David Annwn (born 1953) is an Anglo-Welsh poet, critic, teacher, playwright and magic lanternist who was raised in Cheshire, England. In his undergraduate years at the University of Aberystwyth, David edited Dragon poetry magazine and helped convene the Gallery Poets series at UCW Neuadd Fawr with Rose Simpson, ex-member of the Incredible String Band. In 1973, he met Robert Duncan, a future influence on his poetry, and studied for his doctorate supervised by Jeremy Hooker. Annwn taught at Wakefield College and Leeds University from 1981 to 1995, latterly becoming Head of English. Active as an organiser and performer, Annwn collaborated with musician John Cowey and poet Roula Pollard in running poetry/drama events at Wakefield College Theatre and convened reading tours for American writers including Robert Berthof, Black Mountain artist Basil King and Bobby Louise Hawkins. Since 2004 Thomas Ingmire and David Annwn have collaborated in the creation of more than 15 unique artist books. 

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Palimpsest

Of writing and dreaming writing under the writing
and working in the Vatican library,
Angelo Mai discovering under a common copy
of Augustine’s psalms
a work thought missing for eighteen centuries:
surfacing minutely: Cicero’s Republica containing
The Dream of Scipio, where he,
a young man visiting Africa
was visited by his deceased grandfather
in dream,
who lifted him up so that he looked down
‘from a high place full of stars, shining
and splendid’ where Carthage and Rome
were as nothing beside the blazing stars,
the vast universe and celestial spheres
and, as he stares in wonder, he begins to hear
a music ‘tantus et tam dulcis,’ so burgeoning
loud and sweet, it ravishes him
this ‘musica universalis’, and earth
he observes from snow fields to the deserts
complete
as if the soul were circle in circle conducive
to the whole, protected
within this far, high sound
rising from words eighteen centuries old
hidden beneath the rounds of psalms
so that the dream not be forgotten
rising beyond and towards us
as if the forgotten writing
were dreaming, mind through mind
of writing dreaming writing under the writing.