Riverwise: Meditations on Afon Teifi

by Jack Smylie Wild

“The ale-brown, ankle-deep water, riffling in the shadows of alder, ash and willow, is surprisingly cool. As I feel my way across the shallows with my toes, I spy an up-bubbling in a deeper stretch ... an otter. I strain my eyes until the bubbles disappear, and wade on.” Riverwise , a volume of slow river prose centred around Afon Teifi, is a book of wanderings and wonderings, witnessings and enchantments, rememberings and endings. Weaving memoir, poetry, and keen observation into its meandering course, it shifts across time and space to reflect the beauty of hidden, fluvial places, and to meditate on the strangeness of being human. Along the way, hosts of things glimmer on the water and resurface from the characters, creatures, plants, ruins, roots, and words, all bound and etched together in the liquid slate of Teifi’s ceaseless becoming. As new questions are asked beside old, half-forgotten streams, currents conjoin into an unexpected narrative. Above all, though, this book stands as a hymn to those fragments of riparian wilderness which on our maps appear as ever-shrinking horns of green amid a white, gridded landscape of human dominance. Riverwise is a clarion call to learn to love and protect the natural world and its waterways.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction

140 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book makes me feel like I'm lying on a riverbank, listening to the gurgle of water and the whistle of the wind as they tell me all about the wild secrets of wales

> 4.2 stars

[Jennifer Barclay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very beautiful book, full of poetry, inspirations and insights into our need for connection to the natural world. Loved it.

[Jo Larkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely, lyrical, poetic sanctuary of a book. I loved it. I loved escaping into it.
I picked it up based on looks and feel - a slim hardback with a lovely jacket and a few woodcut prints through it. There is an otter, a heron in flight. It describes the author's wanderings and exploration of the River Teifi and her tributaries, hammocked nights outdoors beside a camp fire, a little wading, a swim or two, some fishing and lots of green and water and nature. Gorgeous.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanting, beautifully written meander through Ceredigion a land I also love and call home. A tale about the power of nature to delight and heal. Jack piles care and love into every page, should you find yourself meandering along the Teifi pop into Bara Menyn, buy thus book and a loaf if the best bread you will ever eat.