Bright Young Things: Ten of the Best

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Casgliad o farddoniaeth Saesneg pum bardd cyfoes, sef Siôn Tomos Owen, M. A. Oliver, Anna Lewis, Alan Kellermann a Mab Jones, yn arddangos ar ei orau ysgrifennu amrywiol a dychmygus beirdd ifanc disgleiriaf Cymru heddiw.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

A collection of the poetry of five contemporary poets, namely Siôn Tomos Owen, M. A. Oliver, Anna Lewis, Alan Kellermann and Mab Jones, illustrating the diverse and innovative writing of the brightest young poets in Wales today.

Dosbarthu

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Dispatch

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Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

As part of Parthian’s Bright Young Things series, this collection of poetry is selected from the works of five young poets from Wales. The poets’ voices are current, varied and compelling, and the collection delivers an interesting representation of both the personal and political experiences of young people in Wales. Siôn Tomos Owen is rebellious in his approach and particularly masculine in his style. His poems convey a vehement distrust of the current government and a resistance to the self-serving values it upholds. He compares the capitalist exploitation of today’s workforce to violent sexual abuse, emphasising the resultant sense of futility suffered by a cynical and unemployed youth. Organised religion and moral conformity feature as that which limits autonomy and opportunity. Through his poems, Owen attempts to ‘shrug this feeling’ that ‘we’re perpetually sinking’. Similarly, M. A. Oliver is suspicious of, and disillusioned by, the hypocrisy of a morally corrupt and ignorant society. Oliver’s tone is often self-deprecating and humorous. ‘Men’s Room Etiquette’ is a witty observation of male social behaviour, while ‘I Took a Trip to the Job Centre’ reveals the somewhat laughable options available to those seeking employment today. Equally capable of a more sensitive approach, however, Oliver conveys loneliness and longing in poems such as ‘Hedgehog’ and ‘Don’t Mention Rosie’. He seems concerned with the distance between people – in personal relationships, within communities and across nationalities. In contrast to some of the other poets, Anna Lewis’s poems tend to confront the timeless and universal. She explores questions about desire and identity by drawing upon history, myth and literature. Six of her poems are based on the Welsh medieval texts of the Mabinogion. The poet, and her audience, is better able to understand present-day experiences when related to those of another time and place. For Lewis, meaning is found in the re-imagining of stories. Memory and denial are also explored in the context of human relationships and psyche. Alan Kellermann’s poetry is heavily influenced by modern art, specifically that of Tony Goble and Marc Chagall. However, his poems are not merely descriptive representations of other people’s visual art. Rather, the poems are imaginative departures inspired by these vibrant images. The poems are dream-like, fantastical and romantic. Kellermann’s style is rich in symbolism and colourful imagery, and his use of the recurrent theme of alcohol contributes to his portrayal of the intoxicating headiness of sexual and romantic encounters. Mab Jones explores the physical, emotional and psychological developments of the feminine subject. Her poems depict arrivals at self-awareness about possible destinations of femininity today – how they are experienced internally, how they are perceived by others and the frequent discrepancies between the two. Social expectations imposed upon gender are humorously turned on their head in ‘Beautiful Girl’. The female body is a recurrent theme, explored in the context of puberty, sexual exploitation and drug addiction.