[Maggie Porter]

Hmm. As usual. I must comment, all the usual in there (very well done but still, the usual) sorts of truffles and all that the Empire has to offer in terms of how sentimental we can all be sometimes.

It is a poem I'd read once, like it, not remember it very well in terms of wanting to refer to it later in my own work. In that, it is repeating the same old line and we do have so many of those!

But incredibly well written.

[grasshopper]

This has a quality of timelessness, which I've remarked on before in this author's work. It rests so solidly on a tradition of British poetry that it could have been written a century or more ago--yet it is also entirely contemporary. This is not easy to pull off, without slipping into the stiff or stilted.
There is an air of gentle self-deprecation which makes the poem so engaging for me, signalled from the start by the small boy perching by his 'friend'. A lovely piece, full of warmth and humanity. One of my favourites in this thread.
Regards, Maz

[David Anthony]

I’m very grateful to Rhina and all of you for your generous and insightful comments. I’m honoured, and surprised, that Rhina chose this one.

Rhina, your understanding of my poem is exact, and you have explained it better than I could.

Terese, I’m fascinated that you detect the idea of reincarnation. Was it the ‘kindred spirits’?

Tim, yes, there’s an echo of ‘My Back Pages’. Dylan wrote it when young, and his theme is the certainty of youth, diminishing with age, I believe; but I like to think that he also was considering the circularity of time.

Susan, I take your point about Maentwrog (‘Mine/too/rog’), but thought it essential to have specific location. Hopefully, most readers of a fairly regular poem would just assume a metrical pronunciation.

Many thanks again to all of you.

Best wishes,
David

[Deborah Warren]

I'm only now reading these entries, and I'm completely smitten by this sonnet of David's. What a great poem!

[Terese Coe]

Hi David

I hadn't seen your question to me before today. Late reply:

Partially that, and the easy shift from "I" to "we," as well as "our remembered refuge" and "my village and the Moelwyns look the same." The entire poem, really.

No one would entirely know whether the village and the Moelwyns looked the same unless he'd been there before. Some houses may have disappeared, the forest or lack thereof could have changed, and so on. So the reader is left with a magical impression, at least if that mystery is allowed to work.

Holiday cheers!

Terese