At the confluence of two railway lines, two lives come together in this second poetry collection by acclaimed author Llŷr Gwyn Lewis. Emerging from the lockdown period, these quietly powerful poems reflect on the human condition as the author explores the evolving, deepening relationship between a young man and his partner, as they await and then experience the dramatic changes that follow the birth of their son. In a series of often-interwoven extended metaphors, the poet reflects on the family microcosm and on his own, and his son’s, familial and cultural inheritance, his quarrymen forefathers’ skill in fashioning slate with simple manual tools now replaced by the keyboard-bound world of wordsmithing. As new fatherhood coincides with mourning a death in the family, the poet confronts a future where his son, following his own particular path, will face a challenging new world without his parents.
Perfectly married with Dafydd Owain’s striking monochrome designs, these thoughtful poems full of love, wisdom and, above all, honesty are breath-taking at first reading but yield ever richer depths on revisiting them, as the poet confirms his status as one of Wales’s most outstanding younger writers.
LLŶR GWYN LEWIS’ latest prose volume is his collection of stories, Fabula (Y Lolfa, 2017). He won the Prose Stool at the National Eisteddfod’s Gŵyl Amgen in 2020, and is also a member of Y Ffoaduriaid, a a team of poets featured in BBC Radio Cymru’s Talwrn poetry competition , as well as the Bragdy’r Beirdd collective of performance poets.. He published this pamphlet of poems, rhwng dwy lein drên, in June 2020. He lives in Cardiff with Lowri and their son, Math.