Jenni Wyn Hyatt's poetry is, for the most part, written in a traditional style using rhyme and metre but in language which is accessible to a modern reader. Her subjects cover the whole range of human experience from the heartbreaking to the humorous and her love of Wales and of nature are evident. 'Striped Scarves and Coal Dust' is divided into sections, enabling it to be read in small 'chunks' if desired. The collection contains a small section of poems written both in Welsh and in English, the poems in each pair being an almost exact translation of the other so that non-Welsh-speaking readers are not disadvantaged.