Today, Hanan Issa’s first poem in her new role as National Poet of Wales, will open a three-day virtual event being hosted by the Arts Council of Wales at 12noon.

Imagining our Future: Conversations on the arts in Wales takes place on-line between 20 and 22 September and a reading of the poem by Hanan herself will open the event at 12noon today.

The poem, The ABCD’s of Equal Opportunities is a powerful reflection on identity and belonging. Iestyn Tyne will also be presenting his interpretation of Hanan’s poem in Welsh at the same event.

 

Are you familiar with quantum entanglement?

Burdened with the belief you don’t belong because you

Choke on Arabic when a white friend loses a loved one.

Display yourself for this monitoring form that

 

Allows us to consider how many people

Bathed in chocolate dust when that Lindt factory malfunctioned in 2020.

Cocoa coated cars and chimneys across town.

“Dreams do come true!” someone said once.

 

Are you familiar with quantum entanglement?

Braided together, the split elements in a

Ceaseless long-distance relationship

Defy Einstein. Imagine, all it took was tardigrades to prove him wrong.

 

And we know that entwined separated entities

Boundaried by time and space

Can somehow feel what the other

Does. Like when the protestors in Iraq took out their phones

 

And told the military, “we are recording you.

Beware, Allah is watching”. I felt that. Or

Catching school kids’ laughter at the traffic lights. I

Don’t know how to warn them of what’s coming.

 

About the cold, and the anger. All so cold watching

Bloated sallow milky mouths swallow more and more

Cymru. Am byth will they snatch Welsh waters while

Distracting us, switching conversations to swathes of refugees washing

 

Ashore like Hokusai sea foam. Hearts as

Broken as bodies lacking life jackets

Clinging to sodden memories. The

Damp sets in when they face their first

 

Aggressive questioning at the Doctor’s or

Bank. They would buy bread back home if they

Could. Why not offer them a second home? Not something that

Destroys the local landscape but

 

A space they can care for and, insha Allah,

Breathe in. Sometimes saying Syria makes the same sound as

Cofiwch. Can you taste chocolate dust on your tongue yet?

Diolch am roi o’ch amser i ateb y cwestiynau hyn.

 

To attend the event and hear Hanan Issa reading her poem, and Iestyn Tyne reading his interpretation in Welsh of the poem please register by clicking on this link https://events.zoom.us/ev/AstXlTI35fGhgmulZQelpuRokJoyQyfz04nrJ6artqSvSQcIiz85~AggLXsr32QYFjq8BlYLZ5I06Dg

The National Poet of Wales initiative is run by Literature Wales, the national company for the development of literature.

Further details about the programme of the 3-day event available here.

END                                                                 20 September 2022