Chaotic Angels: Poems in English

by Gwyneth Lewis

Gwyneth Lewis was made National Poet of Wales in 2005, the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship. She is a bilingual virtuoso, and has published six other books of poetry, three in each of her two languages. Chaotic Angels brings together the poems from her first three English collections, Parables & Faxes (1995), Zero Gravity (1998) and Keeping Mum (2003). Her modern epic A Hospital Odyssey (Bloodaxe, 2010) and later collection Sparrow Tree (2011) are published separately.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

About the author

Gwyneth Lewis was Wales' National Poet from 2005-06, the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship. She has published eight books of poetry in Welsh and English. Chaotic Angels (Bloodaxe Books, 2005) brings together the poems from her three English collections, Parables & Faxes, Zero Gravity and Keeping Mum. Her latest book is Sparrow Tree. Gwyneth wrote the six-foot-high words for the front of Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre (which are located just in front of the space-time continuum, as seen on Dr Who and Torchwood.)

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry needs to be read, preferably out loud, but read nevertheless. I think one of the things folk find hard about poetry is that they feel they have to like everything a poet has produced, but this is clearly not the case. Each poem is a story within itself, coming out from a place the poet has experienced in their own soul; and thus sometimes we the reader might fail to connect with where the poet is *at that moment in time* but give it a few months, or even years, and we might nod, and say "yeah, I feel you".
So this 191 page collection is actually three collections spanning 1995 - 2003. It's not a book you can devour in one sitting: somewhat like expecting to run round the Louvre and take in the full impact of every piece there! And it's taken me 18 months to get from cover to cover.
The poems are the English side of Gwyneth Lewis, but from time to time her Welsh roars its head in (for example) "Her End". She plays with the lumpiness and foilbles of humanity knitted with its progress and acheivement (the Zero Gravity sequence) , introduces religious motifs (The No Madonnas), and enjoys the influence of nature (The Booming Bitterne contrasts nicely with the wonderful Good Dog!). Not every poem will hit your spot; but there will be a number that do, and hopefully - as I said earlier - you will nod, and say "Yeah, I feel you."
The front cover picture is a delightful painting called "Angels" by the Abergavenny artist Sarah Snazell (1965-1999).

[Zoë · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creu gwir in these stones
Fel gwydr horizons
O ffwrnais awen sing.

—
This untitled poem is Gwyneth Lewis’ most prominent, as it appears in carved letters on the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff. The poem is preoccupied with gwir or truth and the difficulty of communicating authentically. The problem of defining place is significant, since stones hold fragile horizons of gwydr (glass). The role of the poet is to melt the transparency of glass or truth in the ffwrnais awen, the furnace of the muse or poetic gift. These themes – communication, home, poetic inspiration – are present in Lewis’ Chaotic Angels: Poems in English, which brings together three collections to create a formidable body of work.

See more: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/zoebrigley...