Remembering Ivor

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We remember the extraordinary and distinctive talent of Gloucestershire poet, Ivor Daniel, who very sadly passed away recently. Our heartfelt condolences to Erica and Ella.

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Ivor was a true friend to our Black Bough and @TopTweetTuesday poetry communities and was part of numerous other poetry communities online. He was one of our most involved contributors and not only saw many of his poems published with us but was put forward for the Pushcart Prize in December for his poem about visiting a recycling dump. This was not his first nomination, however, Ivor was involved with many presses during his poetic career. I keenly followed his work on other platforms like iambapoet, Icefloe Press and Broken Spine.

 

Very few subjects were off limits for Ivor. He completely got the notion of "making it new" and his poems were weird and wonderful. Ivor understood how to be experimental without being alienating or pretentious. He wrestled and wrangled with words, rhythms and sounds in Rimbaud fashion, creating his own derangement of the senses somewhere, half way, between Cheltenham and Gloucester, his poems building up layer by layer, so many unexpected twists and turns, booting out any expression that might be considered predicable or hackneyed.

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He was Welsh, so this poetic flair would be no surprise to anyone. He loved climbing the Welsh mountains and writing about his ancestry.

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I met Ivor and Erica when they travelled all the way down to Mumbles for my book launch in 2022, Ivor sporting an extremely trendy shirt. I bought them vodkas and I think they downed them (maybe they politely passed them on, memories are hazy) but Ivor got up to read and it was magic to see him and Erica there in the flesh. Ivor used to often message me with ideas - one of them to have a poetry festival in Arizona, another to set up a men's poetry group online and numerous other inspired concepts. When he hosted TopTweetTuesday or commented or boosted other people's poetry, he had a strong intellect and an emotional intelligence befitting someone who achieved a lot in his career in youth work. 

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When I found out about Ivor passing on it was a shock to the system. We'd only been talking about his aims for 2025 a few weeks ago and he was planning an open mic night with his Gloucester poetry friends to help new talent to come through. What a talent, character and generous spirit. Gloucestershire and the online community are poorer without his enthusiasm, creative vigour and generosity. Ivor liked what he liked and he would share online the work of top poets and rookies, alike. His own man.

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Ivor has work coming up with Black Bough this year. This is undoubtedly poignant but might prove a source of celebration, in time. Hopefully, we can look back at his  work and reflect on its uniqueness and all push ourselves to work harder in our own craft. 

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Our love to Erica and Ella, who Ivor talked about so much. Our love, too, to the great man himself.

 

Rest in poetry, my friend. x

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Matthew M C Smith

Editor, Black Bough Poetry

March 2025.

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