SHETLAND SAGA: A SOOTHMOOTHER'S STORY OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK

Stuck for Christmas presents? 

If you haven't already downloaded the kindle version of my memoir SHETLAND SAGA: A SOOTHMOOTHER'S STORY , the book is now out in paperback, available from Amazon, The Book Depository and Wordery . Most reviewers have given it 5 * for a good read. At £8.99 from Amazon and cheaper through Book Depository  it makes a unique present. If you are adverse to Amazon or internet ordering you can buy directly from me.

As a reminder of what it's about...

      In 2004 Rhys and I left our South Wales home for the Shetland Isles., where I had a job as a counsellor in a new Primary Health Care service. This is the story of our year's experience, and explores themes of attachment, relationships, connection, remoteness and belonging.

What people have said about the book:

 'Quite different from the usual euphoric account of rural bliss on remote islands, this book is a rather deeper and more interesting description of the human process of relocating, filling a new and challenging post, and forging meaningful relationships in a beautiful but not always welcoming environment. The scenery is fabulous, the wildlife awesome, the winter celebrations long, unique and rumbustious, but communities and individuals are undergoing severe economic and social strains, all the more poignant in such a sparsely populated, scattered archipelago. Ms Teal Daniel has had the courage to write a frank and honest account of both the deep frustrations and intense joys of working in the Shetlands as a non-Shetlander' .    ***** (Amazon customer)   

'An honest and affectionate description of an outsider's place in a close community, this is an entrancing read that had me place Shetland at the very top of my travel 'wish list'. ***** (Jane R)

'This is an honest, humorous and thought-provoking journey. A middle-aged woman persuades her husband to upsticks and join her when she is offered a job on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. The couple - Jan a therapist and Rhys an artist - leave their family and friends in Cardiff to brave the weather, the gannets and the isolation of island life. This (true) saga is particularly compelling for its insights into the mind of the therapist. We hear her thoughts, we hear her conversations, how she copes with difficulties and how she throws herself enthusiastically into island life. I laughed out loud in many places. I was horrified in others. But mostly I felt drawn in and honoured by the honesty of the account. 

This is a beautifully crafted book, with a rich balance of cultural, historical information and personal triumphs. Highly recommended not only for people thinking of leaving their steady life behind; not only for middle aged women whose children have just left home; not only for people who want to get to grips with their inner psyche; but for anyone who wants to read a good story.' *****(Emily Hinshelwood)

THE YEARNING OF THE SCREW: A COMMUNITY INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

   Rhys and I have been involved with Awel Aman Tawe for the past six years, inspired by the drive and enthusiasm of the founders, Emily Hinshelwood and Dan McCallum.

    I first got involved with Emily through Pontardawe Script Café and community plays about climate change and community action:- ‘Nine meals from Anarchy,’ ‘Conscious Oil’ and ‘Fall Out 84’.  

     It is my belief that when you meet individuals who inspire you (it doesn't happen very often!) through their commitment, beliefs and actions, they're really worth supporting. So when we held our art and poetry joint exhibition called ,’Sorry I don’t eat Fish,’ celebrating nature and raising awareness about climate change at the Roald Dahl Gallery in Cardiff Bay, we donated the proceeds of profits from sales of Rhys’ paintings to Awel Aman Tawe. The amount was tiny-just about enough to pay for one screw and bolt in one turbine! Last year we were pleased to invest a bit more in Egni-their community solar energy coop. Not sure how many screws we contributed to on one solar panel, but to Em and Dan it’s not the amount of money you give it’s the support it represents that’s important.

       The couple have spent the last two decades trying to get planning for a community wind farm-just two small turbines that will generate electricity to the community in the Aman Valley in West Wales-an area devastated by the decline of the coal industry.  As they've jumped through and over all the hoops and hurdles and finally got planning permission, the Government has reneged on their commitment to offer tax relief to community groups investing in renewable energy. So, Awel Aman Tawe have fast forwarded their plans in order to be able to attract investors who believe renewable energy is an important component of action against climate change, who want to get a good yield on their funds (7%) or who want to support a Welsh community that is struggling.

         After the hopes and failures of the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen many people felt despair. We attended workshops based on the work of American eco-psychologist, Joanna Macy, an environmental activist. They explored how we can empower ourselves as individuals and communities by understanding the inter-connectedness of all beings and our relationship to the land.  The Paris Summit on Climate Change looms ahead and if you feel like us that it is probably the most important issue for the future of our planet, buying a screw in a community wind farm may not change the world on its own, but one screw and one bolt at a time surely is a good start.

