Gordon Ferris was born and raised in Finglas, a North West suburb of 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 publications including Hidden Channel, A New Ulster, The Galway Review, Impspired Magazine, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. 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’. Gordon was awarded a Poetry Town Bursary by Poetry Ireland. He also had his first book published in January past by Impspired, a short story collection called Echoes.

The Heron.

the heron stands majestic
on the Garvogue River
I try to capture it on film 
 
holding the camera steady 
zooming in with my elbow tight on my side 
not really knowing what  to do
 
the solitary bird stands still 
as if posing even though
it is a distance away 
 
looking in a different direction 
at two swans and their three Cygnets 
competition for its food  
 
I had seen this heron many times 
in the same spot on the river 
always alone 
 
appears suddenly  disappears suddenly 
had never seen it in flight 
this   would be magic to see    majestic

 Faraway.

( dedicated to my grandchildren, Nina, Chloé and Oscar )

Night transforms jumping shadows                              
 
Into figures dancing on the wall
 
No one sees these but you 
 
And as you look at the world your light always shines  
 
Clear eyes and a look that
 
Has you disarmed   any tiredness gone You 
 
Lose track of who you are 
 
One sad-eyed look to say 
 
Every breathing heartbeat is precious 
 
Oceans apart and yet these 
 
Shores have become your other home 
 
Chosen for you out of necessity 
 
Apart from us by just hours   
 
Rough but not unendurable                                           

A life lived

She sang 
and 
gained glances 
 
I  just continued to drink
and watched the stranger dance
 
how was i to think
our futures 
 
would become so entwined
 
as lovers
 
parents 
 
bitter enemies 
 
Our 
misunderstanding
Our 
not understanding
Eventually
becoming
best friends 
 
like the closeness of brother and sister