Mike Jenkins - Welsh Poet & Author
  • Mike's Blog
  • New Book!
  • About Mike
  • Contact
  • What's the point?
  • The Climbing Tree
  • The Fugitive Three
  • Publications
  • Red Poets

LLYTHYR I JAMIE / LETTER TO JAMIE

9/4/2012

1 Comment

 
   The struggle for the Welsh language would seem an irrelevance at a time when many people are trying desperately to survive : when unemployment is rife and cuts seriously affecting services and benefits.
   Is Cymraeg a luxury we can ill afford during such austere times?
   First and foremost, the struggle to ensure that Welsh has parity with English and thrives into the future, is not one which can be separated from much wider issues.
   Parents are increasingly denied choice when Welsh language provision in education is denied because of limited budgets. In Merthyr, for example, there is a need for another Welsh-medium Primary, yet this is only  a long-term possibility.
   Graduates and school-leavers educated in Welsh often have to seek work elsewhere and cannot use their bilingualism in employment which would help the language flourish.
   S4C has undergone a huge culling process in the last year and lost some of its best programmes as a result, such as 'Bandit'. Its total lack of appeal to young people remains an ominous concern.
   Cymdeithas Yr Iaith has always acknowledged the way that other vital issues effect the language's very existence and has taken an active role in the past against the ownership of second homes and closure of rural schools.
   However, there is still a need to look beyond the purely material.
   People still need more than the basics of a decent job and home. For some it might  be the 'X Factor' on television, for others a spiritual solution. For many in Wales it is the learning of Welsh and with it a discovery of a sense of purpose and belonging.
   Many are learning for all manner of reasons (including some who have moved from England) : to help their children at school, to use it at work,
to socialize or to find out more about the culture of Wales and reclaim the past.
   Despite its apparently healthy state, Welsh still isn't given equal status by private companies and even some public services remain shamefully negligent.
   Merthyr Welsh language campaigner Jamie Bevan was recently released from a short spell in prison for his activism.
   Jamie was carrying on the fine tradition of civil disobedience so integral to Cymdeithas.
   People who simply aren't bothered about the language may well call it pointless. But to me he was showing us all - through his remarkable stance - that society's injustices can be fully confronted.
   As a protest against spending cuts imposed on S4C, he broke into a Tory Party office. He was later fined, but refused to pay this because the orders were not sent in Welsh.
   Even in prison he continued to highlight the gross injustices of the system. He was denied access to any activities at Cardiff Prison because they gave him forms to fill in English only, refusing his requests for Welsh ones.
   This is Jamie's 'Pennill Carchar Cymreig' which he sent me while there :-

                         Yn y carchar budur hwn
                         mae na ambell i swyddog call
                         ond y rhan fwyaf yn dweud :
                         'Welsh, wos that?'
                         'You're 'avin a f**kin laff!'

                          Dim llyfrau, dim gym
                          na dim dewis bwyd
                          dim ffon, dim bacco
                          na dim bywyd rwydd.

                          Jest taro dy enw ar linell y Sais
                          'And fall in line for an easy life...
                          stop talking your shit and givin' strife...
                          sign the forms for an easy life.'

   Jamie was a Welsh political prisoner who refused to be cowed into submission.
   In this short poem he expresses the constraints of the prison and refuses to conform. He serves as an inspiration to those who are learning Welsh, to Welsh-speakers  and those who care about the language.
   He is an activist aware of the broader perspective and, indeed, he was arrested at the protest against Mrs Windsor's visit to Merthyr, only to be released without charge.
   If people dismiss Cymraeg as  peripheral, then they are denying a fundamental part not just of our past, but of the future and the real possibility of a fully bi-lingual nation.
   I've heard some talk about elitist education and 'jobs for the boys', but in most parts of Wales it isn't the crachach who are sending their children to Welsh-medium  schools, but working and middle-class families who are not 'ordinary', but have made an 'extraordinary' decision.


                                         LLYTHYR  I   JAMIE

Diolch Jamie am dy waith
yn y carchar dros yr iaith

diolch am dy safiad,
siom bod mwy ddim yn gwybod

ac yn siarad a fi'n amyneddgar :
pob brawddeg amser hir i ddysgwr

diolch am y cerdd bach yn y llythyr
llawn o jocs mawr fel arfer

diolch i sgrifennu am y dyfodol,
mae angen mwy fel ti yn yr ardal

diolch am dy ysbryddoliaeth,
wedi dechrau ar yr un taith

diolch i ti, cyd-wladwr, gwerinaethwr,
sosialydd fel fi, o Ferthyr.




_
1 Comment
http://bestessay.net/professional-writing-service link
9/26/2012 06:10:47 am

He is a good leader and i believe if nation have good leaders then you will go through with prosperity.

Reply



Leave a Reply.



    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from johnharveypegg, Dai Lygad, joncandy, victoriapeckham, David Holt London, aeneastudio, fromthevalleys-, Metro Centric, andymag, David Bergin Photography, villunderlondon, @markheybo, joncandy, Martin Pettitt, Between the Shadows, joncandy, johnkell, olivia.barrie, villunderlondon, Lake Worth, MittenStatePhototog, frankieleon, robynejay, joncandy, mcaretaker, Thomas Leuthard, Knight Foundation, joncandy, Joybot, brownpau, Iburiedpaul, villunderlondon, amit_gaur, abegum, simonw92, beeveephoto, Aislinn Ritchie, Shannon Green Photography, joncandy, Nick J Webb, Vish Menon, AberCJ, gcoldironjr2003, joncandy, World Can't Wait, jonl1973, Watt_Dabney, petejam70, Kerndav, MJ Klaver, joncandy, Daquella manera, spratt504, joncandy, ashleigh290, Glyn Lowe Photoworks., afanatochka, r.nial.bradshaw, themendingnews, rikkis_refuge, Matthew Straubmuller, joncandy, onnola, final gather, funktionhouse, marioanima, joncandy, Dai Lygad, joncandy, Guttorm Flatabø, brittreints, garryknight, villunderlondon, wonker, Martin Pettitt, joncandy, tnarik, AJC1, simonw92, wardyboy400, joncandy, Bombardier, joncandy, Cargo Cult, joncandy, joncandy, SeanOConnor2010, Feral78, comedy_nose, Abode of Chaos, mkairishstudies, joncandy, avail, Jörg Weingrill, Gwydion M. Williams, Leshaines123, KiltBear, eisenbahner, Capt' Gorgeous, Francis Storr, New Chemical History, Matthew Black, jc.winkler, Gwenael Kere, Karen Roe