Votive Mess

<p><b><em>Votive Mess</em> is a book of small rebellions against systems of exhaustion and alienation, tracing Welsh poet Nia Davies' efforts to <span>a lost mother tongue, </span><em>y iaith Gymraeg</em><span>, and </span></b><span><b>embracing lingual brambles and shabby theatre to assemble fragments gleaned from the rubble of Babel.</b> </span><span>In these poems, there are love letters drowsy and excessive as well as uncanny happenings on stage and in the woods. </span><em>Votive Mess</em><span> is composed out of a tangle of sex, leaf, stumbles on stage, damage, blackberries and dyslexia. There is a discharge of </span><em>Awen</em><span>, otherwise known as </span><em>poesis</em><span>. The navel of the dream is inside out.</span></p><p>Nia Davies'<span> second collection follows her startling debut </span><em>All fours</em><span>, emerging from an immersion in performance and ritual. The poems trace a path through the peaks and troughs of performance, bouncing between enchantment and disenchantment. These works are studies in the altered states of travel, masks, comedy, learning and love. </span><span>Nia Davies' first full-length collection, </span><em>All fours</em><span> (Bloodaxe Books, 2017), was shortlisted for the Roland Mathias Poetry Award 2018 (Wales Book of the Year Awards) and longlisted for the 2019 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize.</span></p><p><br></p>