He moved to the
United States in 1957 with his two daughters. From 1961, he regularly visited the West Side neighbourhood of
New York City and met the Beat Generation writers there. He became a friend of
Jack Kerouac and lived in the
Bronx, where he wrote some bilingual poems in Breton and in English about New York or his nostalgy of Brittany in an American big city, as
Un dornad plu ("A handful of feathers", 1961) or
War ribl ar stêr Harlem ("On the bank of Harlem river", August 1963). In 1968, he wrote a poems' collection called
New York City blues. In the 1997's Al Liamm edition of
Un dornad plu, Youenn Gwernig explained why he used to write his poems in Breton and to translate them in English : ''"Meeting with Jack Kerouac in 1965, for instance, was a decisive turn. Since he could not speak Breton he asked me : "Would you not write some of your poems in English, I'd really like to read them !..." So I wrote an Diri Dir - Stairs of Steel for him, and kept on doing so. That's why I often write my poems in Breton, French and English."'' He used to send his poems to the Breton magazine
Al Liamm. He returned to Brittany in 1969 with his wife (Suzig) and his daughters (Annaïg, Gwenola and Marie). He moved to
Locmaria-Berrien and worked with Patrick Ewen and Gérard Delahaye. In 1972, he published a collection of poetry called An Toull en nor. He released the album
Distro ar Gelted ("Come back the Celtic people") in 1974. He became famous with his song
E-kreiz an noz ("In the middle of the night"). He wrote a novel in French in 1982,
La grande tribu ("The great tribe" in French language), where he described his life in the USA. In 1990 his album
Emañ ar bed va iliz ("The world is my church") was released. He died in 2006. == Discography ==