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TERRY CLARKE AT THE BRUNSWICK, SWANSEA, WALES

(to Kate)

Paul Robeson walks with Johnny Cash
across the coal-black hills of Wales,
and Stanley Baker lifts a glass
and toasts the streets where miners sat
on sun-blessed steps away from dust,
as your guitar licks through your voice.

Young, breathless Mickey Rourke is sat
inside the ring where dreams are cash,
while Dylan Thomas weeps for Wales
and stuns New York with his proud voice,
you bring back songs that gathered dust
and music notes that vibrate glass.

Your ballads raise the Nashville dust
and New Orleans is in your voice.
dream love and blues like gods are sat
in a bar room in Swansea, Wales;
and you've met her who laughs like cash.
you see through pain as clear as glass.

Your green guitar earns you your cash
in venues in and out of Wales.
and what hurt gives depth to your voice
that cuts the night like broken glass?
you've seen the loners who are sat
with drinks that shift the mind's old dust.

The cotton fields' lamenting voice
was heard in mines that veined through Wales,
where workers' lungs were scarred with dust.
the poor have dreams of streams of cash
and bright arcades of gold and glass,
in your heart's songs their sorrows sat.

Your green guitar, your singing voice
(that has the soul of Johnny Cash)
take me back to a boy who sat
inside a room of morning glass,
which seemed to house the grief of Wales,
'til jailed-up Elvis shook time's dust.

We pay no cash to hear your voice,
sad drinkers sat in Swansea, Wales;
where rain, soft as dust, kisses glass.

© Peter Thabit Jones
February 2007

Peter Thabit Jones was born in Swansea, Wales, UK, in 1951. His work has appeared in books from publishers such as Penguin, and Titul Publishers/British Council (Russia). The recipient of several awards, he tutors Literature at the University of Wales Swansea. He is the founder and editor of The Seventh Quarry, a poetry magazine published in Swansea,Wales. A collection of his poems, The Lizard Catchers, is published by the New York-based publisher Cross-Cultural Communications.