I’m really excited to be launching a poetry-film at an in-person event on 30th October! ‘Fragments of Us’ was commissioned by SHAPE Arts. It combines poetry with a focus on the process of making, reflecting on the creativity of museum visitors who responded to an interactive poetry display that took place at National Museum Cardiff, as part of my PhD research, three years ago. The film incorporates some of the original words taken from museum visitors’ texts, linking them together in a way that embodies the social and relational aspects of this ongoing ekphrastic conversation.

This celebration event will include a ‘private view’ film screening, with options to contribute your own creative response (if you wish), some ekphrastic and meta-ekphrastic poetry readings (featuring myself and a few special guests) as well as a short Q&A about the film, the poetry and the research.

The launch will take place on Thursday 30^th October at g39 gallery in Cardiff, starting at 7pm (doors open from 6.30pm). Drinks will be provided. The event is free, but space is limited, so please book your free ticket here.

Thank you to Image Works for funding this event.

Although the critical component of my thesis (all 80,000 words of it) is available to read online, the creative component is restricted, because it will eventually form the basis of my next book. However, some of my meta-ekphrastic poems can be read online:

Two poems, published in The Mackinaw, each begin with a line that was written by a museum visitor:

• ‘The ratio of paintings with trees in them, compared to without trees, is alarmingly off balance’
• ‘Child’s Eye View’

My poem ‘A humble cloak placed on the back of a donkey and made out of fragments of cloth’ is published in The Interpreter’s House. It reflects on the concept of literary ownership, and includes a short reflection on the writing process printed beneath the poem.

Two poems were published in issue 6 of The Lincoln Review (on pages 112 and 113 – click on the ‘pages’ symbol, top left corner):

• ‘Collective Mourning’ is composed entirely out of magnetic word arrangements arranged by museum visitors. The title is my only addition, based on what felt like an underlying collective anxiety about our complex relationship with the natural world.
• ‘Response’ responds to this painting of Lady Charlotte Williams-Wynn and her children, which hangs in the gallery at National Museum Cardiff. The poem imagines how she might respond to some of the texts that museum visitors wrote in response to her painting.

Some of my ekphrastic and meta-ekphrastic poems were also included in Octopus Mind. And another meta-ekphrastic poem, titled ‘Multiple Choice’, was published in the latest issue (Summer 2025) of Poetry Wales.

I’ll also be sharing a few more of my meta-ekphrastic poems in audio form in the coming weeks…