The Writers of Wales Database

WARNER, STUART

Ranelagh, Precelly Crescent, Goodwick SA64 0HF
Tel: 01348 872330
Email: stuartwarner@uwclub.net
Website: http://wordsbecomepoems.co.uk/wordpress/

Poet. Stuart was born and raised in North Pembrokeshire, returning to live there in 1989 after working in London for ten years. The landscape of North Pembrokeshire is a prominent feature and influence in his writing. He published Into the Still Point, a poetry and music CD in 2008, a collaboration with composer William Goodchild who wrote music to accompany the seven spoken poems. Stuart’s first print collection of poems, Echoes of the First Song, was published in 2009. His poems have also appeared in Roundyhouse.

Selected Publications:
Into the Still Point (Stuart Warner, 2008)
Echoes of the First Song (Antony Rowe, 2009)



Echoes of the First Song (Antony Rowe, 2009)

The first part of the book includes twenty two poems written by Stuart Warner between 2000 and 2009. The second section, the inspirations, contains a note on each poem together with a general introduction.

The landscape of North Pembrokeshire is a prominent feature and influence in this book. Poems include 'Strumble Head', 'Pwll Deri' and 'Preseli Dawn'. Stuart also writes about a sense of inner silence or stillness. The connection between this inner space and the external space of the landscape is an important element in his poetry. For example, 'Pwll Deri' describes the view from the top of a hill on the coast near Strumble Head and starts with the lines,

         “What draws my spirit to this sparse expanse?
          These hilltops crowned by granite crags
          And carved by time…”

The notes in the second section of the book make no attempt to explain the completed poems. Rather they set out some of the ideas or images that came before each poem was written. Warner writes,

“If a poem is a journey into and back from the unknown then I am trying to remember where each journey started. Rather then analysing the completed poems I am hoping to provide an insight into what came before the words.”