Voices on the Bridge @ClwbyBont Pontypridd Thursday 19th October

Posted on by celfypridd

…

Starts 7.45 pm (doors open 7.30pm)

A glorious night for a rich spread of Poetry, Spoken Word Song and Shadow Puppetry all the way from California!

Rachel Carney is a creative writing tutor and PhD student based in Cardiff. Her poems, reviews and articles have been published in numerous magazines including Poetry Wales, Anthropocene, and Acumen. She won the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition and was voted runner up in the Bangor Poetry Competition in 2021. Two of her poems have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her debut collection Octopus Mind is published by Seren Books.

Reading and performing with Rachel will be – Carol Burns, Sion Tomos Owen, TwistedHeart Puppetwork, Ben Wildsmith, Nick McGaughey, Pete Akinwunmi, Johnny Giles & Rob Cullen.

Voices on the Bridge is hosted by Clwb Y Bont and is a free event!

VoicesontheBridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

Voices on the Bridge@ClwbyBont Pontypridd

So come in from the gloom of Autumn nights for a real spread of Poetry, Spoken Word Song and Shadow Puppetry all the way from California!

Reading and performing will be Rachel Carney, Carol Burns, Sion Tomos Owen, TwistedHeart Puppetwork, Ben Wildsmith, Nick McGaughey, Pete Akinwunmi, Johnny Giles & Rob Cullen.

VoicesontheBridge is hosted by Clwb Y Bont and is a free event!

VoicesontheBridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

VoicesontheBridge – Wednesday, 30th November 2022 @Storyville Books, 8 Mill Street, Pontypridd @cafequarter

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Nicholas McGaughey will be reading his poetry….

Nicholas lives in Pontypridd. He has new work in Bad Lilies/Stand/Lucent Dreaming/The Friday Poem and Spelt Magazine.

Nicholas played Brandon Monk in Pobl y Cwm for 10 years and has had his poetry widely published including most recently in the hit anthology A470.

Writers also reading are Sophie Buchaillard, Abeer Ameer @abeer_ameer77, Susie Wild, Ben Wildsmith, Stephanie McNicholas, Sion Tomos Owen & Rob Cullen.

VoicesontheBridge is hosted by Jeff Baxter @StoryvilleBooks

VoicesontheBridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

All are welcome.

Bridges not walls.

BridgesofPonty

The Power of Denial

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The Power of Denial

Hind Rajab May 3rd, 2018 – 29th January 2024.

Denial of Responsibility. Denial of Knowledge. Complete Denial.

…

Looking pleased with themselves they all stand together

Shaking hands on the podium, reassuring hands-on shoulders

They shake hands again, they smile to the camera

As if they are friends, intimates even, maybe not so far.

…

The voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab pleads

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – Has she been forgotten?

…

Ceasar parades his Prefects, the rulers of the new Empire

Starmer has wrapped himself in the robe of Pontius Pilate.

He sees nothing and has washed his hands, in any case.

Nothing to see, he gives nothing away, his face expressionless.

…

Remember the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab pleading

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – Has she been forgotten?

…

The New Caesar shows the plans for Gaza’s future.

Eighty thousand people were killed and butchered in this place. No matter.

Many bodies have not been found, bones buried under rubble.

Bones that were once children, mothers, fathers and entire families.

…

Remember the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab who pleaded

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – Why can’t you come and get me?

Has she been forgotten? Is her life forgotten?

…

Hegemon Netanyahu says it’s unfair that the Palestinians force

The Israeli army to kill them – they brought it on themselves.

If they didn’t live there in our land, we wouldn’t need to remove them.

No one sees we are being forced by Palestinians to kill them.

….

Victim blaming. Denial of Responsibility. Denial of Knowledge.

Complete Denial. It’s not our fault. They brought it on themselves.

…

Remember the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab who pleaded

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – why can’t you come and get me?

Has she been forgotten? Is her life forgotten? Is she forgotten?

…

Rob Cullen   27/01/2026.

Posted on by celfypridd
May be an image of lighting, fire and candle holder

Three men

…

I will not use your name

I listened when you spoke for so many

you were a child in Auschwitz-Birkenau

you spoke of how you survived

brief references

no details

you spoke of your grief

the overwhelming feeling of numbness

to the brutality

the realisation that death was imminent

every second minute every day

because you were a Jew

the tattooed numbers remained

you became a psychologist

you taught me how to reach

the young who were lost.

…

You have no name

I knew it once

I worked with you in a steelworks

I didn’t understand your accent

your way of speaking

one night shift when we were alone

you explained you were a child in Birkenau

taken there from Belgium

after telling me something of your life

a day or so later you disappeared

no reasons were given or left.

…

You were an old quiet man

I sat with talking quietly over pints of Dark

Stanislaus your father was a baker

and you delivered bread

to the Auschwitz SS garrison

and smuggled what you could

to the Jews facing the risk

on discovery of certain death

After liberation the communists took over.

Brief references, no details of how your fought

and you fled to make a home in this country

late in your life you were honoured

by Poland for your heroism

your humbleness weighing each word

“What choice do you have

You can’t do nothing

so many did they have to live with themselves

and the choices they made”

once for a year you pretended

to be my father

so that we could have free coal

when we had no money coming in.

…

Stanislaus

you died two decades ago

I honour you with your son

and remember our quiet talks still.

…

First published TheBezine

©RobCullen2018

Strangers Light.

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In these times will we light the stranger’s candle?

It’s something that I’ve done

for as long as I’ve had a family.

Lighting a candle in a window

on Christmas Eve

for any stranger walking

home to their own family.

Or maybe a child of my own

making their own journey

in their own lives, in their own way.

–

©robcullen261225

Originally written in 2010.