Poetry collection celebrating life in Wales released for free online

Two years since the collection’s release, Cardiff-based performance poet Matt Nõmme has made his debut free to read online.

Happy Daze, released in November 2023, features 90 pages of poetry and reminiscences, accompanied by photography from around Wales.

In Matt’s own words, the book celebrates what a “beautiful shithole” Wales is, while detailing episodes from the poet’s life in his classic irreverent yet eloquent fashion.

In an announcement on Instagram, Matt wrote: “Can’t believe I published my first book two years ago!

“Massive diolch to everyone who’s supported the past few years ❤️ I’ve lobbed it up on the internet archive for anyone to read for free.”

Happy Daze plays into Matt’s aim to explore “different forms and places that poetry can be published; through posters, graffiti, videos, invading spaces that people may not expect poetry to be and engaging with them directly.”

As well as characteristic street art fonts, his poems include the interactive ‘Enter Place Name Here’, the hilarious ‘Scantily Clad’, and the short and sweet ‘Wales, 1999’.

Speaking to Nation.Cymru after the viral success of his poem ‘Every C**ts Climbed Pen y Fan’ in May, Matt said: “A new book is in the works, but the response to the [poem] has reminded me that poetry can resonate with a wider audience, and maybe putting all of my energy into another book right now may not be the best way to reach them because it’s the words that matter, not that they’re on a bookshelf.”

When he announced that Happy Daze is free to read online, Matt provided another update that “Yes another one is in the making, yes it’s a while off,” so it looks like we’ll still need to wait for the sequel.

Commenting on the Instagram post, poetry readers resonated with the book’s message, writing ‘Bendigedig’, ‘Top notch’, and ‘Wales is the most beautiful shithole – I am trying to explain this to my Argentinian partner and friends.’

Happy Daze is available to read for free via the Internet Archive here.

For more from Matt, visit his site here, and his Instagram here.