Llanddwyn Island

That day, the sea was never so stilled,

As quiet as when the first breath

Was heard and the first eye was filled

With the blueness,

And the rocks, before all things,

That cooled and bore the iced heart

Of sweet Dwynwen,

Who lived alone for the love of all others

Who wander that shore,

Whilst she waits on those lonely dunes,

For secret and longed for love.

Dwynwen is the Welsh Patron Saint of lovers. She was a daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog, a king in mid Wales in the 5th Century. Her father refuses her marriage to the man she loves. She prays , in her anguish, to be able to fall out of love. The man is turned into a block of ice.

She retreats to the solitude of Ynys Llanddwyn off the west coast of Mon (Anglesey) and spends the rest of her life praying for all other lovers, that their love be allowed to prosper.

I spent many an afternoon as a young man walking along the sand when the tide was out, towards her last resting place and listening to her sea prayer. I wrote this poem at that time and on the island.