This page presents some examples of Gareth's poems.
The poems are free for download; copyright remains with Gareth Alun Roberts.
Any feedback would be much appreciated - see Contacts page.
Click on the poem title to open in new page
The poems are free for download; copyright remains with Gareth Alun Roberts.
Any feedback would be much appreciated - see Contacts page.
Click on the poem title to open in new page
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Boots along the prom' (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in my collection, What's Not Wasted (Tawny Owl Press, 2016) Another Aberystwyth in autumn poem; an effectionate homage to the promenade at Aberystwyth, which has seen many a strange passing of boots and other things. This poem is uploaded to the backdrop of Storm Darragh wailing along outside my window and the empty streets and, no doubt, making its own visit to the prom this night. Hydref (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in EGO (January 2023) A prose-poem for autumn in Aberystwyth; probably its most exciting and invigorating season. (Unfortunately, the otters are no longer in the crazy-golf; the crazy-golf has moved to the top of a nearby hill: "Consti" - Ha!) Time's Prayer (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in Poetry Space Spring Showcase (March 2023, Ed Susan Jane Sims) From the sequence The Prayers of Ordinary Things, this is a prayer of time, for time, about time and its losing and loss and ending. Moontide and Driftwood both appear in EGO online magazine, June 2024 edition Wasted (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in Welsh Poetry Competition Anthology, 2011, ed. Dave Lewis A poem of discovery, loss and regret; set in an almost-Aberystwyth of some years ago. Frost (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2023 anthology, January 2023 A poem inspired by the (now demolished) coal-fired power station at Didcot, the little frosty weather that it made for itself; and what manner of snowmen and children could be made of it. Tidelands (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in Orbis International Literary Journal, Orbis #188, Ed. Carol Baldock, 2019 A poem for Aberystwyth, for sons and granddads and for all the seaside towns and what is left when the storms are spent. On the shoulders of giants (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in the September 2020 edition of Acumen, Issue 98, Ed. Patricia Oxley When living in West Berkshire we would occasionally visit The Royal Society for their Summer Science Exhibition, normally held in July each year. Highly recommended. The Tambourine Prayer (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Poetry Space Spring Showcase, March 2022 (ed. Susan Jane Sims) Yet another (and there's more) from the series of 'prayers' under the collected title of The Prayers of Ordinary Things. A Puddle's Prayer (c) Gareth Alun Roberts This poem is another from the series of 'prayers' under the collected title of The Prayers of Ordinary Things. The Rotary Line's Prayer (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in South 63, April 2021 This poem is another from the series of 'prayers' under the collected title of The Prayers of Ordinary Things. Bait (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Poetry Space 2020 This poem was commended in the Poetry Space Competition 2020 (judged by Bobby Parker). The summit of all the weathers (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in the Poetry Space Winter Showcase 2020, Guest Ed. Ann Preston This poem was written after climbing Goat Fell on the Isle of Arran... however, climbing any hill, especially in challenging conditions, is as much about discovering one's self than 'conquering' any given lump of geography. Loch More (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in the September 2020 edition of Acumen, Issue 98, Ed. Patricia Oxley Loch More is a small loch in the hinterland of the Flow Country of Caithness, in the heart of the MAMBA (miles and miles of bugger all). It's one of my favourite places. When the words are leaving (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in Orbis International Literary Journal, Orbis #188, Ed. Carol Baldock, 2019 In 1865 a number of emigrants left their homes in North Wales to start a new life, a 'new Wales' in the then un-tamed Chubut valley region of Patagonia. These were the first of several emigrations of Welsh families to Patagonia over the following two decades. Y Wladfa: 'the colonists'. One of the prime motivations was a desire to preserve the Welsh culture and especially language from the perceived encroachment and overbearance of English. The Welsh language and cultural traditions still persist in Patagonia to this day. Many families would have been sundered by this emigration, including my own great-great-grandmother, who stayed behind in Wales when her father and siblings left, forever, sailing across the oceans to the far side of the world. On Pen Dinas (c) Gareth Alun Roberts Pen Dinas is a coastal hill to the south of Aberystwyth. When walking there a little while ago a badger shuffled out in front of us and waddled a little way down the path before disappearing again into the undergrowth. This was in broad daylight but, for the purpose of this poem, I have translocated the setting to moonlight. The poem references Paul Verlaine's 'Clair