Janet Teal Daniel

Nov 14 2015

See www.ieuanrhysdaniel.tumblr.com

IN CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTH OF OUR FIRST GRANDSON AUGUST 9 2015

 IN CELEBRATION OF THE COMING OF JOSEF RHYS

 

Monday’s child is fair of face

Mum-to-be swims

a mile,  freckle-smiling

checks her pulse.

 Not Monday’s child.

 

Tuesday’s child is full of grace

Mum-to-be watches breakfast TV, texts

by return of post, and yawns.

 Not Tuesday’s child.

 

Wednesday’s child is full of woe

Mum-to-be wobble-walks

to a Barnes café, drinks

NCT latté with other Mums in-waiting.

 Not Wednesday’s child.

 

Thursday’s child has far to go

Mum-to-be finger-winds

her hair, glances scullers rowing

up the Thames to Kew.

 Not Thursday’s child.

 

Friday’s child is loving and giving

Mum-to-be drums a tune

on her rolling tum, wonders

if her baby will ever come;

has acu-pressure and a sweep.

 Not Friday’s child.

 

Saturday’s child works hard for a living

Mum-to-be feels the squeeze, contractions,

labour pain- goes into hospital-

and home again.

 Not Saturday’s child.

 

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

is bonny & blithe, good and gay

Mum-to-be breathes air and gas

with Dad’s help pushes hard;

At 10.20 the world welcomes Josef Rhys

Sunday’s child.                                                                                          

AN EYE OPENING VOYAGE

 This year I went on a Saga cruise to the Baltic States. I wrote an article about my experience which is published in this month's Telegraph-the monthly journal of Nautilus International-the professional magazine of Seafarers. See www.nautilusint.org.    In the September issue Page 20 under the section Seafarers' Rights. Please feel free to circulate the article among your friends and colleagues and write your views to the editor. I have already had feedback from a seafarer telling of his worrying experience working on the Saga Sapphire. I would like to persuade Nautilus to take up the campaign of Cruise Sweatships.

SHETLAND SAGA: A SOOTHMOOTHER'S STORY

 

This is my first book -JUST PUBLISHED! It’s sat on my shelf since 2008 waiting for its moment.With encouragement from friends and help from Dave Lewis of  publishandprint it’s now available to download. I would welcome your feedback either directly or through Amazon reviews. Please feel free to circulate or forward this email to your friends and networks.

‘In 2004, Janet and Ieuan Rhys Daniel left their marital home of twenty-five years in South Wales to live and work in the Shetland Isles. This is the story of their experience and explores themes of attachment, relationships, connection, remoteness and belonging.’

A paperback version will be available this autumn.

Shetland Saga: A Soothmoother's Story by Janet Teal Daniel ​  Learn more   Connect with us © 2011 Amazon EU Sàrl, 5 Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxembourg, Registered in Luxembourg, RCS No. B101818, Share Capital: 37500, Commercial No. 104408 Please note that this message was sent to the following e-mail address: counsellingcardiff@gmail.com Janet Daniel (counsellingcardiff@gmail.com) requested that we send this e-mail. If you have questions about Amazon.co.uk, please visit our Help Department.

AMY: A documentary film

This latest documentary about the great jazz/blues singer/songwriter, Amy Winehouse, is directed by Asif Kapadia and currently on general release. It has had mixed reviews. I saw it last night.
 It felt apt as today, July 23rd, is the fourth anniversary of Amy's death, although it feels like a lot longer the world has been without her. She died of a heart attack brought on by alcohol poisoning.
  The film expresses Amy's fear, from the outset her career takes off and even before, that she would not be able to cope with the consequences of becoming famous. There were those who stood by her through her drunken, drug fuelled episodes, such as her two long-standing school friends and her first manager.What the film shows is that some of those close to her and who loved her also became part of a music industry machine in whose interests she became  their product. 
   Amy's brilliance, originality and superlative voice, like much great art came out of the pain of a difficult childhood, stormy adolescence, love and loss of love; her father and mother separated when she was 9years old, the very time before puberty when a child needs to feel secure. Then a stormy adolescence, when she started to develop bulimia and later relationships that were intense, wonderful and destructive.  She was vulnerable and particularly so in her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, later to become her husband and who introduced her to crack cocaine and heroin.
    Although some of those close to her tried to help her go to rehab when things started to go wrong, her desire for her father's approval and advice, which was that she didn't need to,( so she said, No, No, No!), prevented her from getting help at an early stage. She did later get help and got off drugs but couldn't give up the bottle.
   She didn't want to go on her final tour but her agents would not listen. Too much money at stake. Her only way of getting her voice heard eventually was self-sabotage, getting pissed on stage in Belgrade, unable to sing and booed off by her fans. This was the saddest image to me of a vulnerable, beautiful and talented young woman, who just wanted to write her songs and make music.

