Matt Mooney. Born, a farmer’s son, in Kilchreest, Co. Galway in 1943. A graduate of UCG and UCC he has worked as a Vocational Teacher in Listowel. His collections of poems are: Droving (2003), Falling Apples (2010), Earth to Earth (2015) and The Singing Woods (2017). Winner of The Pádraig Liath Ó Conchubhair Award 2019. (Filíocht/Poetry). He is a reviewer, copy editor and proof reader with the Galway Review Literary Magazine. His poems and writings have been published in: The Blue Nib; The Amaravati International Poetic Prism Anthology; The Galway Review (online), The Galway Review Anthology; Feasta; West 47; The Applicant; Poetry Breakfast; Poems on the Edge; The Connaught Tribune,The Kerryman and Kerrys Eye; The Galway Advertiser (Peann agus Pár); Pendemic and Live Encounters. He has been a feature reader in The White House, Ó Bhéal, On the Nail, West Cork Literary Festival, Baffle, Féile Raifteirí, Éigse Dara Beag , The Forge in Gort and has featured online in Cultivating Voices (USA) and Not the time to be Silent. One of his poems appears on the syllabus of a number of UK Primary Schools . His poems have been read on: RTE Radio, Wired FM, Radio Kerry.

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Unforeseen

A glimpse of you
on the street
and you write
on the blank pages
of these in between times
of mine;
always the unforeseen,
these lightning flashes
striking to stop me short;
for seconds
I’m drawn to your face,
your dark hair
your glowing skin,
our magnetic fields merging
with this proximity,
our planets eclipsing;
aspiring
against all the odds,
swimming
against the tide,
wishing
I could press pause
to see you
for a few seconds more:
a heavenly body in motion,
fading away
in the galaxy of my illusions.