Cardiff; Peter Finch; Poems for Ghosts; 1991
This sets the scence – first there was the rivers, mud flats
I love the line
“we close down everything that smells”
This was published in 1991. The verse “Now Glass” applies much, much more now
Click on image to see poem
Three rivers meet the Severn Estuary at Cardiff, the Ely, Taff and Rhymney. As the above picture shows, the lower reaches of the Ely and the Taff are now lakes as they have been impounded by the Taff Barrage that makes “Cardiff Bay”. The marshes either side of the mouth of the Rhymney were / are used for landfill sites.
this book chapter is about the Lamby – this was the tidal grazing lands on the north-east bank of the Rhymney River
