The following poem is featured in the Woodland Poetry Path (Llwybr Llên) in the village of Llandre (Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn) where I live. It is an attempt to express my feeling for the atmosphere of the area around the village and the historical, legendary and geographical features of the valley of which it is a part. It refers both to the general topography and specifically to features such as the site of a medieval motte and bailey castle as well as associations with Brigid (Ffraid) further along the valley of the Leri (Eleri) and also the ‘lost land’ of Cantre’r Gwaelod under the sea near the river’s estuary on the nearby coast. Here is the poem:
Genau’r Glyn: the gap into Eleri’s vale
Where road and rail run in parallel
To join the line of the river’s glide
And turn, here in a sinuous slide,
Far from Craig y Pistyll where Eleri
Falls to Cantre’r Gwaelod and the sea.
Seen from the tump of Castell Gwallter
Or, higher still, the spur of Bryn Hir,
The lane turns above the stream
Past Glanfrêd, a far vista, a dream
Of an old chapel by Ffraid’s spring
From Llanfihangel’s heights seeming
To be hidden in the valley’s past:
Time, like the river, slips from our grasp.
Genau’r Glyn: the gap into Eleri’s vale
Where road and rail run in parallel
To join the line of the river’s glide
And turn, here in a sinuous slide,
Far from Craig y Pistyll where Eleri
Falls to Cantre’r Gwaelod and the sea.
Seen from the tump of Castell Gwallter
Or, higher still, the spur of Bryn Hir,
The lane turns above the stream
Past Glanfrêd, a far vista, a dream
Of an old chapel by Ffraid’s spring
From Llanfihangel’s heights seeming
To be hidden in the valley’s past:
Time, like the river, slips from our grasp.