Martin Mooney

At yesterday's Music and Mind Festival in Whitehead, the young Belfast poet Zara Meadows read a cento, a poem constructed of lines and phrases from poems by other poets. I’m a massive fan of the found poem in general, usually based on non-literary texts, but the cento isn’t a form I’ve explored. It prompted me to share this, though. A year or so before he died, my friend the artist, musician and designer David Hunter (known online as Speciman Yak) recorded a piece of music with lyrics taken...

I was very pleased to have a poem, 'Lapse', chosen by Helen Ivory for the brilliant Ink, Sweat & Tears last week. If you haven't seen it, have a look here. In her brief intro, Helen describes it as 'a poem born of taking the time to truly unpick something to its roots.' And I've been thinking about that. What was going on in the making of this piece? In the first place I try not to overthink what I'm about in any poem - I've learned the hard way that setting out with a purpose in mind will...

Two readings in the pipeline. On Saturday August 29 I'll be appearing in the annual poetry fixture in Whitehead's Music and Mind Festival - more on that when I have more info on the other readers. The following week I'll be sharing the stage with Csilla Toldy, Joel Simon, David Davies and Donna Hunter at the monthly Invited to the Mic event at the fantastic American Bar in Belfast. That's on Thursday 3 September at 7pm, and it would be great to see you there. Bonus ball - the poster is AI-free.