A fitting tribute to a much-loved poet
Swansea poet Dai Fry is remembered with the publication of a new competition anthology focused on mystical verse...
SWANSEA poet Dai Fry is remembered in the first edition of an annual contest anthology focused on mystical poetry. The book, entitled Sun-tipped Pillars Of Our Hearts, contains 37 poems, chosen from 140 submissions.
These include the overall winners Lauren Thomas, who came first with her poem Stone Circle, Jane Dougherty, who won second prize with Wisdom, and Andy Harrett, who took third place with The Sunken Kingdom Of Cantref Gwaelod.
The anthology was curated by Welsh writer Matthew MC Smith, editor of Black Bough Poetry. He had worked on Fry’s first poetry book Under Photon Crowns before Fry passed away and attended Under Star Bolted Skies, a joint exhibition by Fry and Parker, at Volcano Theatre, Swansea, in September 2021, where the idea for a mystical poetry contest for was born.
“I’d worked with Dai before his tragic passing away,” he says. “I saw the exhibition of his words, with art by his friend Graham Parker, and decided that there should be a book with other modern, mystical poems.
“It’s hoped that there will be several annual competitions of mystical poetry, at the very least.”
Lauren Thomas adds that she is delighted to be the winner of the inaugural competition.
“It’s lovely to think that people thought it a fitting tribute to Dai’s memory and his incredible writing,” she says. “I am also in awe of the wonderful poets who contributed to the anthology. It’s a stunning read and I am super proud to be among them.”
Thomas has been published in various print and online publications, including Black Bough winter edition, Lighthouse Journal and Magma. Her pamphlet Silver Hare Tales was published in 2021 by Blood Moon Poetry. She is in her second year of an MA in poetry writing with Newcastle University.
Fry’s friend, artist Graham Parker, adds: “It was a pleasure to bring together an exhibition of Dai’s poems and my paintings in 2021. I was also delighted for my paintings to illustrate Suntipped Pillars Of Our Hearts.
“It’s unsurprising that Dai’s legacy has inspired an outpouring of mystical creativity in this wonderful anthology. We are richer for his memory and poetry. I know that Dai would be overwhelmed with this impressive body of work.”
Sun-tipped Pillars Of Our Hearts, the contest anthology for the Dai Fry Award for Mystical Poetry (2022), is out now, available on Amazon
Stone Circle by Lauren Thomas
We have come to place our flowers here – where your scattered body lies among the fragments of an earth – long since turned In these dark corners, time beats its wings beside us, as we kneel our unhewn forms, rough like Gorsedd stone Now, then and always it was thus — to return to the same pre-solar dust that formed our parts, which falls as shadow through the sun-tipped pillars of our hearts.