I fell in love with Thomas’ writing as a teenager. Like Thomas, I was born in Wales. I was born the year he died. In my youth I felt a deep connection with him on many levels, including, a shared Celtic blackness and a liking for grog. In my very small library I have a copy of Deaths and Entrances, two early editions of Collected Poems 1934 – 1952, the definitive The Poems of Dylan Thomas (with a CD of Thomas reading some of his own work), Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas in America and Fitzgibbon’s The Life of Dylan Thomas. I confess to having named my daughter Caitlin after his wife.

Michael Witts was born in Wales and now lives in Sydney. He has been publishing poetry since the early 1970s. He was a founding editor of DODO magazine and the Fling poetry series. His three volumes of poetry are Sirens, South and Dumb Music.