Branching

If you stay long enough you will know the sound of trees, teetering yet tethered.

A tall tone, finding its way.

A silver sound, full and filling.

If you stay close enough you will know the feel of forests, soft-bellied and stoic.

A place of welcome, wonder within.

If you stay, you will know the beat of branches as they dance and delight.

Bare and bearing, beyond the sky’s edges and the ground’s grooves.

Canghennog

Os arhoswch yn ddigon hir byddwch chi'n adnabod sŵn y coed, yn simsanu, eto'n clymu.

Tôn uchel yn darganfod ei ffordd.

Sain arian, Ilawn a llenwol.

Os arhoswch yn ddigon agos byddwch chi'n adnabod naws coedwigoedd, hydrid a stoicaidd.

Lle croesawgar, rhyfeddod.

Os arhoswch, byddwch yn adnabod curiad canghennau wrth iddynt ddawnsio ac ymhyfrydu.

Yn anial ac yn ffrwythlon, y tu hwnt i ffiniau’r awyr arhigolau’r ddaear.

Seafoam

Carried by waves, each wing sprawls.

Outstretched and weathered but somehow, still.

Ewyn y don

Wedi'i gludo gan donnau, mae pob asgell yn ymledu.

Ar led, hindreuliedig, ond rhywsut, yn llonydd.

Winged

Free of form and formed of freedom.

Edged, yet softened before flight.

Adeiniog

Heb ffurf ac wedi ei ffurfio o ryddid.

Ymylol, ond eto wedi’i feddalu cyn hedfan.

Nestling

Within warmth is space. An opening that takes its time settling into what’s been made, and what might be.

Sifting through the details of beckoning days, before the taste of unfurling with another.

Nythu

Ceir gofod mewn cynhesrwydd. Agoriad sy'n cymryd ei amser i setlo i'r hyn a wnaed, a beth allai fod.

Nithio’r manylion oddyddiau braf, cyn blas ymledu ag un arall.

Nights

Thatched days turning towards suns of elsewhere.

Haar hovers, cresting seasons known by heart.

A heathered break.

Bulbed blooms and gnarly roots, rocking and rolling.

Earth moves with the shimmer of us.

Nosweithiau

Dyddiau caeedig yn troi tuag at yr haul o fannau eraill.

Mae mordawch yn hofran, tymhorau cribog a wyddom o galon.

Toriad grugog. Bylbiau’n blodeuo a gwreiddiau ceinciog, yn siglo ac yn rholio.

Mae’r Ddaear yn symud gyda’n goleuni.

Francesca (Cesca) Sobande is a writer and reader in digital media studies at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism Media and Culture (JOMEC), who lives in Cymru (Wales). Her books include Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture (University of California Press, 2024), Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19 (SAGE, 2022), and The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Francesca is co-author/co-dreamer with layla-roxanne hill of Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland (Bloomsbury, 2022), the free graphic novel and animation Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us (2023), and the forthcoming book, Look, Don’t Touch: Reflections on the Freedom to Feel (404 Ink, 2025). Her bylines include Disegno, Paste Magazine, and The Vinyl Factory, and she is a member of the GEM Collective. Francesca enjoys midnight skies and all things emo.

Mae Francesca Sobande yn awdur ac yn ddarllenydd ym maes astudiaethau’r cyfryngau digidol yn Ysgol Newyddiaduraeth, y Cyfryngau a Diwylliant Prifysgol Caerdydd (JOMEC). Mae hi’n byw yng Nghymru. Mae ei llyfrau’n cynnwys Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture (University of California Press, 2024), Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19 (SAGE, 2022), a The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Mae Francesca yn gyd-awdur/cyd-freuddwydiwr gyda layla-roxanne hill o Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland (Bloomsbury, 2022), y nofel graffig ac animeiddiad rhad ac am ddim Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us (2023), a'r llyfr sydd i ddod, Look, Don't Touch: Reflections on the Freedom to Feel (404 Inc, 2025). Mae ei phennawd yn cynnwys Disegno, Paste Magazine, a The Vinyl Factory, ac mae hi'n aelod o'r GEM Collective. Mae Francesca yn mwynhau’r awyr ganol nos a phopeth emo.