosgyrnog provided such a structure and added a layer of musicality.

The topics addressed in the collection are as diverse as the American landscape. Readers will encounter Native American legends, historical events, and current events. Since we Virginians love our ghost stories, a few spirits even make an appearance! In summary, the book is an invitation to explore America, both past and present, from unusual perspectives. Copies are available from Kelsaybooks.com and on Amazon.

AmeriCymru: You write "bardic verse in the Celtic style" and you "find traditional Welsh meters particularly alluring." What is at the root of your fascination with these forms and how would you rate their contemporary relevance?

Elizabeth: Bardic verse is, of course, meant to be read aloud. For me, doing so is a transformative experience. There is something magical about hearing contemporary poetry written in Welsh forms that were codified in the fourteenth century. In some ways the rhythms are almost primal.

I should note that all of the poems in the collection are in English because that is my native language. Welsh bardic forms seem to have a universal dimension that transfers into English quite well. Perhaps rhyme and meter feed an instinctive hunger for predictable patterns.

Many contemporary poets have embraced free verse to the exclusion of all else, but I foresee a renewed interest in traditional forms. Western artistry has long celebrated balance and symmetry, and formal verse extends that aesthetic to linguistic expression. Musical culture offers a few examples of our innate preference for patterns. Just listen to people flounder when they attempt to sing the concluding note of a piece that does not end in its home key! Of course, rhyme is still prevalent in song lyrics.

I think that traditional poetic styles speak to the heart on levels beyond understanding. The trick is to make both the language and the message meaningful. Convoluted lines that engage in linguistic gymnastics for the sake of rhyme come across as contrived and awkward. Such contortions mar the beauty of the form and detract from the meaning. However, formal verse that rises to the challenge of accessibility is most certainly relevant, and a number of modern publications recognize that. Many of the poems in my collection previously appeared in literary journals in the United States and the United Kingdom. I hope that The Language of Bones will spark greater interest in conveying contemporary messages through traditional poetic forms.

AmeriCymru: “The intricate syllabic forms, cross-rhyming, internal echoes, and circular returns of Celtic verse forms are not within the competence of every poet, even those skilled in set forms, but Elizabeth Spragins shows us that they can be wielded with power and grace." Can you tell us how you became acquainted with these forms and how would you advise others to study them?

Elizabeth: I first heard the Welsh language when I happened upon a Celtic radio station that featured Siân James, a traditional folk singer and harpist. Her music had an ethereal quality that mesmerized me even though I had no idea what her words meant! That chance encounter sparked a fascination with all things Welsh. I muddled through some rather musty books on Welsh literature and had the good fortune to stumble across some excellent online resources. The Welsh Society of Fredericksburg opened other doors to me, and I was eventually invited to become a book reviewer for Ninnau, the North American Welsh newspaper. I focused on poetry written in English, and I found myself wondering why more contemporary writers did not explore the rich patterns of the 24 official Welsh meters. It was a challenge I could not resist! The age-old compulsion to tell our stories seems to cry out for the musicality of formal verse, and the Welsh meters have exciting variations that give me chills. Once I started dabbling in those literary jigsaw puzzles, I was well and truly hooked.

For those who would like to explore Welsh bardic meters in depth, I would suggest reading anthologies that include representative pieces from different time periods. With regard to the mechanics, a number of resources are available in print and online. Lewis Turco’s New Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics offers a succinct description of every poetic form I have ever encountered. His work, which is international in scope, is an essential reference for any student of poetry or aspiring poet. For those ready to pick up a pen, my article “How to Write a Rhupunt (With Example)” may prove helpful.

How to Write a Rhupunt (with Example) This article details the process of writing the rhupunt, one of the traditional Welsh poetic forms.

The British Isles produced countless other bardic forms that were never codified. A broad exploration was beyond the scope of my book, but those interested in Celtic literary traditions might want to delve into the work of the Irish bards in particular. I have found Gaelic patterns especially challenging to write in English, but I do include a representative form, the rannaigheacht ghairid, in The Language of Bones.

I would caution readers that the popularity of “Celtic” elements in the film and music industries has spawned a number of books that capitalize on the popularity of the term without having a direct connection. Hence, a collection of “Celtic poetry” may have nothing to do with traditional bardic verse.

AmeriCymru: Do you have a personal favorite in your new collection? Is there one poem that stands out for you and if so why?

Elizabeth: Your question made me laugh. My answer changes daily! The technical elements of some of my earlier pieces may wobble in places, but I think that all of the stories shared in The Language of Bones are vitally important. That said, the two poems that leave me in emotional knots at readings are the ones that speak most powerfully of people and events too easily forgotten. “Jane” pays homage to an unknown girl, most likely an indentured servant, who died at Jamestown during the “starving time” of 1609-1610. “At Standing Rock” addresses racial and cultural tensions that remain unresolved as Native Americans speak in defense of the lands they hold by treaty.

AmeriCymru: What's next for Elizabeth Spragins? Any new titles, promotional readings in the works?

Elizabeth: I am thrilled to announce that Shanti Arts Publishing just released my second collection of poetry. With No Bridle for the Breeze: Ungrounded Verse explores the spirit and magic of flight through feathers, paired wings, and dreams. These poems are based on the Japanese tanka form. Additional details are available on the publisher’s website: With No Bridle for the Breeze, Elizabeth Spencer Spragins.

With No Bridle for the Breeze, Elizabeth Spencer Spragins

Another collection of my bardic verse, A Walk with Shades and Shadows, is in search of a publisher. Two other volumes are underway. At the moment my writing studio has several disorganized mountains of promising material, as well as drivel.

As for readings, I am in the process of scheduling several local events and hope to finalize details shortly.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Elizabeth: Thank you for taking the time to share your day with me through this interview, and thank you for supporting the beautiful elements of Welsh culture that continue to enrich the fabric of our collective heritage. Special thanks to you, Ceri, for inviting me to share my passion for Welsh bardic verse!

Sample Poem from The Language of Bones:

At Standing Rock  (A Rhupunt)

The serpent comes.
Its black blood hums
As venom numbs
The lakes and land.

No treaties hold.
The white men sold
Their word for gold
Before they manned

The hungry drill
That pierced Black Hill.
Soon oil will fill
The veins law banned.

They tunneled deep—
Black bile will seep
Where old bones sleep
In sacred sand.

At death, at birth,
Red feet kiss earth.
Her life is worth
The flames we fanned

At Standing Rock.
Our bodies block
The fangs that lock
On Mother’s hand.

Our home we hold
Despite the cold.
We will not fold
On rocks that stand.

~Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota

First published in America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience. San Francisco, CA: Sixteen Rivers Press, 2018. 95. Print.

Notes:  
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 recognized the sovereignty of the Lakota Sioux over the Great Plains “as long as the river flows and the eagle flies.” The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 prohibited white settlement in the Black Hills for all time, but the subsequent discovery of gold generated an influx of miners who violated the treaty with impunity.

The Lakota protested construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the grounds that the project would contaminate their sole source of drinking water and disrupt their sacred lands. The completed pipeline passes under the Missouri River less than one mile upstream of the Standing Rock Reservation.