Wild Words at the Grave of Dafydd ap Gwilym

by Giles Watson

Since the age of seventeen, Giles Watson has been fascinated by the work of the fourteenth century Welsh poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym, and has previously published modern English paraphrases of his work. At the end of an eighteen year stay in the United Kingdom, he took a trip from his home in rural Oxfordshire to Dafydd's burial place at Ystrad Fflur in Ceredigion. The title poem in this collection is the result of his vigil at the yew tree that marks the poet's a celebration of the life, loves and dazzling imagination of Dafydd ap Gwilym. Mischievously combining mediaeval and modern styles and idioms, 'Wild Words' and its four companion poems imagine themselves back into the mind of the poet as he considers his love and longing for the natural world, the constraints placed upon him by patrons, and the agonies and dilemmas of being in love with a woman with an abusive husband.

32 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2023

About the author

Born in Southampton, Giles emigrated to Australia in infancy, and lived there for twenty-five years. His later experiences - in County Durham, Buckinghamshire, the Isles of Scilly and Oxfordshire - steeped his writing in British landscapes, history, archaeology, flora and fauna. In addition to poetry and fiction, he has written essays on the folklore of natural history and mediaeval visual culture. He is an avid walker, photographer and amateur naturalist. Much of his work is infused with a love of nature, a fascination for history, and a quiet sense of the spirit of place. He now lives in Albany, Western Australia, and enjoys collaborations with musicians (Kathryn Wheeler, Simone Keane) and artists (Buffarches, John Lincoln and Martin Williamson). An avid fascination for the interplay between text and image is a trademark of his work. His most recent projects have been the libretto and novel for MIMMA: a Musical of War and Friendship in collaboration with composer Ron Siemiginowski, and a book of lockdown poems, A Glister of Leaves.

Eungedup: A Wetland Summer Diary, a poetic exploration of a wild space in southern Western Australia, and an account of Giles's struggle with fibromyalgia, is due to be published by Fremantle Press in January 2026.

"He has a wonderful sensibility for the layered British landscape and for a kind of bright darkness."
- Vahni Capildeo
"Giles Watson's subjects and his poems are very much alike—wonders too little known... He writes not only of what he sees, feels, and has tasted... but of the soil that clings to these things—soil composed of tales about them, dense, ancient and complex as peat; history that surrounds them, be they small as a spore or large and unmapped as the insides of a certain tree; reputation fearsome, musty, and beloved. Always, and unusually for one who writes, he stands away from the centre of attention..."
- Anna Tambour