Reading this poem aloud to a packed Parade Tower, at Kilkenny Castle was exhilarating! ‘Moon Woman’ was chosen by Jean O’Brien, to be part of this year’s Kilkenny Broadsheet and I got to perform at the launch on August 16th.

So many people came up to talk to me afterwards, with a ‘Congratulations!’ or ‘I loved your poem!’ or even ‘Yours was my favourite!’  Big thanks must go to Kilkenny Arts Festival and the team at the Arts Office for organising the event, which occurs annually and has obviously developed a large and enthusiastic following.

The whole experience has stayed with me, and encouraged me to make this recording of a poem that has always felt instrumental to my development as a writer, and cathartic in terms of its role in my personal history.

I don’t want to dwell too much on the inspiration behind ‘Moon Woman’, as I discussed this in my previous post. I do want to say that the creation of it felt like a blessing and brought me to a point from which I could either launch or retreat.

I hope I have launched. I hope I continue to strive and climb. Thank you for listening.

Moon Woman

The moon dripped its wax on my thighs,
as I climbed from grounded child to sky-borne girl.

I felt the clouds, the aching blue,
sit on my skin, like art.

I flew into teens, the moon coaxed
a startling shape from my sea-wave flesh.

I rose and dipped in at the waist,
grew ribbons of legs and pebble breasts.

I stepped up to twenty, multiple eyes
followed my curve, as I learned the glory

of silver light,
what it means
to be wanted,

to flirt each phase,
holding the power of ‘no’.

K. S. Moore

First published in Crannog, 2016. Also featured in Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, 2019 – copies of the broadsheet can be obtained, free of charge, from Kilkenny Arts Office and Kilkenny libraries.

Photo of this year’s Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, taken by K. S. Moore and featuring cover art by Alé Mercado.