Dafydd ap Gwilym, Wales's greatest poet, explored love, desire and the natural world with startling frankness and virtuoso wit. In this sequence freely adapted from Dafydd's work, I bring him to life for the modern reader: as he waits in the woods for his lover, ogles the girls in church or causes chaos during a midnight assignation. Plants, birds and animals are fondly invoked while weather and the elements - wind, waves, fog and ice - play their part. Passionate in his treatment of sexual themes, Dafydd is equally ready to make fun of his own susceptibility. These delightful poems remain, across the centuries, intimate, urgent and timeless.

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Read a poem from The Green Month here.

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"One of the great Celtic rakes, brought brilliantly back to life... The Green Month is full of sensual exuberance, while avoiding the twin traps of bowdlerization and hamming-up. Even a poem about Dafydd’s penis is more of a metaphysical conceit than a piece of smut: a 'conger-eel rampant' and 'varicose archbishop', it gasps out its contents and I’m / in trouble again'. 'Down, wanton, down!' wrote Robert Graves in his own poem addressed to his penis, but the strong achievement of The Green Month means that Dafydd can be welcomed back into English with an 'up, wanton, up'. David Wheatley, TLS.

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"Matthew Francis's lively versions of medieval poet Dafydd ap Gwilym pay skilful tribute to the randiest of bards. The 'green month' is May, when sap rises; even in church he's ogling girls. 'If I could only get one of them / out of this echoing stone / into soft forest!' Alas, they don't succumb: 'I'll have to pray on my own / in my green chapel.'" Financial Times.

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"These poems struck me as being very true to Dafydd’s obsessive inventiveness with imagery – the 'tattered sheet of snow', the fogbound man 'smothered in fleece, a tick in the weather’s wool' – also to his keen observation of the natural world and to his self-mocking humour. They are also... hugely entertaining poems in their own right. " Sheenagh Pugh.

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"Essentially fresh poems based on Dafydd's originals. They brilliantly capture the essence of his poetic gift... in language that is specific and vivid. Highly recommended." Neil Philip.

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"There’s a very high density of poetic effects – images, metaphors – but despite this, a wittiness and a lightness of touch that makes the work easy to appreciate and relish... I could find phrases, sentences and stanzas to pick out and celebrate in any of these poems." Stephen Payne, The Friday Poem.

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"It is remarkably refreshing to discover a writer whose balance of readability and complexity is so well judged... From the original collection of disparate medieval poems, Francis crafts a consistent and arresting character arc for his speaker, whom he interprets as the voice of Dafydd himself, providing an air of confessional authenticity which so suits modern tastes. Although all the poems are arranged in three short stanzas, each one has its own unique silhouette and brims with vivid imagery." Liam Gornall, Oxford Review of Books.

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Interview with Jason Gray on The Green Month.

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