150

"Wales' two national theatre companies - National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru - team up for the very first time, with one of the country's leading artists, Marc Rees, and broadcaster S4C to create ​a visual and storytelling feast.

Performed in English, Welsh and Spanish, {150} will bring to life key moments in the story of the 150 Welsh men, women and children who settled in Patagonia in 1865, and the lives of their descendants today.

This multi-platform production, combining live performance in Wales with a specially commissioned film from Patagonia, will be staged in the Royal Opera House stores near Aberdare - a vast building not normally open to the public, close to the homes of many of the original settlers.' (NTW publicity)

 

       We were not in a good mood arriving just in time as signposting was inadequate if you were coming through Abercomboi.  We gathered with others as the show started from outside the 'theatre.'

       This production is very ambitious and all credit to the NTW in continuing to look for unusual and dramatic settings for their productions of an epic nature. Last year's production of Mametz set in the Usk countryside and woods resembling the battlefields in France, was absolutely superb. All of our emotions and senses were brought into play.

       150 is in another dramatic setting; the stores of the Royal Opera House, dark, eerie and huge. The lighting and staging effects are amazing. However, without a script writer, the production is a series of dramatic fragments, it lacks cohesion and is difficult to follow. I had no sensory experience of the scale or the hardship of the pampas, apart from the scattering and pouring of oats and being told it was hard. I had little emotional engagement with the historical characters or their struggle.  This is mainly demonstrated by a few key incidents in the history of the Welsh colony that are repeated in different ways through dance, music, oration and sketches by school pupils.

         Interjected in the history is a video telling the contemporary story of a young Patagonian woman who has journeyed to Wales, worked in Pobol y Cwm, the Welsh language soap, and returned to Patagonia, confused about her identity and where she belongs. This works quite well as we have a character who we get to know and see her struggle mirroring in reverse the struggle of the early Welsh migrants.

       I came away disappointed. It would have worked so much better with a script pulling it together and staged in a place where our senses are invoked of the pampas, the bravery and courage of the pioneers, in a place perhaps such as the nearby scrubland of Hirwaun.

       Tickets available today, the last day from www.wmc.org.uk

MERCHANTS OF DOUBT

 I went to see this film, Merchants of Doubt at the Watershed in Bristol last night. It's being shown as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas. Based on the book of the same name co-written with Erik M. Conway in 2010 by Naomi Oreskes, professor of the History of Science and an affiliate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She analysed nearly 1000 scientific journals to directly assess the magnitude of scientific consensus around anthropogenic climate change. Naomi was at the film to answer questions afterwards.
In the blurb it says,
" The US scientific community has long led the world in research on public health, environmental science and other issues affecting the quality of life. Their scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers....'

    The film maker Robert Kenner shows us the games and strategies played by the PR consultants who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and who use dirty tactics to discredit scientific claims. In the so-called 'interest of balance' these views get disproportionate air time on TV and Radio.  The sad irony is that the impact of man made carbon emissions on the arctic and climate change means that the melting ice cap makes it easier and cheaper for these companies to explore new oil and gas fields.    
     When asked by a young woman where can we find hope in the situation, Naomi replied that some hope lies with China, who are starting to address the issue of climate change because of the considerable political impact that pollution in the big cities has on the health of the inhabitants and voters.  She also cited pockets of good practice in British Columbia. New technology such as carbon capture is really important, as is carbon taxing, and even the Pope through his forthcoming encyclical message may have Catholic deniers moving to the moral high ground.
    Merchants of Doubt is not on general release but look out for it at arts centres and festivals. It's probably one of the most important films about the deniers of climate change v scientific evidence since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

