A collection of 45 poems reflecting the poet's unique and original style as he portrays with irony the colour and hardship, the humour and sadness of the everyday lives of the ordinary Rhondda valley people through the words of the area's social misfits.

Casgliad o 45 cerdd yn adlewyrchu arddull unigryw a gwreiddiol y bardd wrth iddo bortreadu'n ddychanol liw a chaledi, doniolwch a thristwch bywydau bob dydd pobl gyffredin cymoedd y Rhondda drwy gyfrwng geiriau gwrthodedigion cymdeithasol yr ardal.

Coulda bin Summin, a collection of forty-five poems, probably comes as close to re-creating the lives of people in south Wales as printed words on a page could ever do. Each poem takes us into the life of an individual with a particular viewpoint on the world. The common thread binding all these forty-five voices together is region. Through beautifully observed dialect, Mike Jenkins plays with spelling and phonetics to make sure that every one of his characters speaks with nothing less than the richest of Valleys accents.

In 'Till-A Truth', we hear a voice which could only come from the Gurnos. A mother confides her past indiscretions, but assures us that 'I never done/what I'm in yer for.' The brutal language rests unhappily next to the closing image of a mother tormented by nightmares of children trapped in a house-fire, leaving us in no doubt that this is a poem which has its origin firmly grounded in reality.

'The Jesus T-Shirt' offers a much lighter view of the world. In this poem, we are taken inside the head of someone who belongs to an altogether more polite generation and follow her thoughts as she is confronted with the obscene slogans which are displayed so frequently on the chests of young people today. Her conclusion – 'If I woz is mam,/Wouldn make rags from that' – is one which is probably shared by grandparents, in the Rhondda or elsewhere.

Mike Jenkins has gone a long way to bringing the Welsh voice alive in literature.

Hayley Long

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.