Cerddi Mewn Gerddi/Poems in Gardens , Yr Ardd

August 2024 – September 2024

Cerddi Mewn Gerddi/Poems in Gardens was organised by Literature Wales in partnership with Yr Ardd Community Garden, Llandysul, and with £3,010 funding from Brechfa Forest West Wind Farm Community Fund. The project was led by local writer Elinor Wyn Reynolds.

  • This project ensures an inclusive and welcoming literature scene through the medium of Welsh.
  • This project utilises literature to increase knowledge of the climate emergency and inspires individuals and communities to make changes for the benefit of the environment and climate.
  • The activity ensures that communities are empowered to shape and develop their own bespoke literature activities, even after the project ends.
  • The project ensures that the opportunities of actively participating in literature are discovered by individuals across Wales

Outputs:

  • 35 participant attendances
  • 3 workshops & 3 poems
  • 1 Sharing Event
  • 1 mentoring session

Feedback

“Yr Ardd was immensely grateful to Literature Wales in its approach to run sessions with local bilingual poet Elinor Wyn Reynolds.  We appreciated providing a different offering as a way of engaging the local community with the garden.  I attended two of the three sessions and was struck by how Elinor was able to shift and accommodate the needs of individuals in each group, enabling them to be heard and to participate in the way they felt able.  There was a wonderful energy in each session.

I actively engaged in the session with Welsh speakers and learners.  We started with Elinor asking each of us to name and describe a plant growing at the garden which best described them.  It was beautiful and immensely inspiring to hear what people had to say, and Elinor’s capturing of what was said through the resulting poem echoed the vibrancy and magical qualities of the session.

For me, the sessions were one of the highlights of the summer.  They provided an opportunity to experience Yr Ardd in a different way, by using my senses and knowing.  The Literature Wales team provided just the right level of support.  They put the infrastructure in place that I needed as Project Manager, including the necessary publicity, yet still gave us the width and freedom to create the optimal offering for the community.  Elinor was the right fit for us, both in her ability to braid the Welsh and English language, but also her encouragement, warmth and adaptability.  I would welcome the opportunity to work with both Literature Wales and Elinor again and hope we could expand the offering, and perhaps involve emerging community gardens in the area.”
Elizabeth Riches, Yr Ardd

Future plans

Following the experience of this pilot project we are now exploring, with the local community, the possibility of developing a longer-term programme beginning in 2025, which would enable the communities of Brechfa Forest to work with a professional writer to develop their own creativity, support community cohesion, strengthen health and wellbeing and deepen their engagement with the natural world on their doorstep.

Notes:

Climate Emergency and Participation are a strategic priority for Literature Wales and this pilot project aimed to build community cohesion and social inclusion, using creative writing to encourage participants to explore what Yr Ardd means to them and their community, especially in the context of climate change and the net zero challenge.

Project partners

Yr Ardd: a new community gardening project based on the outskirts of Llandysul/Pontweli with aims to bring the local community together to face not only climate change but cultural change too.
Tysul Youth Centre: based in Llandysul encourages personal and social development in an informal setting and is guided by the Youth Work curriculum for Wales.
The Family Centre: welcomes mums, dads, grandparents and carers with children under 5 to come to make new friends, learn new skills and spend quality time playing and learning in a fun and stimulating environment.
Yr Ardd Volunteers group: encourages local residents of all ages to bring the local community together.

Artists

Elinor Wyn Reynolds is an award-winning poet, author and editor. She was born in Treorchy, in the Rhondda Valley, and grew up in Carmarthen, west Wales.
Iola Ynyr is a freelance artist specialising in theatre and digital work as a director, inventor, and playwright.

Read the full report of the project here and you can find, on the Literature Wales website, reflections from the lead poet, Elinor