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May 8th, 2020
This poem is accompanied by two short improvisations by jazz pianist Robert Mitchell. You can listen to them below, available by kind permission from the musician © R.Mitchell/Bucks Music Group “Is May The Month Of Poppies” “In Kingston, they were buds that ran through May rain”
How Poetry (and Semi-Rural South Wales) Saved Me
Poet and teacher Marvin Thompson was born in north London to Jamaican parents and now teaches English in mountainous south Wales. Here he describes coming to terms with this transition and the inevitable feelings of isolation and otherness, explaining how poetry helped him to explore the intersectionality of these experiences and his pride in his…
2. The one in which I drive through Crumlin wondering where the cigarette-razed crisp factory used to be
Despite its tileless roof and its weeds, there is an iridescence to Crumlin’s crumbling colliery. Except, this morning as I cruise beyond its towering chimney, I imagine its bruising underworld – the scent of dust and sweat silenced like this valley’s churches. I change gear as if in the presence of ghosts. In her Grenfell…