Gwyddbwyll

They say we think too much,
too often of the past.
This may be so.
We were beaten to our knees,
it’s true;
though neither by their numbers
nor their steel,
but by their gallows and their writs
and, in the course of time,
by our foolish, dumb quiescence –
till we became complacent guests
within our native land.
Still, I nailed my colours to the mast
long years ago.
And what would I not have done …
ventured all and everything, I know,
to have moved the gaming pieces,
to have moved across the board
with the fortitude of those who came before.
But if the hills look down on me, today,
well, I can understand.

From ‘Welsh Past and Present’