Last night I saw Oppenheimer's new film The Look of Silence. It's a disturbing documentary about a brother's search for the truth in 1965/6 Indonesia, when over a million so-called communists were massacred in sadistic killings during an army coup led by General Suharto. Adi is an opthalmologist and uses the offer of eye tests and new glasses to ask questions of the perpetrators, who seem to relish the retelling of their crimes without remorse. In fact, the drinking of human blood is celebrated as a cause for their longevity and strength. Interspersed are scenes with Adi's very old parents. His father blind and demented. His mother, washing and caring for him, sad and still grieving for her son murdered fifty years ago. 
        We constantly come back to the surreal image of a toothless perpetrator wearing the clunky glasses used to determine his prescription. The symbolism of sight-or lack of it- is used throughout, right to the end credits, where some of the film makers are listed as anonymous.  No doubt because many of the men interviewed are still in power in their communities. I was a young volunteer in Jakarta a couple of years later and so the film has particular resonance for me. Currently on general release I highly recommend The Look of Silence  to you.

BLACKBIRD

 

You woke me.

Your voice sharp

with vibrant zest,

an alarm call

from the top of the apple tree

urging me to get up

and celebrate the spirit

of this post-rain morning.

Sun-rays like fingers

open the eyes

of your sleepy babies 

in their ivy nest.

We are waiting for breakfast,

and still you sing and trill on.

 

JTD, April 27,2015

CLOWNING ABOUT

I've always enjoyed clowning about and have been known to be especially wild after a few drinks. How refreshing then to be wild without the alcohol. Holly Stoppit was brought up in the circus and for the past 15 years has been entertaining people, running workshops and groups in the art of clown. She is also a drama therapist and understands the earthquake potential of releasing our inner clown.
If you want a weekend of madness and mayhem, fun and frolic, creativity and connectedness and be in a pair of very safe hands,
see https://www.facebook.com/hollystoppitworkshops

skindancing

Last week I attended the launch of Susan Richardson's new collection of poetry, skindancing (Cinnamon Press, 2015)  at the Waterloo Tearooms in the Wyndham Arcade  Cardiff.

   'skindancing is themed around human-animal metamorphosis and our dys/functional relationship with the wild/our animal selves. Its sources of inspiration include shapeshifting tales from a number of different cultures, from Inuit to Celtic, Native American to Norse, as well as Susan's ongoing engagement with shamanic journeying. As with Susan's previous collection, Where the Air is Rarefied, it features illustrations by visual artist Pat Gregory, who also created the mesmerising cover.'
     Susan was my creative writing tutor for several years and helped me write my book Soothmoother's saga. She is a brilliant performer and her poetry is poignant, funny, bawdy, surreal,  moving and quite unique; to use just a few describing words. The intricate and clever pencil drawings by Pat Gregory contain Susan's world within the framework of Celtic knots and patterns.

The Exhibition of poems and images goes on until Monday 1st of June.

Then it transfers to Waterloo Tea, Stanwell Road, Penarth and will be on until Thursday 2nd of July 2015.  

 On Tuesday 16th of June Susan is reading and performing her work in Penarth. If you want to be entertained and hear poetry from a mistress of the craft -Don't miss it!*
For further info: see www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/poet/skindancing
A3 prints of Pat's drawings can be had for a mere £15 for black and white and £20 for a coloured front cover print. They can be ordered from patj-gregory@gmail.com

*Waterloo Tea has a lovely selection of teas served in ceramic pots and delicious cakes are very good too.

