Book Launch: My Moon Self, December 6

This was a reading/gathering to present to the community Philomena Moriarty’s book My Moon Self: A Spiritual Memoir Through Poetry (Bodhicitta Press, 2015), held at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany. She was introduced by her husband, Sam Trumbore, the pastor at the U.U. (& full disclosure: I had read Philomena’s manuscript & provided comments & suggestions, & I am mentioned in the Acknowledgments.)

Many of us in the poetry scene have heard Philomena read these poems, & others, at open mics throughout the area. Today she read a selection from the book, touching on the Buddhist text The Way of the Bodhisattvas (the title poem, “My Moon Self”) & it’s American pop culture version, the TV show Kung Fu (“Walking on Rice Paper”), also “Walking Meditation” & the last poem “Benefaction.” But along the way she also visited her Irish Catholic upbringing with the poem “Act of Contrition,” & a poem about her mother grieving the death of Philomena’s brother, “Romance.”

So nice to have this lovely, illustrated book of Philomena’s poems.