Zoë Brigley’s Aubade after a French Movie (Broken Sleep, 2020) begins with two quotations which give an insight into this charged short collection, which is concerned with women’s bodies and pleasure but complicated by the views and voices of men who condemn or eroticise female spaces. The first quotation sees male critic Leslie Harris dismiss the Welsh medieval erotic poet (who is to play a big part in this short collection) as ‘nothing more than a whore’. A contrast to this is offered in Anais Nin’s criticism of male fear of female sexuality, positing instead a politics of freedom and escape.

 

The first poem ‘The Men We Are Meant To Love’ explores types of men, privileging those who are able to pleasure women sexually, whilst being gentle with “sweet intimacies”, “those good men who feel it too who open up read books” and

 

do not shove a woman into

the spare room at the college party do not touch

the behind of their co-worker do not force

their lover to have an abortion do not prevent

their lover from having an abortion

                                                                                

The unpunctuated breathlessness of poems like this are effective in conveying the inner life of the female poetic speakers and how they can be taken advantage of at any moment by predatory males.

 

A quote from Audre Lord is used later to describe how female powerlessness can be combatted by being in touch with the erotic, as a counter to “depression, self denial”. This brings us to Brigley’s translations of Gwerful Mechain’s poetry (inspired by the Welsh medieval poet and the scholarship on this by Katie Gramich), which focus directly on sex. In ‘Gwerful Wets Her Petticoat’ and ‘How Gwerful Will Fuck Dafydd Llwyd’, Gwerful revels in describing her “sweet, silky panties” and “Lit thighs open”; deeply carnal, short poems. These poems are not for the reserved as they describe in detail the physicality of sex in detail culminating in “How good/ the match struck as ecstasy explodes”. Gwerful is revealed as being reflective and soulful. I particularly enjoyed the contemporary feel of ‘Gwerful Tells Dafydd Llwyd About the End of the World’, another recreation of Gwerful that takes the poetic speaker out of the past, giving a sense of more contemporary relevance:

 

Before the wars, we’ll look to the stars – more miracles

                               happen on oceans than at altars,

              and though presidents do give orders,

              witches strip and dance on the shore.

 

There are poems of revenge, too. One where Gwerful curses a man for beating a woman

 

In his chest, let a sharp stone slide – slanted

                              down to split his sternum wide

 

At a linguistic level, Brigley’s translations/ imaginative reconstructions of the medieval Welsh poet verse forms show a great deal of craft with strong, sustained sound patterning giving energy and purpose to these animated, spirited poems. The poems attempt to capture the spirit of Gwerful rather than compromise on this by focusing too much on verseform.

 

We come to the climax of this series of poems. In Welsh literature, Gwerful’s ‘Ode to the Cunt’ is notorious and Brigley’s translation brings the poem into a contemporary context with its reference to “dumb-as-fuck”, mansplaining poets and to “Wind Street”, Swansea’s renowned watering hole. The poem revels in bodily pleasure, reinforcing the theme of this work – that women’s empowerment can come through sexual expression and through the celebration of this through poetry rather than pornography. Brigley suggests to the reader (via Breillat) that “pornography is only a commercial invention of sex”.

 

The title poem ‘Aubade after a French Movie’ takes us again to the relation between man and women with French cinema as a moody backdrop. The romance and sexual charge of this poem comes out, once again, with strong bodily imagery, enveloping darkness and images, such as a cloak, veil and lace.

 

The poem ‘Because This Love’ is one which I found particular affecting with its mix of connection and intimacy and fragility. This is a gentle, beautiful and mysterious poem:

 

because this love is strong as a rope;

because words on a page are not kisses on the mouth;

because I am strong & I am not strong

 

because there is a crack in the eggshell

because something is tapping its way out

 

By channelling the spirit of Gwerful, Zoe Brigley opens up a medieval Welsh female poet explosively to a legion of new readers and both politicises and re-defines the erotic in

Welsh poetry.

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Review by Dr. Matthew M. C. Smith. Matthew is a widely published Welsh writer with a PhD on Robert Graves and Welsh Celticism. He is the author of The Keeper of Aeons (Broken Spine, 2022) and is widely published.

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