WRITERS IN THE PARK SIZZLES

Writers in the Park, the group I set up in January this year has taken on a life of its own. We finished for the summer last month and members are keen to encourage each other to go on writing. Members have set up a closed Facebook page. One member is sharing a 5minute writing exercise each day on it which is getting some to write and others to think about writing.
        Today we went on a Writers walk along the River Taff. The subject was a Fungi Foray and one of the members Jane, who has some knowledge in this area lead us to look closely in patches of rotting wood for shrivelled jews' ears and other fungi. She showed us part of the old Glamorgan Canal and inspired us to think about its industrial history-the horses that pulled the barges of coal coming down from Merthyr and questions as to who carved the building stones, how many men did it take to lift them, why are there three arches in the wall, was it a house, an engine room, a store house. What was life like for the working classes who built the means for landowners to become rich?
      Lyn took photos of unfurling ferns, patches of violets, primroses, and a selfie of us on  a grate over the Radyr Weir (was afraid we might be writers in the water). Then as Jane left us suddenly a turquoise kingfisher darted along the river, not once but twice. I hadn't seen one since just after my hip operation nearly four years ago.
     'In Arthurian legend the Fisher King, or the Wounded King, is the latest in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of moving on his own. In the Fisher King legends, he becomes impotent and unable to perform his task himself, and he also becomes unable to father or support a next generation to carry on after his death. His kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland. All he is able to do is fish in the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for someone who might be able to heal him. Healing involves the expectation of the use of magic. Knights travel from many lands to heal the Fisher King, but only the chosen can accomplish the feat. This is Percival in earlier stories; in later versions, he is joined by Galahad and Bors.'  (Wikipaedia)   As Barbara said afterwards it was a perfect gift  to end our stroll.
     Next week for the summer months and without my input, Writers in the Park becomes Writers in the Pub as the writers take on more initiative and organise themselves to meet weekly at a sizzlers' pub for breakfast, chatting and (supposedly!) writing. They are also providing a mutual support network encouraging each other and friendships are blossoming. I'm a proud Mum!
    

THE IMAGE AS A BURDEN -MARLENE DUMAS

'Marlene Dumas is one of the most prominent painters working today. Her intense, psychologically charged works explore themes of sexuality, love, death and shame, often referencing art history, popular culture, politics and current affairs.
     ‘Secondhand images’, she has said, ‘can generate first-hand emotions.’ Dumas never paints directly from life, instead choosing to use pre-existing images for her source material. Her subjects are drawn from both public and personal references and include her daughter and herself, as well as recognisable faces such as Amy Winehouse, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana, even Osama bin Laden. The results are often intimate and at times controversial, where politics become erotic and portraits become political. She plays with the imagination of her viewers, their preconceptions and fears. She cherishes the potency and physicality of painting and what it brings to the image.
    Born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa, Dumas moved to the Netherlands in 1976, where she came to prominence in the mid-1980s. This large-scale survey is the most significant exhibition of her work ever to be held in Europe, charting her career from early works, through seminal paintings to new works on paper.' ( Abbreviated and adapted from Tate Modern catalogue)

        I didn't know Marlene Dumas' work, but now exposed to it some of her paintings and images are incised in my psyche. Using colour to create mood and psychological impact, some are very disturbing, such as the child in The Painter, whose hands could have been dipped in human blood not paint. I loved the sad jazz note of Amy Winehouse's portrait so much I bought a print. If you don't know her work, this is another MUST SEE

Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden

Tate Modern: Exhibition

5 February – 10 May 2015

Adult £16.00 (without donation £14.50)
Concession £14.00 (without donation £12.70)
Help Tate by including the voluntary donation to enable Gift Aid
No booking fees with this exhibition
Under 12s go free (up to four per parent or guardian). Family tickets available by telephone or in the gallery.
Learn more about Dumas through related events

Please note: This exhibition includes some works with explicit content. Please contact us for further information.

  

MAN TO MAN -WMC LAST DAY TODAY!

Wales Millennium Centre presents a new version of  Man to Man. Today is the last day. IT's not an easy piece to engage with but it's a definite MUST SEE. It is the first full in-house production under the new artistic direction of Graeme Farrow. Translated and adapted by Alexandra Wood from Manfred Karge’s masterpiece ‘Jacke wie Hose’, the production  ' reimagines the one woman show as a visceral and virtuosic piece of physical theatre.'
       After her husband dies, Ella Gericke adopts his identity and continues working his job as a crane operator in order to survive in Nazi Germany. Compromising her own identity for survival, Ella is plunged into a new masculine world of beer, schnapps and poker; a claustrophobic lonely existence dominated by the fear of discovery and the changing face of authority in a volatile twentieth century Germany. In the opening speech, Ella, in the guise of her husband Max, shouts out of her window at the layabout youths on the street corners, “Work will set you free”, and the mantra from the gates of Auschwitz hangs over the entire production until the fall of the Berlin Wall.
    Margaret Ann Bain playing Ella switches from husband to wife and back again with alacrity and virtuosity, changing her accent from the hard consonants of a male Scotland to the softer tones of a female England. Sometimes the switches are so quick-fired that I found myself dizzy trying to keep up. To play yourself and your alter ego and remember your lines for 70 minutes is an amazing feat. 
      The design of set, lighting, video, sound and effects brought together by a team including Richard Kent, Andrzej Goulding, Rick Fisher and others is extraordinary for its ingenuity, atmosphere, mood, and adding layers of suggestion and meaning to this one woman show.