de lune'; and I suggest reading it to an appropiate accompaniment: this is a link to David Oistrakh's renditon of Debussy's Clare de lune. Something about holes (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Ware Poetry Competition Anthology, 2013 Since late 2021 I have been a part-time volunteer with the Ceredigion Rights of Way Volunteers, which mostly consists of digging holes (for gate posts, fence posts, foot-bridge supports etc). Some years ago, in a moment of prescience, I wrote something about holes, which was awarded 3rd prize in the Ware Poets 15th competition. Nihilist (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Poetry Space 2020 This poem was awarded 2nd place in the Poetry Space Competition 2020 (judged by Bobby Parker). This poem was first conceived on the streets of London following an encounter with an unfortunate individual who was clearly fighting a terrible and losing battle with a host of dragons and demons and a world that only he could see. Some stories don't grow old... Cariad (c) Gareth Alun Roberts A poem written for my Taid (grandfather) and memories of childhood summer holidays spent with him and Nain (grandmother) in Llanbadarn Fawr, Aberystwyth. This poem is published in Allegro Poetry Magazine Issue 28, March 2022, Editor Sally Long. Note: click on the poem title to be directed to the Allegro website. The Tambourine Prayer (c) Gareth Alun Roberts This poem is from a series of poems with the collective title of 'The Prayers of Ordinary Things'. This poem is written as (psuedo) stream of conciousness celebration blending sound, light, memory and emotion. It was inspired from the print on a tambour I have which might have come from Morocco or Egypt or somewhere else sandy and passionate. This poem is published in Poetry Space Spring Showcase, March 2022, Editor Susan Jane Sims. Note: click on the poem title to be directed to the Poetry Space website. Eyes of Dust and Dublin (c) Gareth Alun Roberts A few days spent in Dublin from some years ago, before hitch-hiking out west to Galway and Connemara. Moontide (c) Gareth Alun Roberts Just a short poem, printed below. This is primarily an exercise in developing an audio version of the poem with soundscape; the audio version can be heard on soundcloud (click on the title or paste this address into your browser https://soundcloud.com/gareth-roberts-6085704/moontide-1 ) This is best listened to by use of stereo headphones. Moontide I will sail the moontide beyond the silvered sea horizon-wide and glimmering stars declined enough that I might wear them as jewels for my fingers on out-stretched hands Corposant (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in the anthology of The Welsh Poetry Competition - The First Five Years, Ed. Dave Lewis, 2011 A poem for autumnal shorelines, wild winds and crashing waves; for lost love and footprints. And the wilder spirits that find some aweful harmony among such discordance. The poem is set in Clachtol, a seabord hamlet on the western coast of Cape Wrath. The title is an old maritime term derived from Portuguese (corpo-santo), and is an alternative name for "St Elmo's Fire", sometimes witnessed as a bluely glowing corona around a ship's masts and rigging during a thunderstorm. Weeping from the King's Wood (c) Gareth Alun Roberts, first published in Orbis International Literary Journal, Orbis #188, Ed. Carol Baldock, 2019 Written after getting lost in Coed y Brenin (the King's Wood), just to the north of Dolgellau: the forest has many well-signposted biking and hiking trails, but I thought that I'd follow my instincts instead: that was a mistake. (To be fair, the official National Resources Wales website for Coed y Brenin does explicitly warn about not going off the trails.) I suggest that a reading of this poem is best accompanied by some traditional Welsh harp music: this is a YouTube link to Elin Lloyd's recording of Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn, 2020. Lake Vyrnwy (c) Gareth Alun Roberts Lake Vyrnwy (Llyn Efyrnwy) is a reservoir in North Wales, constructed in 1888. The village of Llanwddyn was demolished and flooded in the process, the villagers being forcibly relocated to a newly built village a few miles away. They left behind a church, two chapels, three inns, ten farms and 37 homes. The area is now a nature reserve. Poem For A Croft On The Casseymire (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Caithness Views, 1993 This poem is set on the Casseymire (the causeway on the mire): a lonely stretch of road that skirts the edge of the flow country in Caithness and Sutherland. A landscape of bog and huge skies, affectionately described as the Mamba (miles and miles of bugger all). Once I saw a wildcat loping across the road here. A few abandoned and derelict croft houses still dot this landscape, their empty windows and doorways gazing out on a vista of the in-finite. The Mobile Phone's Prayer (c) Gareth Alun Roberts This poem is one of a series of 'prayers' under the collected title of The Prayers of Ordinary Things. Tumble Birds (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Envoi, vol 107, ed. Roger Elkin (1994). One of my first published poems, set in Caithness. Tumble-birds (aka lapwings or pee-wits) are possibly my favourite birds; their call was the sound of summer across field and moor-land of northern Scotland. I spent many hours watching their