Eleanor has written a new poem for The Black Chair Eisteddfod Centenary Festival, Birkenhead Park 2017. She read her poem ‘Memorial’ as part of the Crowning ceremony, a children’s poetry competition held in Welsh and English and adjudicated by Professor Deryn Rees-Jones on 9th September at Wirral Hospital School.
In the Birkenhead Eisteddfod of 1917 Welsh language poet Hedd Wyn won the Eisteddfod Chair with his poem ‘The Hero’ but he had been killed in the Battle of Passchendaele. On hearing of his death the chair was covered with a black shroud and returned to his birthplace in Snowdonia.
The centenary was marked by the restoration of the memorial stone and a public ceremony in Birkenhead Park led by Huw Edwards and attended by many dignitaries.
Also for this project, during the summer of 2017 Eleanor and artist Sian Bailey led poetry and illustration workshops with primary school children in Birkenhead on the theme of War and Peace.
The children’s poems will be published in an anthology which will include the full text of Eleanor’s poem.
