Gordon Ferris was born in  Dublin. In the early eighties, he moved to Donegal where he has lived ever since. He started writing in 2014 and has had many short stories and poems in many publications.  He has also won prizes in the summer 2020 HITA Creative Writing Competition for his poem ‘Mother’, and won the winter competition for his poem ‘The Silence’. Poetry Ireland awarded Gordon a Poetry Town Bursary in 2021.

In January of 2023, Gordon had his short story collection Echoes published by Impspired.

At two

When I was small
our house seemed huge
the hall a skating rink
we would slide up and down 
in our stocking feet
our adults seemed like gentle giants
always smiling  
     playing our childish games 

my heart would leap in my chest 
when I’d  see dad 
come around the corner 
in his faraway gaze 
his eyes would brighten and his face lit up 
when he saw my face ignite 
at his coming home 

as a baby 
I remember 
not going to sleep until 
he came home
I'd fall asleep lying on his chest 
drifting  off 
to the sound of his heartbeat

Blind spot

Our failure to see 
danger, that is 
sometimes hidden
in plain sight 

in our blind spots 
danger that is 
deceptively
right in front of us

our brain 
compensating

the purpose 
in reality

a discreet way 
of protecting us. 

Expectations

At some point, we must accept 
our dreams have become nightmares
we tell ourselves that reality is better

we can tell ourselves 
it would have been better 
if we were never to dream

but the strongest of us
the bravest of us
live through the nightmare

and some are fortunate 
to see new bright dreams emerge
from this darkness

temporary friends

[on the bus to Sligo.] 

Strange faces 
suddenly 
come into 
our space 
momentarily 
part of 
our world 
in our orbit
all sorts of 
imagined 
interactions 
just as suddenly 
they're gone 
fading
as if 
having never 
existed