SWEET THING by Huw Parsons

'Love is the Sweetest Thing' or so sang Al Bowly and here is a gale-force collection of bitter-sweet poems on that subject from a man's perspective, or to be more specific, or to be more 'Pacific' as they say in Bristol, written from Huw's own experience. They range from the confessional to the imaginary, from the heartfelt to the funny and from the joyous to the tragic.

1. In 'BIRDS FLYING HIGH' Huw takes some words from the Nina Simone song 'Feeling Good' and incorporates them into a poem which describes the simple pleasures of being on holiday with someone he loves. It's a tangled mixture of observations and feelings throughout and concludes with the lines 'Birds flying high – you know just how I feel.' 'I count my blessings and know just how they feel.'

2. CARDBOARD MUTINY, read by Nigel Evans, is a confessional poem about infatuation and unrequited love. It's full of clever rhyme like 'Cardboard Mutiny' and 'It's not completely new to me.' How many of us I wonder have had, like Huw, 'A friend who is best well rid?'

3. CARDS, read by Malcolm Cousins, is a poem that's based on the Dire Straits song 'Romeo and Juliet.' Huw began with the lyrics and changed the odd word here and there until he had something which, though completely his own, still retains the ghost of the original within it.

4. DOWN TO EARTH is a humorous poem but it's also full of double-meaning and pathos and, like 'Birds Flying High,' is about the pleasures of love.

5. FULL MOON is beautifully read by Christine Williams, who, as is demonstrated here, has the rare gift of being able to really convey the meaning of words by her very emotional delivery. This is a sad story about the inevitability of a passionate relationship ending because there were too many things, distance perhaps being foremost, that just weren't right. Tell me about it!

6. FUNERAL RITES begins as a prose piece and slips into rhythmic verse under it's own momentum. It's a very touching tale about how true love can survive most things, even perhaps death.

7. GARDEN GATE is read by Huw with a fabulous eerie musical score written and performed by David Cooper Orton. The words are a development of something Huw once saw scrawled up on a wall.

8. I LOVE YOU BECAUSE, a eulogy to Huw's closest friend, is so touching because of its honesty, passion and true love. How I wish that some lovely man would write something like that for me!

9. LOST WITHOUT YOU is basically a list of things put into rhyme and none the worse for it too!

10. MY SPANISH FRIEND AT CHRISTMAS. Who is it, I wonder, who spends a passionate Christmas with Huw. Is she a real person or an Iberian fantasy. Perhaps a bit of both if that's possible?

11. NEITHER PEBBLES NOR FISH begins with the lovely lines 'Without you, in silent domesticity' 'The ironing has alluded me.' For me that conjours up all sorts of images in my mind's eye which typify the lives of lonely bachelors.

12. NEW YEAR'S DAY POEM is read here so vividly by Christine Williams. It's a short poem about the resigned ending of a bad but addictive friendship and ends on a note of hope.

13. SAME STARS is a poem about how stars in the night sky could link together lonely people in far-flung places. Perhaps Huw is right, maybe now there is nothing so sad as a clutched mobile phone that doesn't ring.

14. SEA AREAS is read by Huw and Sian Drinan and uses the shipping forecast as a foil to Huw's words. I'm not too sure how successful this is but nevertheless it's good to hear Huw trying something new and slightly different.

15. I wonder if THE BEIGE OF BURBERRY is based on reality or is something wished for and imagined? John and Jaye Vickers, who are featured on Huw's earlier CDs, have kindly provided the soundtrack with a lovely piece of Klezmer music from their CD 'A Night in the Garden of Eden,' which features the singing and mumblings of Sid their Norfolk terrier.

16. TILL THERE WAS YOU is a development of the Beatles song of the same name where the narrative is, like all good verse, driven along by the rhythm of the words, in the same way that, for instance, Edward Lear's 'Owl And The Pussycat' is.

17. YELLOW AND GREEN, THE COLOURS OF SPRING is read by Huw and Christine Williams and is, by in large, a true story. I particularly like the touches of surreal horror given by 'A hoary Minotaur' and 'A bloody-great snake.'

Jill Hall, Writer and Critic, October 2014

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.

Facebook