When you think of Wales Millennium Centre, one of the things that immediately comes to mind is poetry. The words adorning the front of our building which tower beautifully over Cardiff Bay. As we turn 20, a celebratory poem has been commissioned, and it was these six-foot words that, quite fittingly, became the inspiration. 

National Poet of Wales Hanan Issa presents Dreams Building, an enrapturing poem full of illustration and possibility. 
 

Dreams Building

As autumn glows its charcoal gold, bright thoughts wander in

through eyes of wonder and welcome. These

are the ways we enter a dream. There are stones

below a grey sea flickering at your feet. Above, horizons

beckon as truth catches the light. Slate and steel sing

of stories reclaimed. Schoolkids and curious stars cluster

on the balcony watching awen sprout from the forests or pillars

and they know the building is dreaming. Dreams building,

billowing shapes, furnaced from the real and imagined. Full,

they follow the drifting children out through glass doors.

Watch them float away, seeking all the spaces a dream can take root.

Hanan Issa, National Poet of Wales

Hanan was asked to write a poem for Wales Millennium Centre’s 20th birthday, but it was after interviewing Gwyneth Lewis, who wrote the inscription on our building, that she found her muse. The two poets met in conversation for a film to celebrate the building’s 20th anniversary.

Watch the interview here. 

Hanan adds ‘I've run with an anecdote from Gwyneth that came out of our interview where she said she overheard a child say it looks like the building is dreaming and this frames the poem's 'story'. 

‘I've tried to incorporate some elements of the building's architecture and materials and there's some nods to cynghanedd as well as RS Thomas in there too – the stones in the carpet came from you!’ 

As is often the way with poetry, the structure and importance of each word is wonderfully specific and meaningful. 

‘The first half is called a golden shovel which means the last words of each line spell out a quote (in this case Gwyneth’s iconic English lines)’ Hanan says. ‘The translation of Gwyneth's Welsh line is embedded in the poem too but I’ve kept the word ‘Awen’ (inspiration) in the original Welsh.’ 

We are so pleased to have commissioned this new work and continue sharing the importance and opportunity in poetry. We invite you to read Hanan’s lines, visit Wales Millennium Centre and look up at the inscription and compose your own creations and share them with the world.