Ruth Bidgood, Poem of the Week

Ruth Bidgood's 'Treachery' is Poem of the Week at the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre: http://poetry.brookes.ac.uk/poemoftheweek/treachery/ Alongside the poem, this page includes a helpful biographical note about Ruth herself - as well as a reference to my own recent book on Ruth's work. 

Ruth has identified 'Treachery' as a poem that emerges from the Black Mountains region, specifically the Grwyne Fechan valley (towards the west of the area). Her important sequence 'Singing to Wolves' (the title sequence of her collection published in 2000) is also rooted in the Black Mountains - this time, on their eastern side. Indeed, 'Singing to Wolves' reaches as far as the villages of Clodock and Michaelchurch Escley, which are to be found just beyond the eastern-most reaches of the Black Mountains themselves.

Ruth is, of course, best known for her mid-Wales work which locates itself in the region that radiates out from Abergwesyn in north Breconshire. However, she also has an intriguing clutch of poems which draw on the fascinating borders area of the Black Mountains. These certainly deserve more critical consideration, as a group of geographically interlinked works.

Note
Ruth Bidgood identifies the following poems from her output as rooted in the Black Mountains:

* The Fluent Moment (Bridgend: Seren, 1996)
'The Fluent Moment', p. 7
'Olchon Valley', p. 57 

* Singing to Wolves (Bridgend: Seren, 2000)
'Singing to Wolves' sequence, pp. 7-11 (five poems in all)
'Angel with Wolf and Saint', p. 30

* New & Selected Poems (Bridgend: Seren, 2004)
'Guerinou' sequence, pp. 257-67 (seven poems in all)

* Above the Forests (Blaenau Ffestiniog: Cinnamon, 2012)
'Bridges', p. 30
'Treachery', p. 32
'Capel-y-Ffin Story', p. 33
'All Manner of Thing', p. 53
'At Capel-y-Ffin', p. 62
'Tout Passe', p. 74