The title of this poem is a Cymraeg idiom ‘bring to light’, ‘Stiniog is short for Blaenau Ffestiniog, a place in north Wales where we used to go mountain biking. Some of my deepest connections with the land have happened after a particularly gnarly day of exercise. There’s something about pushing yourself physically across a landscape that allows the mind to seep into new places. There’s a lot of talk these days about how little value words have, it’s probably because we overuse them, and we overuse them because we’ve forgotten their power. I think perhaps Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris are the closest we’re coming to reclaiming some of that power with their Spell Words. Sometimes I see mountains as great echo chambers that intensify thought; this mountain I saw as a great pile of words that I didn’t understand (y geiriadur mawr – the Cymraeg dictionary). I wrote this poem to explain what happened after a day riding the downhill trails at Antur Stiniog. The quotes are from the Tao Te Ching, Ben Okri and the Latin is from Horace. I’m tickled by the idea of a mountain giving birth to a mouse. I suppose I’m laughing at myself in this poem. I had such grand ideas of how to write about this connection and all that came out was this little farty mouse ?. But also there’s a sadness at recognising how great the disconnect is and that‘s reflected in the fractured nature of the original piece. This poem is part of the longer Coflyfr sequence (coflyfr.tumblr.com) and also appears in Hanes.
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