About the Book:

try not to use your tongue
to investigate
the buds and folds of flesh
at its own root
- 'Poem'

In some ways Martin Mooney's most personal collection so far, The Resurrection of the Body at Killysuggen
sees the poet exploring the fear of death, sexual jealousy, political atrophy and artistic disappointment.

Written with his typical concern for craft and firmly rooted in the colloquial, Mooney's poems are
intensely engaged with art and mortality, the thwarted or misdirected ambition of the writer, the
obsessive creativity of the outsider artist, and the inevitable falling short of any artistic project.

Yet this collection also celebrates an apparently unjustifiable 'optimism of the will' and a resigned
determination in the face of the disappointments of love, art and the body. Nothing is written off or
ruled out and in the course of ordinary failures extraordinary things can sometimes be achieved.

About the Author:

Martin Mooney was born in Belfast and has worked as a civil servant, creative
writing teacher, arts administrator and publican. As well as poetry, he has
written for the theatre and published short fiction, reviews, critical articles
and cultural commentary in Irish and British periodicals. The Resurrection of
the Body at Killysuggen is his fourth collection.