Hide & Seek – I wrote this poem in 2017 after a friend said that writing lyrics was like trying to catch smoke. I thought this was such a beautiful image. Some years later, in 2023, my friend Inga created this gorgeous illustration inspired by my poem. I love how this image has floated like a seed, evolving from a remark uttered under the night sky, and found fertile ground in two creative minds. The question is, where will it go next?

‘Our Orchard’ is a poetry commission for the Our Orchard / Ein Berllan project at Llandough Hospital, for Cardiff and Vale Health Charity.

Home

I wrote this poem for Welsh climate change charity Size of Wales after taking part in one of their workshops:

The roof above my head has holes,
A gently, lilting breeze,
Where daylight shimmers hazily
And raindrops fall with ease.

At night when dark is drawn to sleep
And creatures stir within,
The padding sounds of tiny feet
Its own peculiar din.

Beneath the distant firmament,
A thousand moonlit eyes –
A universe of stars reveal
Their eerie, nighttime cries.

As dawn unveils its occupants
And stirs them from their bed,
The dewy silk of spiders’ lace
Is spun like golden thread.

The morning bird that greets the sun
Sings sweetly from her perch,
Three downy chicks, their calls demand,
Her beak they keenly search.

Our home is here, beneath the trees,
The bark, the moss and earth –
Unparalleled fecundity
Of nature’s constant birth.

Though home it be, our fate unknown
From threats that lurk nearby.
The heightened risk of forest fires
That blacken out the sky.

The pressing swell of humanity
And the cattle that they graze.
Their greed for land and barren fields
On which to grow their maize.

But what of life apart from them?
Does it not too have a right
To thrive and flourish on this earth
Without constant fear of plight?

There is a way to coexist,
But change must come about,
So those of us with human hearts
Raise our voices, let us shout!

The roof above our head has holes,
A gently, lilting breeze,
Where daylight shimmers hazily
And raindrops fall with ease.

© 2018 Angie Kirby

Open Air Gentleman’s Club

This song / poem was written for the Grangetown Gardens Project, a collaboration between Art Shell & Cardiff University. It is inspired by the outdoor drinking clubs that began in 1893, as a result of restricted Sunday licensing:

What could a man want more
Than the freedom to drink outdoors?
To sip bitter ale and belch and regale
His mates with dirty old tale?

But then come the boys in blue
And old toffs who don’t have a clue
Who pontificate, and sneer and berate
The lives of the Grangetown crew

But under the shadow of night
They meet by the train tracks and fight
They fight for their right, to drink out at night
Singing down with those boys in blue!

© 2015 Angie Kirby