Cari Hope Davies took part in the Beacons Project at Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2021. The Beacons Project aims to encourage creativity and forge a sense of creative identity amongst young people in Wales. It offers a unique opportunity for twenty Welsh students aged 16-18 to meet and work with exceptional writers, broadcasters and journalists in a highly creative and stimulating environment during Hay Festival.
Rain
This isn’t rain which lovers shun with their embrace
Not the spray on your face, every hair still in place,
Rain, that's recklessly romanticised in films to erase,
Every couple’s argument with a stoic sense of grace,
No this is rain, that bone soaking, Heart choking rain,
That causes rain guards to be lifted if only to maintain
Haircuts, as people distressedly dash to the train,
Find their best efforts to remain dry are in vain.
Yet, my attention was captured in the chaos of storm,
There was someone unarmed amongst the swarm,
Of commuters fighting for a chance to stay warm,
A singular citizen who had refused to conform,
Their sleek hair was soaked to a uniform style,
Their clothes could have been engulfed in the Nile
Yet while the sheltered crowd remained hostile,
Their lips were drawn in a tight-lipped smile,
Damp eyelashes sheltered their pensive eyes,
I found myself desperate to discover what lies,
Behind their discernibly defensive social guise,
But in that moment I could not analyse,
What was quickly developing inside their mind,
Yet I thought it was something I was going to find
Out, Because something about the almost blind,
Introspective look inside their eyes, almost assigned,
Me a mission, To find what they had done to me
Because my infatuation was the madness of poetry
They were now my world, I their humble devotee,
I, a revolutionary, their obscurity the bourgeoisie
I think it was their eyes that made them so inviting,
That lost expression that reminded me of writing
A poem, and despite the fact the cold was biting
Their image, shot warmth through me like lightning
But in the time it took me to attempt to find,
And illuminate the dark parts of their mind,
They were lost in a crowd leaving me resigned,
To the fact that love’s stars were unaligned.
Thanks to Welsh Government for funding the Beacons Project and to Bad Wolf and Screen Alliance Wales for their partnership in creating Jack Thorne's workshop. And finally, thanks to Booths Bookshop for allowing us to film Owen Sheers on location.