acrobatics. Unfortunately it is a long time since I last saw and heard the tumble birds. The RSPB reports that their populations have declined by about 30% to 50% over the last 30 years, largely due to changes and intensification of land use for agriculture. Another quiet little tragedy. Kelpie (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Acumen Literary Journal, vol 92, ed. Patricia Oxley, Acumen Publications (2018). The Kelpie is a shape-shifting water demon inhabiting the rivers and streams of the Highlands. A YouTube recording of the poem is available here. Hoar Fox (c) Gareth Alun Roberts; first published in Ver Poets Anthology (2010) Another autumnal poem, this one from further inland when the frostful nights clothe the Berkshire downs in their most austere but, perhaps, most beautiful finery. The setting for the poem is Skinner's Green on the south side of Newbury, site of a bloody civil-war battlefield. Songs from the cold seas (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2020 Autumn has come. On land the trees have changed their colour; at sea it is its temper and timbre that has changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty is born (apologies to WBY). This poem is also on YouTube with sound effects (wooh) here time spent in graveyards (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2020 This poem is written for my favourite graveyard which, until recently, featured on my daily walk into town. This was especially poignant duirng the Covid lockdown, when all the enforced silences seemed to amalgamate or pilgrimate to this little graveyard for their absolution and cleansing, or maybe to acquire the wisdom of how to be a better silence. Boots for Stars first published in What's Not Wasted, 2016 (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 This prose poem is written as a re-imagination (not quite parody) of TS Eliot's Journey of the Magi: you can hear Eliot reading the original here. In Boots for Stars the narrative is from the perspective of a refugee, still echoing the alientaion experienced by Eliot's magi. This 2017 film by UNHCR provides an optimistic outlook that it doesn't have to be this way (although, depressingly, in 2020 this still seems to be overly optimistic). Boulevards first published in Envio 107: 1994 (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 1994 A blast from the past. There was a time when cities were mostly roads and streets and alleyways... and then boulevards started to creep in. I never quite got the hang of boulevards, so I left ... or was left, or whatever. I think a little piece of Charlie Parker would be fitting for this poem. Vienna first published in Ware Poetry Competition Anthology: 2010 (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2008 This is the last poem (chronologically) of a sequence of four poems set in European cities; the first, Bucharest, was published in What's Not Wasted, 2016; the second, Bareclona, is currently out in the world; the third, Paris, is still trying to nudge its way onto the page. I suggest a suitable musical accompaniment to Vienna would be Mozart's "dissonance" quartet KV 465. This link is to the second movement perfomed by The Alliance Quartett Wien. Covidiad (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2020 This poem imagines the epic voyage of a virus crowned and fated by the gods to wander the many sundered seas and coasts until a land is reached upon which it can build itself a lasting empire, from which the whole of the known world will fall within its sway. The poem includes many direct and oblique references to Virgil's The Aenied. One would hope that this is mere poetry and not a prophecy. The structure of the poem is somewhat disjointed and, as yet, not finally resolved: it is written in sonnet form, using classic Italian/Shakespearean rhyme patterns, but the meter is more extended than the normal iambic pentameter; in this case the lines are written in a heptameter form, with an attempt (not fully realised) to use iambic stresses for the first part of a line, followed by (more languid) pyrrhic stresses for the second part of a line. The intent is to draw-out and weaken the ending of the lines - in a crass attempt to mimic the struggling breaths of those that suffer from this virus. Estuary first published in Welsh Poetry Competition; The first five years - 2007 - 2011; Ed. Dave Lewis (Ponty Press, 2011) (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2010 This poem is set in the valley of the Taff river, as it nudges itself out of the hills through the city and out to the sea, where now is Cardiff Bay and ice-creams but once was mud and tides and goings aways and comings back and history. History is what we carry with us, not what is left behind; it is what we choose to carry with us: how we clothe ourselves, the baggage and all the other cluttered encumbrances we call culture, identity. This diverse luggage of culture, of history need not necessarily possess any coherence of itself, the thread that binds it is woven of us. This poem has various diverse allusions to its subject and theme; the thread that binds them is the poem. The castle referenced in the poem is Castell Morgraig, a little known ruined castle on the hills to the north of Cardiff. There is some disputation as to who built this castle, whether it was ever finished and occupied, even if at one time it was