WMC   Weston Studio. Tonight 27 March 2015 at 8pm- box office 029 2063 6464   web site: www.wmc.org.uk

WRITERS IN THE PARK

We finished our first term yesterday. The feedback was very positive and we're hoping to continue in the Autumn. I wanted to set up a writing for well being group that could use the park and our beautiful environment for inspiration. I have been really impressed by the quality and freshness of the new writers' work. I feel humbled to be facilitating such hidden talent. It reinforces my belief in the power of creativity to inspire, explore and express what it is to be human. Each member has a thousand thousand stories to tell and write. The group provides a safe and friendly environment to be heard, to share and offer mutual support.
Now I need to get back to my own writing.

CONCENTRIC: GROUP EXHIBITION BY 6 WOMEN ARTISTS AT CARDIFF MADE

This is a 'must see' exhibition celebrating the diversity and quality of women's art in Wales today for International Women's Day 2015. Hung in the sparkly little gallery of Cardiff Made, 41 Lochaber St in Roath with its café, and shop selling local crafts and organic marmalades, the exhibition includes painting and drawing, installation and text by Jacqueline Alkema, Penny Hallas, Leona Jones, Kay Keogh, Lydia Spurrier-Dawes and Sheila Vyas.
      'Concentric is a coherent group of very individualistic entities, questioning, pushing boundaries, experimenting with making processes and subject matters, all playing with the notion of what and how it is to be a woman and a woman artist.'
         I  particularly liked the intricate and detailed mandalas of  Sheila Vyas, the disturbing imagery of Kay Keogh and the surrealism of Penny Hallas. I laughed out loud at Lydia Spurrier-Dawes, 'siblings' and then thought about it and found the knitted jumpers with long arms wrapped around their bodies like strait jackets, strangely disturbing. Leona Jones text is intriguing and funny. I loved her idea of using moving words in such a way that enables the viewer to visualise the scene.
          The Exhibition is only on until Saturday 21 st of March.  See www.cardiffmade.co.uk for further info.

PS The Portuguese custard natas are a must eat.

HOMEWORK DESK

 

I am polishing my old desk. She sits in our Edwardian hall.  Fifty-five years ago she sat in a chilled bedroom next to the maroon-quilted double bed I shared with my mother. I was about to go up to ‘big school’ with expensive uniform, a two-bus journey, nuns and homework. I would need some privacy away from our common room- the kitchen- a postage stamp of cooking smells, Players cigarettes, Old Holborn roll-up, a two bar electric fire,  black and white TV, Joey the green budgerigar and a younger brother.  

        The oak desk had a dark mahogany stain, a pull down top to write on, and inside small compartments for letters from pen pals, letters to be written and a tiny secret compartment for my diary. Three drawers below contained underwear, lambswool jumpers and mothballs. She had cost 5 shillings in a second-hand furniture shop in 1959. She was overlooked by a thin shelf of books that were my staple; What Katy Did?  What Katy Did Next? Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Bunty Annual, The Schoolfriend Annual and some volumes of an Oldham encyclopaedia published at a time when Britain ruled the waves and we had colonies. I don’t remember my parents reading anything other than the Daily Mirror. The desk was their gift and imagined passport to my academic success. I left school at 16 with three O’ levels and a job in the local library so I could keep my mother company at lunch times.

        After my father’s death we brought her here to our adult home and had her fashionably stripped. Each week I take my earth friendly furniture polish made from natural olive oil and buff up her good memories, see her oak grain deepen and shine. I am rubbing hard, harder, trying to erase her other memories.

 

JTD, 2015

HAIKU WORKSHOP SATURDAY MARCH 7 CANCELLED!

Although the workshop is cancelled you can still take part:

Haiku is a poetic form and type of poetry from the Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content and language in a meaningful yet compact way. Haiku poets often write about nature, feelings and experiences. The most common form for Haiku is three short lines, usually containing 17 syllables; five syllables on the first and third lines and seven on the middle line.

Would you like to respond creatively to Rhys Daniel’s art work by writing your own haiku?  

On the post card provided in the exhibition, write the name of the painting, print your 3 line/17 syllable haiku, and give your contact details. Post the card in the box provided. 

