"Like everyone, I go around imagining things, trying to identify what I see and hear and conserving memories. My poems are thoughts portrayed in words, in the belief that sometimes a word is worth a thousand pictures." (Stephen)
What People Are Saying
“This guy’s poetry is addictive. Laconic, minutely observant and bemused at life. Love it.”
Vanessa Gebbie
“One of the most original minds in the UK.”
Maggie Gee
“full-hearted wide-branching verse”
@IrishLitSoc
Sample Poems
THE PEOPLE WHO DID GOOD THINGS The people who did good things and the people who did bad are equally dead. Jesus and Hitler, Mam and Dad, all sleep together in the same big bed. Atom splitters and dealers of dope will light no more bombs and blow no more smoke. Monica from next door and Mohangi the axe murderer, snooze like babies and will wake no furtherer. Humble grower of rice and joiner of racks are stretched without the weight of the sky on their backs. Kindly nurses and torturers have all gone bye-byes and are not coming back. Their feet are no longer killing them.
IN THE WAITING ROOM OF THE WESTERN EYE I’m writing on my phone to while away The crowded hours spent in this A and E. A blur obscures my window, while the day Unspools on Marylebone’s evening street. Here while taxis’ amber lights go by, A boy is screaming in the triage room. The all-night clinic of the Western Eye Hospital, where no one can see the gloom. All are cheerful. Maisie, Mansoor, Abdul, Concepta, Fatima. One or two have been Here before and know the drill. They’re full Of London gallows humour often seen When the worst comes to the best. But joy, It’s home for the fearful, now quiet boy.
PENNY ARCADE And then there may be a moment When you look into the eyes of the other And realise they have always known. She or he is ahead of you. They always Cared. Or never cared at all. Like those old mechanical horserace games. In one race, she’s ahead of you, Everyone’s ahead of you. Yet in another game, you’re far ahead And can’t be caught.
Links to Buy
DAY OF THE FLYING LEAVES (Selected Poems, Amazon/Kindle, 2021)
First Look
List of Contents
Stephen Moran's Museum of Illusions 
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