Poem #19 for Poetry Month-Welsh- Cyhydedd Fer

The Welsh have many forms of poetry and some are so laden with Welsh double and triple consonants that they completely defy English conversion. Subversive even in their poetry! Good for them.

This one is a Cyhydedd Fer, a form composed in couplets with eight syllables per line and the AA BB CC rhyming scheme. Skelton says that as “with all couplet forms, it is not necessary to regard each couplet as a separate stanza” which frees up the poet, ancient or modern.

Today, I am writing a poem for my Aunty Sal, who passed away in her sleep on Saturday, April 18, 2015. My father, David "Dai" Morgan Woodward, who would have been 101 years old on March 30^th this year, was very fond of his three younger sisters: Letty, Sal and Rose. When he went off to work in London in an awful factory to make pots and pans, he took the train back to Wales several times a year. He always brought candies with him, a special treat for his little sisters, which they remembered, and shared the sweet memory of them with me. 

For Aunty Sal  (1922-2015)

Today she is a girl again

With impish grin and curly mane

Laughing always, those bright clear eyes

Looking at the long-awaited prize

A brown paper box tied with string

London Town, anticipating

The sweets inside but she must fast

Wait for brother Dai, home at last.