This themed reading in Chapters Bookshop (Dublin) saw a wide variety of poetic and prose offerings. First up was Maeve O’Sullivan with a prose poem (‘Moonriddle’) and a election of Haiku. Bob Shakeshaft added to the theme with his selection, including ‘Luna’, a title also in Helen Dempsey’s readings a little later. She also had interesting poems like ‘Martin’s Moon’ (from her readings of Martin Buber) and one which dealt with that phenomenon known as ‘The Moonies’, that cult which convinces people they won’t be saved unless they follow its rules (no, not the Roman Catholic Church, the Moonies. Although…). Niamh Bagnell

gave us ‘Maybe the Night’ (which she delivered without a script: I find this aways contributes a lot to the overall effect, and her delivery is really food) and ‘Street Party.’ Karl Parkinson gave ‘December Frosts’ and one by Li Po. He also delivered that long poem describing the ‘underside’ of Dublin and Bernie O’Sullivan obliged with ‘Crying for the Moon’ and ‘Moonshine’, among others. Oran Ryan gave another excerpt from his novel-in-progress ‘One-Inch Punch’ and Pauline Fayne was very much on theme with ‘Night’ and

‘First Night’. I was glad to hear Raven again with his terrific delivery style. He gave a number of poems, one of which, though untitled, was about jealousy and was very impressive. He also gave some from Heaney and Longfellow. The evening finished with some story excerpts from Eileen Keane, whose stories will be published soon.