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That’s what work is, that’s what love is
You build a house of straw
and the flames lick the sky

Tom Russell

While the last issue focussed on children and childhood, this issue could be seen as switching the focus to adulthood. Certainly it is the people’ issue, and most of the people are adult, Ok sometimes the person is the poet which is a bit of a get-out allowing virtually any poem to slip through, but the great majority of poems and prose pieces in these pages are about other people, dead, injured, alive, mythical, historical, at war, at work, at school, at home, in homes, in gaol, in hospital, on the streets, in the forest, on the ocean, wherever, in some kind of past, present, or future relationship with the writers of the works here, or not, as the case may be.

Gerard Casey (born 1918) died in October 2000, and I am republishing his major long poem South Wales Echo in tribute to one of the major, but under-valued English language poets of the 20th century, a poet in the modernist tradition of William Carlos Williams, Basil Bunting, and David Jones. This poem, first published in 1973, and reprinted in his collection Echoes (Rigby & Lewis, 1990) draws on memories of his childhood in Cardiff in the early part of the century, and particularly the streetsounds. I have published the whole poem, including the Introduction and extensive notes, in this issue, rather than splitting it between issues, because I know he considered the work an integrated whole. I am extremely grateful to Louise de Bruin, Gerard Casey’s executor, for permission to reprint this poem.

I have also included next to this, 3 short sections from Lloyd Robson’s Cardiff Cut, a book-length prose-poem documenting the life, culture, and street-vernacular of present-day Cardiff. This is published by Parthian Books, 53 Colum Road, Cardiff, CF10 3EF, (2001), and here also I am grateful for permission.

After I had accepted three poems from Andrew Waterhouse, I was saddened to learn of his early death in 2001. If any reader knows to whom I should send his contributor’s copy, I would appreciate the information.

Other acknowledgements - Sections from Robert Sheppard’s Smokestack Lightning have previously appeared in Stride and other publications. This is the first appearance of the complete text. Brad Evans’ long poem Panting was included in his chapbook Terse
(1997).

3 of Peter Dent’s poems (Late Reading, Primary Education, and On Dipped Lights) are due to appear in his new collection Unrestricted Moment (Stride, 2002).

Tim Buchanan’s poem A Tiny Pocket of Peace can be heard on his CD Never Mentioned Yet Noticed Communion and Heather Reyes has read her poem I liked my bible because it had a lilac cover on local radio.

Johnny Duhan’s The Cage is taken from his autobiography There Is A Time (Brandon Press, Ireland, 2001, order via e-mail [email protected]).

In issue no.14, the poems of the late Barry MacSweeney should have been accompanied by a note indicating that copyright is held by the Trustees of his Estate and all communication concerning publication of Barry MacSweeney s work should be via Paul McSweeney, 35 The Drive, Denton Burn, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE5 2AD

Can any readers help me locate the writer of three very fine but unattributed poems entitled (Given) Jealousy / On ‘Love’ / and Tender hooks. I accepted these some while back but have mislaid the accompanying letter. I would very much like to publish them but am reluctant to do so without knowing the author. If I don’t hear soon I will have no alternative but to publish them anonymously. (Writers - please always put your names on the mss.)