Do Not Go Gentle...

The title of the book was taken from the Dylan Thomas poem, 'Do not go gentle into that good night', where the poet urges his ageing father not to give in at the end of life, but to 'rage' and live every moment. I chose it because it suits the theme of this Gwanwyn-commissioned project. The Gwanwyn Festival, run by Age Cymru, and funded by the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government is held across Wales in May each year, to celebrate creativity in older age. The commission's brief: 'It's good to look back, but rude to stare' is a quote from a Roy Bailey folk-song. I take it to mean that it's fine to reflect on life, but better not to dwell too much on what's gone; instead we can let go of the past, learn from experience, and move forward in the present. Creative practice, to me, as a writer and painter, is the very best way of doing this. For the project, I interviewed a dancer, a writer, two painters and a potter who are practising their disciplines more productively than ever. They have all suffered setbacks in life, yet continue to dance, write, paint, and throw pots, working with movement, language, colour and clay, well into their sixties and seventies, with no intention of slowing down - not 'going gentle' at all! I discovered that the urge to create in all of them surpassed the need to make a living or find fame, and I felt regenerated as a working artist by all the encounters. I transcribed the interviews into profile pieces, and then wrote a series of poems for each artist. I wanted the profile pieces to illustrate the life, working practices, regrets, and plans of all the artists, and the poems to reflect my own responses, through a variety of forms. I experimented with sonnets, villanelles and the ancient Persian ghazal, but I was inhibited by the need for rhymes, refrains and metric rhythms. Most of the poems are therefore short and succinct, such as the syllable-counting Korean sijo, the syllabic Japanese haiku and tanka, and the mix of haiku and descriptive prose that forms the haibun. I enjoy writing syllabic verse in general, and open, spontaneous free verse, which has no set metre or rhyme - but have also included a couple of ghazals and a chain-rhyming terza rima or two, to create a formal balance. All the artists have some form of online presence if readers want to know more about them. 'Do not go gentle' is extracted from the Dylan Thomas poem 'Do not go gentle into that good night' and reprinted by kind permission of David Higham Associates.