Wales’ national poet says royal visit poem rejection is ‘concerning’

Issa said the feedback received was that the poem had an “edge” and could “perhaps be softened.”

“That’s what I thought I’d done and obviously, it wasn’t enough,” she said.

Issa added it was “telling” that in the chamber where political issues are discussed “a poem that raises political issues is not welcome, that feels quite concerning”.

The Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker, and artist said she was inspired by Welsh poet Saunders Lewis’ imagery of Wales as a vineyard, and developed that around the brief’s request.

“The brief asked for something that celebrated members and their achievements, and something that served as a reminder of their commitment to the people of Wales.

“I don’t know about you, but celebrating the achievements of members when they are just about to be sworn in feels a bit premature.”

Instead, Issa decided to write something to remind the politicians of “their commitment”.

“I wrote something that described Wales as a garden, and our Assembly Members as its gardeners.”

Issa said that after submitting the first version she could have refused to make changes, but instead chose to compromise and try to find a halfway point.

A second version used “more abstract language”, Issa said, but it was also rejected.

Based on the brief, Issa said it didn’t sound like “they want a poem just about daffodils, and so it felt like a disservice to write something that was quite surface level”.

“We’ve just faced a summer of wildfires. We’re going into a season, no doubt, of floods. The proposed data centres, people have lots of concerns about that.

“There’s so many things, and so it felt important for me to speak to those things.”

Quoting John Lennon, Issa said: “‘A poet’s role is to try to express how people are feeling’ and it felt like an important moment to do that.”