the setting of a desparate last stand of the Welsh forces of Senghennydd against the invading anglo-normans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgraig_Castle Wings first published in Envoi (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 1994 Another poem that wanders down memory lane; this time the lanes are those of far ago, on the northern-most skirts of Cardiff, where lay fields and copses and streams and childhood... all gone, now. The Mill by the Beach first published in From an Upper Room (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2010 This poem was inspired by the beautiful Dunnet beach on the far north coast of Scotland; and is viewed from the vantage point of the ruined Castletown Mill, whose crumbling walls and sagging rafters are perched at the western end of this beach. The mill is fenced off. It's sign reads - Danger: Keep Out. United Reformed first published in Diamond Facets (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2012 This poem was published as part of West Berkshire Writers' Diamond Facets anthology in 2012, an anthology to commemorate the sixty years of the Queen's reign, with poems and prose related to each tenth year of her reign. This poem celebrates the creation of the United Reformed church in 1972, of which I was - briefly- a member, until I turned my back on the spiritual worlds for the more earthy vistas afforded by the Wenallt hill overlooking Cardiff and the broad sweep of the Bristol Channel... the ships that I imagined sailing in from all corners of the world. Navigator first published in From the Wharf (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2017 This poem was published as part of West Berkshire Writers' From the Wharf anthology in 2017, an anthology inspired by musings on the Kennet and Avon canal, which runs past the building that hosts the regular weekly meetings of the group. This poem enters the mind, thoughts, hopes and fears of an Irish navvy engaged in the construction of the canal in the eighteeth century. Long Dark first published in Diamond Facets (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2012 This poem was published as part of West Berkshire Writers' Diamond Facets anthology in 2012, an anthology to commemorate the sixty years of the Queen's reign, with poems and prose related to each tenth year of her reign. This poem alludes to the closure of Longannet mine in Fife, the last deep coal mine in Scotland. However, this poem is not intended to be explicity nor specifically related to this event, but to darkness itself, the paths through darkness; and what lies beyond. Stranger among the tombstones first published in Autumn Moods (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 This poem reflects upon the musings of a stranger as he wanders among the tombstones on a moonlit night: he is a stranger to me, to the grave and to himself. Hurricane first published in Diamond Facets (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2012 This poem was published as part of West Berkshire Writers' Diamond Facets anthology in 2012 - see Cauldron, below. It alludes to the test explosion of Britain's first atomic bomb in 1952 - the first year of Queen Elizabeth the Last's reign - in the midst of a small group of barren (and yet more barren still) islands off the north west coast of Australia. This test explosion was code-named 'Operation Hurricane'; and proved to the world that if Britannia could no longer rule the waves it could, at least, vapourize them. Diamond Mining I was born and raised in Cardiff. One of my very earliest memories was of grainy black and white TV footage recording the aftermath of the Aberfan tragedy in 1966. Those images stay with me. Seen here in the 50-year commemoration on YouTube. Cuba Libre first published in Now We Are Sixteen, West Berkshire Writers Anthology, 2015, Published by Tawny Owl Press This is a sequence of eight poems exploring different perspectives of - and influenced by - the island of Cuba, as experienced in 2014. Cauldron first published in Diamond Facets (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2012 This poem was included with Diamond Facets, a compilation of poetry and prose from members of West Berkshire Writers group, published to be coincidental with the Queen's diamond jubilee. The concept of the collection is to feature writing with relevance or reference to each decade of the Queen's reign. Cauldron commemorates the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson in 1962. The poem itself is a construction from various references, which have extended co-relevance. It is reputed that the title was inspired by Keats' poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci: I have used this poem as template for the structure and flow of Cauldron. The concept of a season of spring that has somehow been deflowered also alludes to The Waste Land by T S Eliot; I have borrowed extensively from the language and vocabulary of this poem. There are also echoes from a much earlier poem - The Spoils of Annwn, by Taliesin - in which Arthur retrieves a magical cauldron from the faery kingdom of Annwn, which has the property of bringing fallen warriors back from the dead... but in doing so there is something missing or wrong in their fundamental life-force: a flawed re-birth. This poem further references the mythic Welsh/British hero, Bendigeidfran, who retrieved