Tag Archives: Gareth Writer-Davies

Three Drops from a Cauldron: Issue Eight

25 Friday Nov 2016

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Welcome to Issue Eight of Three Drops from a Cauldron!

It’s beginning to look a lot like… winter around here lately. We’ve got quite a few icy poems this issue, plus wolves, fairies, fairy tales, witches, unlucky rabbits, and even unluckier guinea pigs (in a much different way). Continue reading →

Three Drops from a Cauldron: Issue One

17 Friday Jun 2016

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Welcome to our new format web journal! Issues will be released fortnightly on Fridays, and include ten poems and/or flash fictions each, on our familiar themes of folklore, mythology, legends, and fairy tales.

Continue reading →

The Ghillie by Gareth Writer-Davies

18 Wednesday Nov 2015

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The Ghillie

between wakefulness and sleep
there is time

to slumber
like a beast

or stir yourself
get up
like a worthy man of wood

shooters
ducks savaged in the reeds

are fine subjects for the dream state

the reprobate
who even as he wakes

thinks not of a lover
but of his dogs

and like a sentimental creature
turns the key in the lock

salty flesh and bones
those kisses
hounds famously steal from pheasants

that came
because he dreamt them so
on feather bed
afternoons

the stalkers returned
with a sack of meat and a desire for more

 
Gareth Writer-Davies was Commended in the Prole Laureate Competition in 2015 and Specially Commended in the Welsh Open Competition, Shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2013 and 2012. His pamphlet “Bodies”, was published this year through Indigo Dreams. Find him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/gareth.writerdavies & Bodies is available here: www.indigodreamsbookshop.com/#/gareth-writer-davies/4587920255

Sleeping Beauty by Gareth Writer-Davies

14 Wednesday Oct 2015

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Sleeping Beauty
(Perceforest)

if you were expecting a giant
or a beast
then I apologise

but the princess is always woken by the hero’s kiss

when you pricked
your finger on that needle
the whole world went to sleep

and although your mattress is soft and deep
the grim story of your life
must of course reach a fabulous conclusion

beauty you have been dreaming
the thorn of the rose
tight in your skin

and it would be strange indeed
if wolves did not run through the rapture of your dreams

I am here my love
to release you from the evils of the forest

the child that cries in your arms
is the cautionary consequence of your coma

 

*first published in Twice Upon a Time Anthology (Kind of a Hurricane Press)

Gareth Writer-Davies was Commended in the Prole Laureate Competition in 2015, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2013 and 2012. His pamphlet “Bodies”, was published this year and is now available through Indigo Dreams.

Your Father Said by Gareth Writer-Davies

19 Saturday Sep 2015

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Your Father Said

That if you dawdled on the bridge
The Teg would come for you

Turn you into one of them

You meet your lover
On the green side of the bridge

The cold stone soberness
Of boots
Not what you expected from a cariad

The water chases fish around the rocks

And the girl waiting on the other side
Scowls at his nerve

Your Father said
That God was a gentleman

And easy to forgive
But if you dally on that bridge

You sit on the keystone of the span
Watching fish chase hooks

Bewitched by the rush of the river below

 

Gareth Writer-Davies was Commended in the Prole Laureate Competition in 2015, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2013 and 2012. His pamphlet “Bodies”, was published this year and is now available through Indigo Dreams.

The Last Days of Welei by Gareth Writer-Davies

28 Saturday Feb 2015

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The Last Days of Welei*

mars and saturn can be seen
right now
next to the plough
but I can’t be bothered to get out of bed

the fleas in the straw
are playing
ambush
counter-attack

for over a year
the cock hasn’t crowed
the priest
is on a trip to Rome

our landlords
the soldiers of the cross
do not forget their tithe
any moment
they expect Saladin and his hordes
to come over the hill

this village
is like a depression
made by a giant’s arse
the houses snivel
and do not fight back

I have saved a penny or two
and buried them in a pot
to what purpose
I could not say
but I know
that these are the last days
and my meaning
is a matter
only for educated men

(*abandoned village above Hitchin)

 

Gareth Writer-Davies was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2012 and 2013. He is having his pamphlet “Bodies” published by Indigo Dreams in 2015.

Lens on the Landscape by Gareth Writer-Davies

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

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Lens on the Landscape

there was a time
when a camera
set upon a tripod

was sufficient to attract a small crowd

the men from the television
and the pretty girl who took notes
stared at the sky
like astronomers

then had a smoke

when the sun came out
the lens moved slowly
across the mountains and lake

then they packed up
disappeared over Pen y Garn
taking the weather with them

that night
we were there on the television
in black and white

a voice
telling us all there was to know about sheep

we took this as Gospel
relished the day that the stars had come to our village

thereafter
and by the grace of God
the grass was a remarkable shade of green

 

Gareth Writer-Davies was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2012 and 2013. He is having his pamphlet “Bodies” published by Indigo Dreams in 2015.

The Palace Garden by Gareth Writer-Davies

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

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The Palace Garden

each night
the Royal Astronomer
captures the moon in a white sheet

rubs oil of orris
between his toes
and sets to his studies

he knows the mons
has measured the depth
of the lunar seas

he coughs
precisely at three o’clock
star dust

another
at six o’clock
rattles the lotus flowers

he thinks
the field of pumpkins are laughing
at his impertinence

but next year
his lips sewn tight
he will sail to the dark side of the moon

 

 

Gareth Writer-Davies was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2012 and 2013. He is having his pamphlet “Bodies” published by Indigo Dreams in 2015.