³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The National poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, celebrates the work of Alun Lewis in his centenary year. His famous poem ‘All Day it has Rained’ was the first poem by a Welsh poet Gillian ever heard, and the first time she realised that poetry could sound like the voices she heard around her every day. Alun Lewis’ poems are published by Seren. Gillian also reads from her prose book ‘At the Source’ (Carcanet).

Ìý

The composer and sound artist Gerry Diver has created a piece especially for The Verb using an exclusive interview with Charlotte Church. ‘Identity’ explores Charlotte’s understanding of the Welsh sensibility, and traces the evolution of her social consciousness. Gerry Diver’s album ‘The Speech Project’ is out now from One Fine Day. His new collaboration with Tom Robinson will be released in the autumn.

Ìý

Gwenan Gibbard is a harpist and singer who performs in the ancient and flexible Welsh tradition of ‘Cerdd Dant’, where poetry is sung Ìýto a harp accompaniment. Gwenan explains why it is so popular today, and explains some of its rules. She performs ‘Calon Drom’ . Gwenan’s latest album is ‘Cerdd Dannau’ (Sain).

Ìý

Rachel Boast is the author of two collections of poetry, ‘Sidereal’, which won the Forward prize for Best First Collection, and ‘Pilgrim’s Flower’ (Picador). For The Verb, Rachael has written a new poem for The Verb’s exploration of ‘voice’ - Ìý‘Mute’, a response to Jean Cocteau’s play ‘The Human Voice’. Rachael explains that the intensity of Cocteau’s script was reflected in her writing process for this poem.

Ìý