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

Posted on by celfypridd

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

Cover up

Posted on by celfypridd

Nineteen ninety-two

he said “I’m thinking of ending it.

Haemophiliac, poisoned with cheap blood.

HIV positive, hooked on heroin.

I’m eighteen years old.

I have no future left.”

…

I still see your mother from time to time.

Always putting on that happy smile,

but she knows me.

I was the one who talked you through it,

and she lets the smile slip.

Sometimes tears fall;

she holds my arm then,

a brief re-assurance of a kind.

…

I still feel the anger,

with this continued deceit.

He was a ten-year-old,

a mascot to the older men,

who’d taken him under their wings.

To reassure him. Telling him they were a team.

But one by one they disappeared.

And he took heroin,

to numb the pain.

His grief, his loss, the uncertainty,

it was easy.

Drugs were everywhere.

It’s the story, behind the story.

So many lives destroyed.

So many dead in so many ways.

….

So when I meet you now,

you smile and nod.

I remember the challenge

you threw.

I look at your eyes

and smile too remembering.

…

But the lies still pile,

each one on top of another,

a mountain of them still grows.

And the cover up?

of the blood scandal?

Gathers.

Continues.

…

©robcullenauthor2018

Voting for war

Posted on by celfypridd

Rob CullenMar 15 So they’ve voted for our safety to go to warAnd the dead are walking the land once moreAnd the dead are standing again at the doorStanding there, looking, waiting once more They were the ones who went before to the warNow they’re standing waiting for the onesGoing where they’ve been so many […]

Voting for war

Supermarket meeting

Posted on by celfypridd

Foto Rob Cullen first published 2016 in “Uncertain Times – Poetry & Photographs” ©RobCullen.

…

I came across her

you

my friend’s wife

his widow

in the supermarket lost isle

with your child

an unexpected meeting

your young daughter smiling

head down.

…

Not knowing what to say

I didn’t say I missed him.

But the emptiness was there.

…

©robcullen02122020.

I

I came across her

you

my friend’s wife

his widow

in the supermarket lost isle

with your child

an unexpected meeting

your young daughter smiling

head down.

Not knowing what to say

I didn’t say I missed him.

But the emptiness is there.

©robcullen02122020.