Poems · Prints · Readings
A broken heart
is not the end
of a man
Poems written because I needed somewhere to put the weight I was carrying — love in the beginning, in the wanting, in the losing, and in the long quiet after. Printed on cotton paper, signed by hand, sent anywhere in the world.
p. 33
As simple as this might sound— You’ve made me smile on train platforms, Actually, you made me smile today surrounded by strangers. and I watched that smile spread, as I lifted my head, and meet the eyes of passing souls. And I wondered— do they have this too? It’s the small things, isn’t it.
p. 78
Even when my mind stops Takes a break from the world You’re still there In my mind Even when the quiet takes hold You’re still my comfort You are my ease My steadiness in the noise of nothing No saint Just you Mo Anam Cara. My sermon And I would preach it to the world… I like it when I hear your voice.
p. 138
There was no proper ending Just silence And an invested heart That’s how love dies not with goodbye, but with nothing at all. You left me on read. . . I’ve still got our play list.
p. 176
Today, I was talking to my son about death. He listened quietly, then asked me, “If I died tomorrow, would you bury the love you have for me with me? I wouldn’t want to be alone. Where does the love go when someone dies? Why would you leave them without it?” I had no answer. Because children have a way of asking questions that make grown men feel very small indeed. So I held him a little longer, and hoped that, love knows. . . how to find the dead.
I
Poem of the month
Silence
From Love as Existence, Not Decoration · Chapter III, The Breaking of Us
There was no proper ending
Just silence
And an invested heart
That's how love dies
not with goodbye,
but with nothing at all.
You left me on read…
I've still got our playlist.
The books
Three collections Books on AmazonOne out in the world, two still coming. Books I to III are on Amazon; the signed prints are the only thing that comes from the Etsy shop. They were written in the order they're read — the beginning, the wanting, the breaking, the grief that stayed, and whatever remains after it.
II · Second collection
November 2026
Love as Existence, Not Decoration
Five chapters, three hundred and sixty-seven poems: When Love First Found Me, The Wanting, The Breaking of Us, The Grief That Stayed, What Remains.
Amazon only · pre-order autumn 2026
Pre-order
III · Third collection
February 2027
The Last Time I Fell In Love
In progress. What comes after grief stops being an event and becomes a room you live in.
Amazon only · list hears first
Get told first
What readers say
In their words, not mine“I lost my dad 2 years ago & I find his words so touching.”
“A great source of comfort and reflection after my father’s passing last year.”
“Beautiful words spoken help soothe the soul and heal the pain in my heart.”
“This poem perfectly represents my husband. … It is not all ‘doom and gloom’, it’s life affirming!”
“I can literally hear the Author’s voice in my head, as I read each sentence.”
“His words and candor have gotten me through some difficult days.”
Most requested
Funeral & memorial
5.0 · 24 reviews · 200 saved
Raise a Glass
Do not mourn me…
The poem people ask for most — read at wakes and funerals across the world since it went out. An instant download you print and frame yourself, or take to a printer, so it can be ready for a service at short notice.
Letterpress
Where Does the Love Go?
The whole poem — a son's question and no answer for it. Letterpress on 300gsm cotton rag, 8×10in.
€48
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Giclée
Mo Anam Cara
Twelve lines for a soul friend, set wide with the Irish kept as it's spoken. 8×10in.
€28
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Letterpress
Silence
Eight lines and a great deal of white space. Letterpress, deckled edge, 8×10in.
€38
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Not yet on sale
Prices are set, but these three go on sale when Love as Existence, Not Decoration is published in the autumn. Join the list and you’ll know the day they do. Everything available now is in the shop.
Join the list →Work with me
Commissions & voice
A poem of your own
Commission a poem
For a wedding, a funeral, an anniversary, or someone who needs telling. Written from what you tell me, narrated in my own voice if you want it read aloud.
From €180 → Narration & voiceover Hire the voiceAudiobooks, commercial and corporate work. Dublin, unsanded. Twenty years of it, and the Book of Truths audiobook as a ninety-minute demo.
Rates and setup →Readings &
bookings
Half-hour sets in bookshops, festivals, funerals and living rooms. Commissions for weddings and memorials taken four at a time.
Enquire| 12 Sep | Charlie Byrne's | Galway | Tickets |
| 04 Oct | The Poetry Café | London | Tickets |
| 22 Nov | Irish Arts Center | New York | Tickets |
| 06 Dec | Hodges Figgis | Dublin | Tickets |
About
The Wandering Paddy,
aka James Mooney
An Irish author and voiceover artist from Dublin. After a career in the military, he now works in IT alongside his poetry and writing. Jamie is a cancer survivor, an experience which has had a major impact on his work. I write about the people we keep and the people we lose, in plain words, because grief has no patience for cleverness.
The poems are written wherever I happen to be — ferries, spare rooms, the good chair at my mother's. They're read in bookshops and at gravesides, church weddings and many of life's events. Love as Existence, Not Decoration is his second collection, following The Book of Truths.