Alun Rees
First up for the team is outstanding outside left Alun Rees. Alun is one of the most experienced members of the squad, having been first published in the days of John Charles. He is a former journalist and an award-winning one at that. He wrote a weekly sports column for the ‘Western Mail’ and it was the highlight of the week in that newspaper.
Alun hails from Twynyrodyn in Merthyr and many of his poems reflect his background there and the history of Merthyr, with its iron and coal barons and the working-class martyr Dic Penderyn. Anyone remotely interested in reading the best political poetry should get hold of his collection ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’, his most recent book published by us and Y Lolfa. This volume was launched at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff (a city where Alun has lived for many years). Alun read from a wheelchair as he had just gone through a very serious heart operation. Since then, he has recovered very well and recently read with us at the Punkfest in Merthyr, where ranter Attila the Stockbroker rated him as the best poet on show that night.
He was featured in the very first issues of Meic Stephens’ ‘Poetry Wales’ back in the ‘60’s and had no less than four poems in the first issue of ‘Red Poets’ magazine. Despite this, he has been tragically marginalised in Wales, where established magazines have sought younger voices and tended to ignore those with political passion.
But to the Red Poets, Alun is undoubtedly one of the best left-wingers we’ve got (and we have many in the squad), famed for his skill with the pen and ability to shoot down the opposition with moments of sheer class. His ‘Taffy is a Welshman’ from issue 2 won the Harri Webb Prize and was a rare but thoroughly deserved recognition.
Alun hails from Twynyrodyn in Merthyr and many of his poems reflect his background there and the history of Merthyr, with its iron and coal barons and the working-class martyr Dic Penderyn. Anyone remotely interested in reading the best political poetry should get hold of his collection ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’, his most recent book published by us and Y Lolfa. This volume was launched at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff (a city where Alun has lived for many years). Alun read from a wheelchair as he had just gone through a very serious heart operation. Since then, he has recovered very well and recently read with us at the Punkfest in Merthyr, where ranter Attila the Stockbroker rated him as the best poet on show that night.
He was featured in the very first issues of Meic Stephens’ ‘Poetry Wales’ back in the ‘60’s and had no less than four poems in the first issue of ‘Red Poets’ magazine. Despite this, he has been tragically marginalised in Wales, where established magazines have sought younger voices and tended to ignore those with political passion.
But to the Red Poets, Alun is undoubtedly one of the best left-wingers we’ve got (and we have many in the squad), famed for his skill with the pen and ability to shoot down the opposition with moments of sheer class. His ‘Taffy is a Welshman’ from issue 2 won the Harri Webb Prize and was a rare but thoroughly deserved recognition.