“Seasons in the Sun”–Yet Another Fine Book by Welsh Author Annest Gwilym

Annest Gwilym’s September 2023-published book Seasons in the Sun is a magnificent combination of poetry as natural history, historires of old and new houses which have lives of their own, partly-told love stories, and also a touch of mythology and magic (the death of a mermaid is both that of a mythical person and the fish of the same name).  Wales is first and foremost a background, beloved home, and a historical surface for the creative person who would occupy this territory, whether poet or reader.

There are sea captains, sea captains’ daughters, natural adventures along beaches in the surroundings fo sand, tide, and tide pools, old creaking houses which have contained the lives of generations whose lives are also sketched out in brief segments.  They have their own stories to tell and contribute to the book, though they do not in general speak directly, with the exception of a sea captain’s daughter.  The book, though rejoicing in freedom, is still not without a sonnet and an altered form of a sort of combined villanelle/pantoume, with unique qualities unlike either.  There is an elliptical space poem entitled “Insomniac,” which like many of the poems embodies an experience in the form of the poem, and many blank/free verse and also lightly rhymed verse poems (all told, there are thirty-two poems in the book, and three brief notes in the back on them).

The title, of course, comes from the popular 1970’s poet Rod McKuen’s book and song Seasons in the Sun, referred to in one place, and it’s more than worth mentioning that some of the poems are talented polemical, artistic ones on behalf of Wales as a home and landscape.  The issues of land-grabbing by greedy developers and rich homeowners is never far from the intense mind of the poet, Annest.

The richness of the poetical/rhetorical surface of the poem in its imagery and tales is kept also simple enough to be enjoyed by any dedicated reader in its commitment to the declarative sentence structure, which seems often to prevail throughout, whle yet the complications of thought on all the issues and the artistry together are brought out by the very beauty of the gifts of the seer-like rhythm.

Annest’s book has only recently been published, as I said, but I would advise poetry-lovers everywhere to celebrate it by a simple purchase (pounds 6.95).  Information is available from her for obtaining copies at “X” (formerly Twitter) at @AnnestGwilym.  A link also exists and is given on her X account in a post: carreg.gwalch.cymru/seasons-in-the-sun-3008-p.asp.  I am thankful to have been a reader of a PDF copy in order to write this review.  Thank you, Annest, for sharing your poetical and storytelling gifts.

Shadowoperator (Victoria Leigh Bennett) (P.S.–The cover pages are best seen at 33% before downloading, the brief biography at 50%).  This essay is free to read, of course.