QueerIrishVoices
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The hum of lines
I wrote a poem this week called The Hum of Lines. It is not a bright poem. It sits in the quiet room. It listens to the machine. It hears the slow, steady movement of blood through borrowed pathways. Dialysis has a soundscape. The hum of the pump. The soft alarms. The rhythm that is… Continue reading
ChronicIllness, ChronicIllnessCommunity, ChronicIllnessFaith, CompassionInCare, Contemplation, ContemplativePrayer, DailyDevotion, Dialysis, DialysisAndDignity, DialysisDays, DialysisDiaries, DialysisJourney, DialysisLife, DialysisSpirituality, Faith, FaithAndIllness, FaithInAction, FaithInTheEveryday, FindingConnection, HeldInLove, IrishReflection, LGBTQStories, LiveWithADisability, NeuroDivine, PatientVoices, Poetry, PoetryOfPlace, Prayer, QueerIrishVoices, QueerLove, QuietCourage, QuietMoments, QuietWitness, ResillienceInIllness, Routine, SacredRoutine, SmallMercies, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney, SpiritualReflection, ThresholdOfGrace -
A Quiet House, A Returning Train
Today I found myself writing two small Common Metre poems—companions to one another. Andrew was in Dublin for a course, and the house felt different in his absence. Not lonely exactly. Just altered. Softer around the edges. The Sunday light lay still. The cats took up their posts. The kettle hummed. Pancakes became a small,… Continue reading
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A Thaw is Coming: More from the Icicle Lounge this Spring
A Word from North ‘The wind was after rising something fierce that evening, howling across the valley like a creature that had lost its way. I stood by the hearth, watching the sparks fly up the chimney, and I thought to myself: No one should be out in that. I looked at the others—Frost with… Continue reading
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The Icicle Lounge: Come in from the cold
Inspired by the Birth of The Icicle Lounge, a series of short stories is now taking shape. While each piece stands on its own, they are quietly connected by the Lounge itself — a shared setting where different lives unfold. I hope you enjoy this second story. The Icicle Lounge was not supposed to exist in… Continue reading
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Fit Lads of Winter & The Birth of The Icicle Lounge
There’s something about winter that sharpens everything. The air is colder. The sky is clearer. The silence feels closer to the skin. And yet—in that cold—warmth becomes unmistakable. “Fit Lads of Winter” began as a playful meditation on contrast. I kept imagining figures striding through snow as if it were nothing. Jackets open. Breath visible.… Continue reading
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The rainbow on my wrist.
From Monasterevin’s quiet stopThe morning train rolls west;Past cattle grazing by the line,And rooks that guard each nest.We cross the Barrow’s silver span,The viaduct below;A hare breaks cover in the reedsAnd watches as we go.In Port Laoise-bound and drifting thoughtsI catch a sudden grin—A stranger nods as though they knowSome secret held within.In town, the… Continue reading
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A Sunday kept in Love
A Sunday Kept in Love began as a reflection on an ordinary Sunday shaped by absence, devotion, and small, faithful rituals. The poem gathers simple domestic details—the batter left waiting, the organ lifting prayer at eleven, a familiar café table with one chair open, two cats keeping watch at home—and discovers in them a love… Continue reading
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Holy. Queer. Desire.
For many queer people—especially those of us who are neurodivergent—the search for connection has often unfolded in the margins: in late-night conversations, in coded glances, in apps that both liberate and exhaust us. Our longing has been shaped by secrecy, by rejection, by comparison, and by the fierce hope of finally being seen. This hymn… Continue reading
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Andrew, this is you.
Some love stories are written in grand gestures. Ours has been written in endurance. This Valentine’s Day, I honour fifteen years of partnership with Andrew—and ten years of civil marriage later this year—not because the dates fall now, but because love that has lived this much deserves to be named whenever the heart nudges. Our… Continue reading
AnglicanBenedictine, Christianity, ChronicIllness, ChronicIllnessCommunity, CompassionInCare, Contemplation, Dialysis, DialysisLife, DialysisSpirituality, EmbodiedPrayer, Faith, FaithInAction, FaithInTheEveryday, FindingConnection, health, HeldInLove, LGBTQStories, life, LiveWithADisability, NeuroDivine, Poetry, PoetryOfPlace, QueerIrishVoices, QueerLove, QuietCourage, QuietMoments, Reverence, SacredRoutine, SacredSpaces, Sanctity, SmallMercies, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney, SpiritualReflection -
The Gentle Way
He steadies me when storms arise,He keeps my heart at peace;He makes sure meals are never missed,And anxious thoughts release.He watches that my tablets comeAt times they’re meant to be;His quiet care, his gentle ways,Bring daily strength to me.Though beds may stand in separate roomsFor breath and rest to stay,Our love still holds through every… Continue reading
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Coat. Bear. Grace.
Reflections from the dialysis chair—on presence, partnership, and the stories still unfolding. Dialysis takes it out of you. The hours are long, the movement minimal, and the body feels like it’s been borrowed by a machine. For me—an autistic gay Irishman living in Kildare and receiving treatment in Port Laoise—it’s not just about the treatment.… Continue reading
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