The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Roots and branches’ by David T Jones. It’s a poem about “old Cwmbran” in south Wales, and with lines such as “while age sat weary on the family’s creaking roots”, has resonant echoes of Dylan Thomas as it refers to the region's coal-mining heritage. On his Write Out Loud profile page David says: “I'm new to poetry and have never been published. But I have been reading for a while and I want to see how it feels to put some stuff out there and hopefully get some feedback - my first tentative footsteps ...”   

 

ROOTS AND BRANCHES

by David T Jones 

 

Wet afternoon archaeology

sends me dreaming back down

the damp streets of old Cwmbran.

Greyscale sketches of Christmas’s long gone

when we scampered and fought

while age sat weary on the family’s creaking roots.

Deep beneath our skipping feet

in shoes already tight,

ancient trees patiently revealed

a backyard bunker of gleaming coal,

backbreaking sacks marbled

with seams of old finger nails,

tarnished brass, graft and poor bright birds,

fuel for the fire to warm our tiny hands,

then turn to ash to feed the springtime roses.