Writer's Notebook

The book that changed everything is this week's Sunday Scribblings challenge. This may be slightly enigmatic, especially to those unfamiliar to Welsh culture. It's a tribute to those books that set me off on reading, and to one hidden jewel locked inside the multitude of its volumes.

Thick and blue;
In how many volumes?
Memory playing tricks
Never lets me forget
The treasures stored
In Grandmother's bookshelf.

And what's in a name.
The spell is what counts.
A magnetic spell,
Drawing in six year olds,
Captivating sevens,
While never letting off the hook
Those turned even older.

One above all,
My eager eyes caressed,
A lover sought out
Among the crowd
Till hunger satisfied.

A poem, a dog, a death,
In lilting Welsh verse
Despite English words
Bedd Gellert's acts distorted
But himself never disloyal.

For years neglected.
The tricks that age has played.
Forgotten and languishing,
Till one fateful day,
When father and son,
With mother and daughter,
Leaving Snowdon upon
The immortalised village chancèd,
And memory did the rest.

All four the road
to Grandma's bookshelf sought.
That spell now guiding
New strangers to its light.