Alternatively, you can look at http://ieuanrhysdaniel.tumblr.com and email us your haiku  at janetdaniel125@hotmail.com

The best haikus will be displayed during the exhibition.

HAIKUS

THE SWORD

(GLAN Y CLEDDAU)

 

Sprites and faeries play

on the banks of the Cleddau

Roots rock, quartz quiver

 

                                                  JTD, 2015

HAIKUS

ST.NONS

 

Green waters surge high

Thunder-lightning blitz, earth splits

A Welsh saint is born

 

                                                                              JTD, 2015

HAIKUS

ECO-SOUL

(CYFFRO)

Lichen wrap round limbs

dancing to sacred rhythms

freeing green spirit

 

                                                                    JTD, rev 2015

HAIKU WORKSHOP SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2-3PM, TOWER GALLERY,ORIEL Y PARC,ST DAVID'S

 

 

TIR/LAND

HAIKU WORKSHOP SAT 7 MARCH 2-3 PM.

Tower Gallery. Oriel y Parc, St Davids,Pembs

 

Haiku is a poetic form and type of poetry from the Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content and language in a meaningful yet compact way. Haiku poets often write about nature, feelings and experiences. The most common form for Haiku is three short lines, usually containing 17 syllables; five syllables on the first and third lines and seven on the middle line.

Would you like to respond creatively to Rhys Daniel’s art work by writing your own haiku? Places are limited to 12 so prior booking is essential. The best haikus will be displayed during the exhibition.

For further information contact Janet and Rhys at: janetdaniel125@hotmail.com

Text or telephone: 0750 5024 117.

TIR/LAND; A CELEBRATION OF PEMBROKESHIRE-5 MARCH -MAY 30 2015

Rhys and I are preparing for our joint exhibition at the Tower Gallery at Oriel y Parc in St.David's, Pembrokeshire. Below is the press release we are sending out. I'll be running a Haiku workshop on Saturday 7th of March at 2pm to encourage participants to write their own haikus inspired by Rhys' art work. See a separate entry.

TIR/LAND: A CELEBRATION OF PEMBROKESHIRE

EXHIBITION OF ARTWORK BY I.R.DANIEL & POETRY BY J.DANIEL

Arddangosfa o waith celf gan I.R. Daniel

a barddoniaeth gan J. Daniel

5 March / Mawrth – 30 May / Mai 2015

at Tower Gallery, Oriel y Parc, St. Davids, Pembs.

 

HAIKU Workshop Sat 7th March 2pm

Gweithdy HAIKU Sadwrn 7th Mawrth 2pm

 In ‘TIR/LAND: a celebration of Pembrokeshire’, Rhys and Janet Daniel have worked closely to produce art work and poetry inspired by the land and issues they feel passionate about.

Rhys studied art in Cardiff and Swansea. He has a successful track record as a visual artist and has exhibited in Britain and abroad. He uses mixed media. His work is rooted in ancient Celtic landscape and the natural world. Previous exhibitions have explored his connection with the Welsh landscape; connections between the sacred stones of Wales and Shetland, where he lived for a year; the world of dreams and the unconscious, and the impact of climate change on our environment. Rhys is also an experienced art teacher with over 40 years work in schools and diverse groups in the community.

Janet has written poetry, short stories, travel, memoir, plays and a book about the year spent working in the Shetland Isles.

Janet and Rhys met a long time ago on a photography course in Barry. They have spent the last 35 years summering in a tiny caravan travelling the breadth and depths of Pembrokeshire.

 

janetdaniel125@hotmail.com;  ieuanrhysdaniel.tumblr.com
Tel: 0750 502 4117

ATTACHMENT PANE

 

 

I watch you from the night garden,

trapped in a tiny pane of low-energy twilight,

head in school work, glasses slick on moist nose

-no longer seven but twenty seven-

soon to step into a larger pane

with others waiting for you.

I’ve had this separating moment so many times

I feel resigned

until

the light is a pin hole of indifference.

In panic, I fly back,

the light is there but you have vanished.

 

The light is there but you have vanished.

In panic, I fly back

until

the light is a pin hole of indifference.

I feel resigned.

I’ve had this separating moment so many times,

with others waiting for you.

Soon to step into a larger pane

-no longer seven but twenty seven-

head in school work, glasses slick on moist nose.

In a tiny pane of low-energy twilight

I watch you from the night garden.