It’s always a pleasure to welcome members from the Gwynedd Writing Squad to Tŷ Newydd. On Saturday 21 April we were joined by Gillian Clarke, former National Poet of Wales for a poetry workshop. Gillian had been staying at Tŷ Newydd the week before whilst she tutored the Poetry Masterclass with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

Gillian asked us all to write about our special box, be that anything we wanted it to be. Here’s a poem by Swyn Prysor:

My Box

My box is made of metal

The cold case protecting like a petal

A glass front with a crack through the middle

Telling a story from a greater day.

In my box there is a brain, bigger than any humans,

Storing my life within four walls

Ant the four lines telling me I’m connected

Whispering that I’m safely social.

I plug the life into it,

Waiting for a mountain of colour in the darkness,

Wishing for a ping from my friends

Where they sit at the next wall.

I rack through my memories

And find the one,

Of a trip to the leaves,

Captured forever in our special brains.

A friend swinging on a branch

A dog barking at nothing

A crow croaking in the distance

And laughter of careless teens on a peak..

And finally a ping.