Beside this revitalized tradition of Welsh writing, is the equally fruitful-and more widely known-heritage of Welsh poets writing in English. Few readers of twentieth-century verse will be unfamiliar with the work of literary giants like Dylan Thomas or R.S. Thomas, but what poet and editor Richard Gwyn has sought in his new anthology THE PTERODACTYL'S WING (Cardigan: Parthian, 2003), subtitled 'Welsh World Poetry', is re-orientation of readers' sensibilities with a whole new generation of poets working in an artistic environment that has grown more at ease with its own strengths, and which recognizes its place in the broader English-speaking world. Certainly there is nothing about that 'place' which any longer suggests a feeling of subordinate or even outsider status. THE PTERODACTYL'S WING includes the work of thirty-six poets, and the emphasis here is upon younger or emerging talent. The definition of 'Welsh' for the sake of selection is also a loose one, including those of Welsh racial ancestry, and those who have adopted the country as home-a just course, in my view, as it is a clear acknowledgement of the hybridity of modern Wales, and indeed, all British society. With over 300 pages of poetry, the work given here is as varied and skillful as could be hoped for, and the viewpoints stunningly contrasted. Once again, I struggle to find anything brief, yet capable of indicating some of these excellences adequately, but I'll settle for this extract from Rhian Saadat's poem 'Passing Through', as evidence of the book's foregrounding of the need to recognize the permeability of the past as it lingers on offering itself enigmatically to the living:
The frame around the door is an heirloom, see/ the carvings - the growth of a world clinging to its own roots. You can do that sort of thing/ here. It is decorative, explaining the traditions/
