Paul Henry (b.1959) combines freelance writing and tutoring with
part-time work as a careers adviser. Born in Aberystwyth and originally
a singer-songwriter, he received an Eric Gregory Award for a draft of his
first collection, Time Pieces (Seren, 1991). Two further books - Captive
Audience
(Seren, 1996) and The Milk Thief (Seren, 1998) - have since
appeared and his poetry has been widely anthologised. He has edited
Poetry Wales and was recently awarded an Arts Council of Wales
Writer's Bursary.






Heredity

I often hear the same car
reversing in another street
like a sliding bow,
a badly played violin.

And always the moon through pylons
is my father behind bars.

Waist deep in his light
I limp across blue fields,
dragging the wound called love
as far as the water’s edge,

returning, sometimes, in time
for a door aching wide in the sky
and the moon set free

and, played perfectly
in a neighbour’s tree,
the suddenly remembered air.