Mamiaith

By Ness Owen

Ness Owen lives on Ynys Môn off the North Wales coast. This is her first collection, and is partly bilingual. The poems journey widely from family and motherhood, to politics, place and belonging: an underlying connection to the earth of Ness' home, that feeds a longing/desire/determination to write in the Mamiaith (Mothertongue) that she speaks, but did not learn to write fluently. The interplay of languages and the shifts of meaning from one to the other feed the musicality of the poems.
Most of the poems were written in English, five have been additionally translated into Welsh (with help from Sian Northey) one was written in Welsh and translated into English by Ness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Release date: Apr 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913665166

Ness Owen

Ness Owen lives on the island of Ynys Mon where she writes plays, poetry and stories in between lecturing and farming. Her work has appeared in various journals including Poetry Wales, Red Poets, I, S & T, The Fat Damsel, Culture Matters and in anthologies published by Three Drops Press, Here and Now project and Mother’s Milk Books and Arachne Press, who also published her bilingual first collection, Mamiaith.

Book preview

Willows

He planted one for each

of us and one for her we

lost whose name we only

whispered to the sea-wind

determined for life they

grew each season, roots

entangled branches spread

spindling away from each

other until I forgot which

one was me but she was

immortal in the garden where

we played in upturned-wardrobes

and buried broken promises

through the window I blew her

goodnight kisses as November

winds tore leaves from her branches

and I watched her wave goodbye

knowing spring would bring her back.

Mowing

I try to follow my

father’s straight lines

like he taught me

but he moves in spirals

Sometimes a job just

needs to be finished

doesn’t matter how.

We take it in turns

it’s easier to follow

his tracks though

I do cut corners

and change direction

just to prove I can.

Turning in spirals

makes me dizzy and

it hurts to cut

daisies, dandelions

plantain, buttercups.

He knows I’d love

to keep them but

if we don’t keep on

top of this, we know

it’ll outgrow us.

March

21/1/17

They wanted us broken

stranded away from our-

selves