It has been variously described as a snake, a zip, a ribbon, a scar, a Welsh version of Route 66. Memories, myths and moments of love and heartbreak are woven into a collection of poems on an unusual subject – the A470 road that connects north and south Wales .
Although the subject matter may seem unpromising, the collection A470: Poems for the Road / Cerddi’r Ffordd has proved popular with critics and readers and has already been reissued twice since it was launched on St David’s Day in March.
Cian Northey, who is co-editor of the tome, came up with the idea of asking people to write – in Welsh or English – a poem about the road, which stretches 186 miles from Cardiff in the south to Llandudno in the north, crossing towns, villages, mountains and valleys .
Selected poems were translated and printed side by side in both languages. Hundreds of people sent submissions – around a third in Welsh – to the publisher, Arachne Press, and 51 were selected.
Northey said the A470 was a good topic because most Welsh people have some opinion – good or bad – about the road. “People who ride it regularly tend to curse it, while those who use it less often have softer feelings,” she said.
Her own poem, Rhyw Bedair Awr (About four o’clock), suggests that the road – with “all the turns / a random red kite” – transforms the traveler into another person.
Northey said it was important for the book to be bilingual. “There is a tendency for the literary scene in Wales to split between the Welsh language and English. It’s nice when they can be brought together.
Editors and publishers were delighted by the variety of poems. There are many descriptions of mountains and rivers, references to the seashore, shale quarries, birds of prey and fighter jet flights. One poem recalls how the children were once Welshed by them with the headmaster’s cane.
Tributes are paid to a closed Little Chef in Builth Wales, the Llandudno goats who took over during the first lockdown and – in one called Llawlyfr Mam i Pit Stops Cymru (Mum’s Guide to Welsh Pit Stops) – the best places for a toilet break.
Stephen Payne, poet and academic, presented a poem for the Pontypridd Museum, a few yards down the road. For him the road means trips to the Brecon Beacons and the Hay Festival, a sense of escape. He said he traveled through “remarkably unspoilt” country, connecting north and south in a way that a harrowing rail journey could not. “It’s a good image for the unity of Wales,” he said.
Accordingly, the volume was on the road, with poets reading his work across the country, including at the prestigious National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.
Storyville Books in Pontypridd held a reading of some of the poems where Geoff Baxter, co-owner of the shop, said they had clearly caught the imagination. “The event was great fun, with obvious emotional pressure and a real flow between the poets and the audience, especially the natural movement between English and Welsh, the two languages of Wales.
“Anyone who has lived along the route has such vivid memories and emotions associated with the road. If you live near a South Wales valley, for example, you can hear the road in the background almost constantly, ever-present. For me personally it means I’m almost home when I turn off the M4 onto the A470.’
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