The Mallarme Poems

“The Mallarmé Poems introduces a vibrant and exciting new voice in Welsh poetry. More than anything, I am struck by the way in which these poems are alive: through these black marks on the page, a skilful management of form and a riotous music which is very much his own. The author conjures, in poem after poem, a person who’s suddenly standing there next to you, breathing down your neck, talking insistently in your ear. Whether the poems’ subjects are world-weariness or games of cards, the stink of cities or the sound of footsteps, they are always wonderfully engaged with the dance and the party that language can be. The work of writers like Alan Gillis and Glyn Maxwell comes to mind and, if it is true that the best poems often give us an irrepressible personality, The Mallarmé Poems gives us an unforgettable person, talking to us, now, leaping from these pages into our lives.” – Jonathan Edwards