Month: October 2023

fotocreditrobcullen.

….

A premonition of merciful peace has emerged

In the morning of this day.

And as if in agreement

Your hand opens to the waves.

In a movement of gratitude,

A moment of quiet acceptance.

I have heard you sing

To the waves crests,

Rise, rise from your depths

Rid me of all pain

I am alone wash over me.

…

In this bright early hour

You are at once transformed.

Peace adorns you,

Rests on your face.

I have seen you whisper

To the open sky

Touch me, cleanse me

Rid me of all fear.

I am alone wash over me.

…

Your hair hangs tangled

Stiffly on your eyes,

Green-water droplets

Trickle to your lips.

Your fingers grasp

The waters edge.

The shoreline pierces you,

Welcomes you, calls to you.

I am alone wash over me.

…

And you lying unseen

A curved silken spine

Broken by spite

The savagery of indifference

And the brutality

Of unmourned death

Move without moving.

Knowing nothing, knowing nothing

In your quiet sadness.

I am alone wash over me.

…

I’ve heard you sing

To the waves crests’

Rise from your depths

Rise from your submerged stillness.

I’ve heard you sing

To the open sky,

Touch me, cleanse me,

Rid me of all pain,

Rid me of all fear.

I am alone wash over me.

….

Your mother cries for you in her silence

And mourns for another in her isolation.                        

I am alone wash over me.                                              ©robcullen18^th May 1980.

…

Published 2016 Uncertain Times Rob Cullen’s first poetry collection.

Performing will be Mike Jenkins, Raine Geoghan, Sophie Buchaillard, Topher Mills, Mary Kaye, Mark MC Smith, Nick McGaughey, Pete Akinwunmi & Rob Cullen.

This is a packed event of first rate poets and not to be missed.

VoicesontheBridge is hosted by ClwbyBont & organised by Rob Cullen.

This is a cracker of a lineup & not to be missed!

@LitWales @PoetryWales @RCT

Voices on the Bridge @ClwbyBont Pontypridd

Starts 7.45 pm (doors open 7.30pm)

Its getting closer! VoicesontheBridge is a great night to hear poets, spoken word and song, music too!

Rob Cullen comes from the Rhondda. Rob attended Bristol, Cardiff, Brighton Art Schools, Cardiff University and lived in New York & Brighton. He eventually returned to live and work in South Wales firstly with Barnardo’s, followed by the Probation Service and as a recognised UK Expert in the Family & Criminal Courts. On retiring in 2013 Rob returned to his arts background & writing. Rob’s collection “Uncertain Times” was published in 2016. He’s been published in numerous online magazines and was a writer for Resistance Poetry in the US. Rob’s work has been published in Red Poets, several Culture Matters anthologies, The Atlanta Poetry Review 2020, poet of the month March 2023 in The Seventh Quarry Swansea International Magazine.

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

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

Voices on the Bridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

…
Starts 7.45 pm (doors open 7.30pm)

Nick McGaughey will be reading his work and bringing with it his very special brand of humour. 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.

Its getting closer! VoicesontheBridge is a great night to hear poets, spoken word and song, music too!

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

Voices on the Bridge is hosted by @ClwbyBont and is a free event!

Voices on the Bridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

You’re all welcome to share this post helps enormously to get the word out there!

Formed in a storm by the breaking of a limb

a time when wolves roamed

now I lie fallen after five hundred years

my time is taken too, like yours.

Fractured and broken sand stone walls sheep folds

the old names have been deleted a pasting over of history

that endless creep and the landscape has lost a sense of itself

I see hear your name in the old place and you haunt us still.

©robcullen29062017 published The Learned Pig.

Voices on the Bridge @ClwbyBont Pontypridd Thursday 19th October
…
Starts 7.45 pm (doors open 7.30pm)
A glorious night for a rich spread of Poetry, Spoken Word & Song!

Johnny Giles Johnny Giles is a radical tour guide, poet, journalism graduate, activist and call centre refugee from Cardiff. An active member of the South Wales arts scene since 2012, Johnny has performed in Edinburgh, Merthyr, Pontypridd, Cardiff, Laugharne, London Swansea and Swindon. His debut pamphlet (Chalk Outlines, Blackheath Books) was released in 2014, a year after he suffered a breakdown midway through his degree. Other publications include CCQ Magazine, Envoi, Culture Matters, Red Poets (forthcoming), The Blackheath Counter Cultural Review and the Frequency House Poetry Slam Anthology. He writes across a range of themes including politics, mental health, social history and war. Since August he has been running a tour in association with the Wallich and Invisible Cities called Poetry Protest and Place following a 9 month stay in temporary accomodation. He now lives in Butetown.

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

Voices on the Bridge is hosted by @ClwbyBont and is a free event!

Voices on the Bridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

Your all welcome to share this post helps enormously to get the word out there!

Starts 7.45 pm (doors open 7.30pm)

In these serious times come relax, listen and enjoy a treat of a night of words – Poetry, Spoken Word Song.

Ben Wildsmith is a singer songwriter from Birmingham who lives in the Rhondda and has performed around the world for the last 30 years. His songs combine folk and blues elements with sharp lyrics and an ironic take on subjects ranging from philosophy to politics, love and loss. He’s a published writer of fiction and a columnist for Nation Cymru. His new album, ‘Damn My Sense of Humour’ will be released in 2023 and his memoir will be published by Calon Books in 2024

Reading and performing with Ben will be – Carole Burns, Rachel Carney, Sion Tomos Owen, 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!

Voices on the Bridge is organised by Rob Cullen.

You are all welcome to share this post helps enormously to get the word out there!

More Bridges Less Walls!

…

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.