Live Encounters Poetry & Writing June 2026
Moonstalker, poems by Paddy Donoghue.
Moonstalker
Lady Days’ Voice
(i.m. Billie Holiday 07 April 1915 – 17 July 1959)
A voice – chiselled
by years of hardship
roughened like a
worn path – trodden
over by unscrupulous
vendors of tragedy
seeking selfish profit
courting glory and fame.
A voice – smoke deep
after a night in drawing
applause from punters
in some seedy bar.
A voice – reeking of sadness
telling its story of a life
lived on the threshold
the very edges of society.
A voice – fuelled with a
loneliness that would freeze
a legion of soft hearts
comfort the broken.
A voice – that told the story
of the many lives lived
alone and in silence
in obscurity – unnoticed.
A voice – that offered
a bridge connecting
storied people – a thread
a lifeline and a hope.
Truth Distorted
mirror a
reflection without
suspended
place fire the above
not – things of destroyer a
anymore required
reality the distorts
facts in find to hope we
real the for searching while
world unreal an in
truths as – veiled deceits where
conscience our flood
judged are we – questioning
undesirables or traitors
establish to seeking merely when
facts the –
believe to told are we stories the in
© Paddy Donoghue
Born in Glencolmcille, currently residing in Bundoran, Paddy has been writing poetry since his school days. Widely published. He was the Donegal Bealtaine Poet 2025, facilitating workshops across Donegal. His 2024 collection, Leave Taking, was shortlisted for the CAP Awards. Founder of Bundoran Writers Group and Atlantic Writers Ink.