such a magical cauldron in a battle in Ireland, but was himself slain in the battle: his head - which wouldn't stop talking - was borne home to the mountains of Wales. The cauldron in Cauldron then started to develop a life - rebirth? - of its own, and started to resemble a womb... but at that point I though it prudent to stop and clamber out of the cauldron before I got too deep. Tiger Bay first published in Autumn Moods (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 Cardiff born and Cardiff bred, and when I dies I'll be Cardiff dead... a poem for my childhood in black and white and the incongruity of floating iron, beaten into rust and dreams of sea-further adventures that stretched out to all ports of the globe, and back to Tiger Bay... when Tiger Bay still was. This poem is available as an audio-visual version on YouTube. Honeysuckle Evening first published in What's Not Wasted (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 A simple little poem about drinking red wine in my back garden as a summer evening slips away. Also on YouTube, read by Christine Copeland with some suitably wine-languid guitaring in the background. After the Flood: Aberdyfi first published in Autumn Moods (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 Notes on 'After the Flood: Aberdyfi': Aberdyfi is a small town on the north-west coast of Wales. The last time I visited the area it was winter and just after a storm had left the low lands around the estuary flooded. The town was quiet, stunned ; as if exhausted by the passing tempest, gasping for a breath and trying to gather its thoughts of what now? what next? The hills, crowding round, brooding as if they were useless gods powerless to help the town drag itself back again to its knees, rising from the beach and the wasting of the waves to find itself a future - again; as before, and so many times again before. Stories have it that many years ago the ancient Welsh lands of Cantre'r Gwaelod were lost beneath the waves of Cardigan Bay; and that when the tides and waves and winds are right, then the bells of the chapels of the lost land can be heard from the beach at Aberdyfi. And this is also the place where the ancient bard, Taliesin, was discovered in his third birthing as babe found caught in the salmon nets strung across the mouth of the estuary that finds the sea at Aberdyfi. Aberdyfi: a lost and found place; an ending and beginning of a place, and the grey spaces in between. At Sandwood Bay first published in What's Not Wasted (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 Notes on 'At Sandwood Bay': Sandwood Bay lies on the western coast of Cape Wrath in Scotland's far North West. It is possibly my favourite beach, although not an easy beach to get to: after a few miles drive along a single track road north of Kinlochbervie there is then a 4 mile walk across peat bog, skirting a few lochans along the way, until at last the beach opens up in front of you to reveal all the wild and ragged edge of the Atlantic Ocean. This is an opera of a landscape. It is impossible to resist the urge not to sing out as loud as you can - none but the winds and gulls can hear you. It is possibly now become more popular but when I first visited - some twenty years ago - mine were the only footprints on the whole wide expanse of the beach. As well as the breath-taking landscape and the often genuinely breath-taking winds of its weathers, the beach has a lagoon behind an impressive sweep of dunes; the stumps of some worn-down stacks right in its heart; and a haunted cottage. Mary Rose
first published in Diamond Facets (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2012 Notes on 'Mary Rose': The Mary Rose was lifted from the waters of the Solent in 1982, after thirty years of active service as a naval warship, then 500 years in the bosom of the mud; and now a thing of museum and purrey folk-lore: an analytic. If I were Mary I think I'd be missing the mud. This poem was specifically written for the West Berkshire Writers 2012 anthology 'Diamond Facets', which features poetry and prose with relevance to each decade of the Queen's reign. Ghost Ship first published in National Poetry Anthology, United Press Ltd, 2004 (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2004 Notes on 'Ghost Ship': This poem was first drafted in the 1990s. I suggest reading it to the accompaniment of Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian (the opening music from 'The Onedin Line', BBC). Colourstruck first published in From an Upper Room, West Berkshire Writers Anthology, 2010 (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2010 Notes on 'Colourstruck': I don't believe that the art of painting has ever surpassed the more expressive colour-scapes achieved by Turner, of which The Fighting Temeraire is one of his best examples. Terra Nova first published in What's Not Wasted (c) Gareth Alun Roberts 2016 Notes on 'Terra Nova': In the Antarctic winter of 1911 three men of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition attempted a journey of 120 miles, man-hauling their sleds across the Ross Ice Shelf to recover an egg of the emperor penguin for scientific study. One of these men, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, later wrote about this as ‘The worst journey in the world’. Terra Nova has now been published in audio-visual format on You Tube: click here. |
