Welcome back to The Book Bag. Last week, I enjoyed Damien B. Donnelly’s Back From Away.
This week, I’ve submitted a poem to the Starbeck Orion #NotAdvent edition (accepting submissions until 16th December 2024 on departure, disappearance, abandonment, withdrawal, exodus, evacuation, absence, Extinction Event. submit – you know you want to, details here), done some Christmas shopping, made a delicious fruitcake and got valuable feedback on my writing plans. Among all that I’ve been reading;
The Keeper of Aeons
- Author: Matthew M.C. Smith
- Press: Broken Spine
I’ll start by saying that Matthew is a huge figure in the poetry community. He is a publisher extraordinaire through Black Bough Poetry and the architect of Top Tweet Tuesday on Twitter/X, where a community of poets can share poetry and receive weekly feedback from guest hosts and peers.
He is also a workshop facilitator, a campaigner to return The Red Lady of Paviland and Paviland relics to Swansea, an open mic host, a Poetry Party organiser, a mentor, an editor, and, most importantly of all, a genuinely top man who celebrates others’ successes and encourages people to do well. He is one of the people who have had a positive influence on my poetry for which I’m truly grateful.
The Keeper of Aeons takes the reader through space, time, myth, pop culture, the marvel of Welsh landscapes and beyond. The scale of the collection is introduced immediately in the poem ‘Astronaut’ followed by ‘Aeons’ in which past, present and future clash in marvellous sensory descriptions.
As an advocate for imagism through Top Tweet Tuesday and Black Bough Poetry, it is unsurprising that Wales’s vivid, rugged and sometimes dark landscapes are described in such incredible detail. Poems and prose including Mynydd Drummau / Drummau Mountain, ‘Henrhyd Falls / Annwn’ and ‘Sweyne’s Howes’ treat us to explorations of glorious places.
We are treated to nostalgia in ‘Fixing the Hyperdrive’, a piece that pulls us into the family home and the receipt of a Millennium Falcon. References to parma violets (the most underrated sweet there is) the newsreaders of the era, and obviously a catalogue of Star Wars characters, but the star of the poem is undoubtedly Uncle David.
The romantic in me admires the inclusion of some exceptional love poetry, notably in ‘Ancient Navigations’ a poem that guides the reader on a road trip around the countryside, and ‘Reunion’, a poem about Penelope and Odysseus reuniting (The Odyssey is my favourite of the epic poems).
In the poem Towards Night: from The Space Station, the question of human progress being too rapid and the potential aftereffects. Again, razor-sharp imagery and language throughout.
Buy this collection. It’s visceral, thought-provoking, philosophical and clever. Also, it depicts Wales so beautifully and the next time I visit, I’ll have an itinerary as long as my arm. You could describe Matthew as the twenty-first-century RS Thomas.
Favorite Poem:
Reunion. Followed by Ancient Navigations, then The Blue Hour.
One More Thing…
I’ve already mentioned Matthew is a campaigner for returning the Red Lady of Paviland to Wales. More information on this campaign can be found here; https://x.com/PavilandFutures and the illustrated pamphlet Paviland: Ice and Fire (currently on sale at a reduced price) can be found here; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paviland-Ice-Fire-Matthew-Smith/dp/B0BRSG6ZLF
And Another…
As stated earlier, Matthew is also the man behind Black Bough Poetry. You can learn more about him and Black Bough here; https://www.blackboughpoetry.com/
And Finally…
If you’re free on Thursday 12th December 2024, the super-talented Louise Longson is hosting a poetry event on Zoom. Called Human / Nature, the poems explore a sense of place and space. I am one of the readers alongside a stellar array of poets and tickets can be snapped up on the following link for free: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/human-nature-poetry-readings-exploring-a-sense-of-place-and-space-tickets-1094310144099
The Book Bag will be closed for the next few weeks but don’t fear it will return on 5th January 2025. Thank you for delving into The Book Bag with me in 2024.
Drop a comment and let me know what you’re reading plans over Christmas. I’ll be reading the Black Bough Christmas/Winter Anthology, and this book from Hedgehog Poetry Press which I’m in.
Take it easy, stay poetic and have a very merry Christmas,
Paul
Paul Writes Poems 