John Ormond (1923 – 1990), was a Welsh poet and filmmaker.
Ormond was born in Dunvant, Swansea, was educated at University College, Swansea, and joined the staff of Picture Post in 1945. He returned to Swansea in 1949 and, in 1957, began what was to be a distinguished career with BBC Wales as a director and producer of documentary films. Ormond ‘returned’ to poetry in the mid sixties, having destroyed much of his early poetry. His first major volume ‘Requiem and Celebration’ was published in 1969, and his reputation was enhanced in 1973 by the appearance of ‘Definition of a Waterfall’ and his inclusion in Penguin Modern Poets. A volume of selected poems was published in 1987.
His friendships with Dylan Thomas, Gwyn Thomas, Ceri Richards, Graham Sutherland, Daniel Jones, Kyffin Williams, and many others of the same quality, were founded on mutual respect, as artists of this stature readily acknowledged Ormond as a figure of comparable talent.
