This project was funded by The Darkley Trust

Abbey Road Community is a mental health resource and information centre in Bangor. A group from the centre came together during the Summer months taking part in a series of workshops led by the author Rhian Cadwaladr. During the project the group conversed, laughed and shared their stories over cups of tea. They were inspired by each other’s words, which gave them strength and comfort.

A booklet was written as a tribute to the writers’ strength and perseverance, as part of the project. Many stories came to life when shared; below is a poem describing Treborth Gardens in Bangor by one of the group participants, Arthur Robinson:

Treborth Gardens

A dying green which speaks of autumns wean amidst the rich company of summer

Faintly familiar face, deformed and reformed etched out in bark on far flung foreign trees, regale coarsely of yesteryear’s story, spoken out in hushed and trembling tones of ageless ease.

Splintered trunks like

An auld lady’s arthritic hand clawing up moribund, achingly for air and cloud,

desperately to be endured with heavenly remedy

for her disease.

As we shadows sit

Contented in gardens of disconcerting discontent.

Some quick to grow

Some quick to die

Some dying to grow

Some growing old without qualm to reason why or question

How it’s so

Or

How it’s not

All the quixotism’s

Nature long forgot all the questions

Which bog me down

Nature will never seek to answer and as the leaves return Autumnal brown

I realize I am but a blockage of the sun casting shadow over light.

We are all blockages of the sun

Where there’s day

Hawkin’ night

Lest we all

Become as one

Lest we become

As one.

Arthur Robinson 2019