Dic Dywyll by Mike Jenkins

I have banished God

further than the Antipodes

since my so-called accident.

He was the owner

of those mills of death,

his manager the old Cholera.

The preaching of Cheapjack remedies:

holding up heaven as a cure.

 

They took my eyes

and struck them

into cannon-balls.

My mask and its perpetual night

is known to the pit-ponies.

 

Crossing the Iron Bridge

I hear the river’s voice

bring tune to my ballads,

the hooves of canal-horses

count beats and pauses come

as I breathe the welcome wind

from the west and eventual sea.

 

Night arrives and they all

share my mask: punchy drunkards,

rousing rebels and laughing ones

who sup to conquer daytime.

 

My daughter is the blackbird

giving flames to the begging hearth

of our basement with her song;

and I am the owl, I turn

to face their sufferings,

call them out to chase away

the chimney’s shadows. Masters

I magic to mice

under the death’s-head moon.

 

by Mike Jenkins

from Invisible Times

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Fun fact: Richard Williams, better known as Dic Dywyll (Blind Dick) but also sometimes as Bardd Gwagedd (The Bard of Folly) was a renowned ballader in nineteenth century Merthyr, who was blinded working at the Crawshay ironworks. His daughter, Myfanwy, was immortalised in Joseph Parry‘s song.

This link gives you a little bit more information about Dic Dywyll if you’re interested: http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-WILL-RID-1790.html