Where the Birds Sing Our Names
An Anthology for Ty Hafan
Edited by Tony Curtis
Seren Books 2021
Foreword: The Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
This beautiful gentle anthology awakens memories, some long since buried in one’s soul the happiest of childhood days of the celebration of each wonderful moment from conception through a toddler’s first steps and all the family dynamics of life. the simplest of encounters depth and beauty. Perhaps it is their transient nature that makes them more beautiful and yet this is only with hindsight that we really appreciate what has gone before.
The range of poems in this anthology allows the reader to find the few words that say so much, fitting each occasion. Tony Curtis has compiled a little treasure in this book, selecting poems to bring calm warmth to the reader.
Now more than ever we are all acutely aware of the fragility of precious life and how the protective love for a child transcends all other pressures.
It is a tribute to Ty Hafan that so many eminent poets have contributed to this book. This anthology enriches the reader, reminding us of our infinite capacity to feel and share emotion, away from yet sometimes mixed in with the precious and routines of daily life. This is a book to be savoured and enjoyed.
Ilora Finlay
In December 2021 Tony introduced and read from his Ty Hafan charity anthology – Where the Birds sing Our Names.
Click the link below to view the video on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/hugh.bird.14/videos/627816688637338/
Recording by the river Thaw in Cowbridge- filmed by Hugh Bird.
Where the birds sing our names
When the children pass on
Their names are put into Morse Code, dot and dash,
And the parents choose a song-bird –
Robin, blackbird, wren and thrush –
These name-notes are played as you pass each tree
In the woods around Ty Hafan, the house-haven.
Bird sings to bird across the land,
A chain of notes until the trees end
And the oceans begin. Then they fly beyond.
So imitative birds pass on these name-notes of song
Against the murmurings of the sea:
Some kind of immortality.