And I Hear Dragons

This anthology proves there are many ways to think about dragons, even if all the poets are Welsh. Iestyn Tyne traces the dragon shape beneath the Welsh landscape, ‘My journey home follows a dragon’s back…a snaking of distant peaks.’ Mererid Hopwood jocularly conjures one from a picnic egg on the banks of the River Wye, accomplishing some dexterous rhyming of every line in each of three stanzas. Hanan Issa imagines dragons as angry eco warriors ‘transforming plastic trash into ashes.’ Angela Hui matches the two sides of her heritage, Welsh and Chinese dragons, and concludes ‘The differences matter.’ This collection for young adults brings together a poem each from twenty-six poets, hosted by Hanan Issa, the National Poet of Wales, to explore and celebrate ‘identity, belonging and welcoming.’ As Sophie Anderson says in her poem, the dragon under your ribs, ‘the dragon calls on your neighbours/she is always polite/nibbles Welsh cake, baklava, tamarind balls/sips tea and kissel with a root-like tongue/while listening carefully to the chatter/tracing the threads that weave you all together.’ Illustrator Eric Heyman cleverly catches the dragons in many of their different guises.