BRITANNIA by Huw Parsons

ANCIENT GEOMETRY: Voice - Huw.
Countless thousands of British soldiers died in the First World War, as attested by the long lists of names on the war memorials that can be found everywhere, even in the smallest villages.

BROWN SHOES: Voices - Tammy Gooding (BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester) & Huw.
A British icon which, unlike the E-type Jaguar or 'Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce,' should be regarded as a national disgrace!

ODE TO PRINCE CHARLES: Voice - Huw.
I wrote this poem after seeing the Prince on the telly, donating a pair of ever so slightly faded, but immaculately ironed, corduroy trousers to a clothing appeal. Charles is a true 'one off.' I can't wait for him to become king!

PERCHANCE, PERHAPS: Voice - Huw.
Written in response to the awful changes to The Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Bancroft Gardens in Stratford-on-Avon. With apologies to Will Shakespeare and Freddy Mercury.

STARS & SAND: Voice – Huw. Harmonica - Mike Jenkins.
This is a poem about a train journey I made on a freezing January day from Abergavenny to Manchester Piccadilly. It's one of my favourites because it begins by just being a simple description of things I saw and heard, then, as I travelled further from home, it turns to feelings of loss and loneliness.

WELLINGTON & BODICEA: Voices - Karin Mear & Huw.
Statues of these two national heroes stand proud in Brecon. He is in the centre of town looking well kept, whilst she is hidden away shabby and neglected.

YECK DUDEE JONGER (ONE STAR AWAKE): Voices - Martha & Glesni Powell and Huw. Harp - Martha Powell.
This is written about a friend of mine who, despite not having many of the advantages that most of us take for granted, is a man of the utmost honesty and can always turn a slow sixpence into a quick shilling.

FEATHERED VARIETY: Voice - Karin Mear.
“Could you tell where flew and fell the curlew?” asks Karin in this nonsense rhyme, which I wrote in a vain attempt to cure writer’s block.

MAGPIES: Voice - Einir Sion.
A modern day development of a very old rhyme about the superstitions surrounding magpies.

Huw Parsons was born in 1954, grew up in Llyswen, near Hay on Wye, and educated at Brecon Boys’ Grammar School and Chelsea College of Art.

He feels neither wholly English nor particularly Welsh, with his life’s diversity a social impostor and a cultural chameleon.

His influences: the poems of John Betjeman & Phillip Larkin, the novels of Leslie Thomas, the song lyrics of Sting & Jake Thackray.

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