Love From Wales - An Anthology

Love from Wales – An Anthology (2008) edited by Tony Curtis
Publisher: Poetry Wales Press
ISBN: 9781854110671
Condition: Good

Some countries export coal. Some export steel. Wales, meanwhile, has spent a considerable portion of its history exporting poetry, singing and complicated emotions about mountains.

Love from Wales – An Anthology, edited by Tony Curtis, gathers together a rich collection of Welsh poetry united by that most troublesome of subjects: love. Not the straightforward, convenient sort of love that appears in greeting cards and romantic comedies, but the far more interesting variety that inspires poems, songs, arguments, longing, heartbreak and the occasional existential crisis.

Published in 2008 by Poetry Wales Press, this anthology explores love in its many forms. Romantic love, familial love, lost love, impossible love, remembered love and the kind of love that only seems sensible after several hours of reflection and perhaps a modest quantity of Welsh ale. The result is a literary landscape every bit as varied as the country itself.

Tony Curtis, one of Wales’s most respected poets and editors, has assembled voices from across generations, creating a collection that showcases both the richness of Welsh poetry and humanity’s remarkable inability to stop writing about its feelings. Civilisations rise and fall, technologies transform the world and yet poets remain steadfastly committed to describing the complications of the human heart.

What makes this anthology particularly enjoyable is that it avoids reducing Wales to clichés. There are certainly echoes of the country’s landscapes, history and culture, but the emotions contained within are universal. Readers do not need to have climbed Snowdon, sung in a male voice choir or successfully pronounced Llanfairpwllgwyngyll to appreciate the sentiments on display.

Of course, poetry anthologies often suffer from an unfair reputation. Many people recall being forced to analyse verse at school and emerge with the impression that poetry is merely a series of riddles written by people unwilling to say what they mean. This volume provides a useful corrective. Here the poems remind us that poetry is often simply what happens when ordinary language proves inadequate for the job.

Our copy remains in Good condition, meaning it has survived years of being opened, browsed and perhaps occasionally consulted by readers seeking wisdom about matters of the heart. The pages remain clean and inviting, ready to introduce a new audience to a diverse and engaging selection of Welsh poetic voices.

Collectors of modern poetry, lovers of Welsh literature and anyone who enjoys thoughtful anthologies will find much to savour here. It also makes an excellent reminder that while technology continues to accelerate at a bewildering pace, the central concerns of human existence remain stubbornly familiar.

A warm, intelligent and often moving collection from a nation that has long punched well above its weight in the poetry department. Proof that Wales may be small on the map, but when it comes to writing about love, it has never believed in doing things by halves.

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