A PWLLHELI poet has scooped this year’s Chair at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff.

Having won the stool on Monday evening’s Siwper Stomp on the Pavilion stage, and the Stomp Werin in Ty Gwerin on Thursday night, Gruffudd Eifion Owen added a Chair to his collection on Friday afternoon, winning in the final main ceremony.

Gruffudd, 32, won the Chair for a poem on one or more of the traditional poetic measures, of no more than 250 lines on the theme of ‘Porth’ (Gateway or Entrance).

The adjudicators were Ceri Wyn Jones, Emyr Davies and Rhys Iorwerth.

Delivering the adjudication on behalf of his fellow judges, Ceri Wyn Jones said: “This year’s theme was ‘Gateway’ and among those gateways, we read about the slaves’ gateway in Calabar, the Brexit gateway in Caernarfon, the gateway in the Bay and Cardiff Castle, and the gateway to the digital world. And a few gateways that I – or my fellow judges – managed to grasp!

Turning to the work of Hal Robson-Kanu, he said: “This poem took our breath away – not because it’s refined or rich, not because it’s extremely elaborate and multi-layered – but because it is so trenchant in the way it deals with experiences which are a way of life for the digital generation. And by doing this, he studies the way in which we choose to live our lives, and that meaning – or lack of meaning – has worried poets for generations of course.

“But his greatest triumph may be the fact he has done this in such an accessible way, thanks to his fast-moving colloquial style and a wide range of keys, where brand names and swear words are as natural and common to him as strict metre poems.”

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