Poetry in motion: odes to joys of ‘Welsh Route 66’ – the A470

It is variously described as a snake, a zip, a ribbon, a scar and a Welsh version of Route 66. Memories, myths and moments of love and grief have been woven into a collection of poems celebrating an unusual subject: the 186-mile A470 road that links north and south Wales.

The collection A470: Poems for the Road / Cerddi’r Ffordd, has proved popular with critics and readers and has already been reprinted twice since it was launched in March.

Sian Northey, who co-edited the volume, came up with the idea of asking people to write – in Welsh or English – a poem about the road, which stretches from Cardiff to Llandudno, cutting through towns, villages, mountains and valleys.

The 51 poems chosen from hundreds of contributions – about a third in Welsh – were translated and printed side by side in both languages.

Northey said the A470 was a good topic because most Welsh people had an opinion – good or bad – of the road. “People who travel it regularly tend to curse it, while those who use it less often have fonder feelings,” she said.

Her own poem, Rhyw Bedair Awr (About Four Hours), suggests the road – with “all the bends / the occasional red kite” – transforms the traveller.

Northey said it was important that the book was bilingual. “There’s a tendency for the literary scene in Wales to be split between the Welsh language or the English. It’s nice when they can be brought together.”

The editors and the publisher, Arachne Press, were delighted by the variety. There are descriptions of mountains and rivers, seashore, slate quarries, birds of prey and fighter plane flypasts. One poem recalls how children used to have Welsh beaten out of them by the headteacher’s cane. Homage is paid to a boardedup Little Chef at Builth Wells, the Llandudno goats during the first lockdown, and toilet breaks – Llawlyfr Mam i Pit Stops Cymru (Mam’s Guidebook to Welsh Pit Stops).

Appropriately, the volume has been on the road, with poets reading their work up and down the country, including the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. At Storyville Books in Pontypridd, the shop’s co-owner, Jeff Baxter, said: “Everyone who has lived along the route has such vivid memories and emotions attached to the road. For me personally, it means I’m nearly home when turning off the M4 on to the A470.”