Poetry Mondays -Gabriel Moreno's launch of new poetry book-

Event information

Goat Star Books and Poetry Mondays invite you to the launch of Gabriel Moreno's new poetry book, 'Gibraltar.' This will be a one-off event with performances by Moreno himself and The Quivering Poets, translator and editor Rafael Cruz plus special performances from Poetry Mondays stars who will read some of the poems of the book and perform some of the finest and most exhilarating music in London at this moment.

Tickets on wegottickets.com

This Gabriel Moreno's fifth collection in English and fifteenth in Spanish and English but it's the first time both languages will feature in the poems as well as his autochtonous llanito. Translated expertly by Goat Star Books.

BIO

Gabriel Moreno is a Gibraltarian poet and singer songwriter with 13 poetry collections published in both English and Spanish. He studied literature and philosophy at the University of Hull with a year out in the University of La Serena, Chile. His poems have appeared in prestigious literary publications in Spain and in the UK including Omicron, Acumen and Annexe Magazine. In 2022 he was made Cultural Ambassador of Gibraltar heading a year of cultural events in Gibraltar and London which portrayed the intricacies of Gibraltarian literature and performance. In 2022 he established Patuka Press with other Gibraltarian writers. His previous books include Identidad y Deseo (Omicron 2010) and The Passer-By (Mundo De La Cultura, 2017), (Heart Mortally Wounded By Six Strings, 2023) and Nights In The Belly of Bohemia (Poetry Mondays 2024). As a singer-songwriter Moreno has released four studio records and has been championed by BBC 6 Music presenter Cerys Mathews.




Letter to My Son (from Titling, Bavaria, April, 2025)

Son, you are old enough to comprehend the news
and I can’t shield you from the unguided bombs of human folly.
History will show you: there is nothing new in the atrocities
men commit to attest their influence and assert their opinions.
I can only hope your youth is not squandered in the squabbles
of thieves, charlatans and troglodytes.

Do not be surprised if those who were exceptionally violated
become exceptionally oblivious to the nature of suffering
or if instead of bearing flags of empathy the victims display
a villainous taste for the terror they were exposed to.
Don’t ask me why these things are so: all I can do
is string one word after another and paddle for a change.

My son, there are times when blood is more fashionable than water
and humans row away willingly from the shores of Innisfree.
But son, you were brought to this page to bond with minds
from every corner of the earth, from every nation, from every creed.
Because a friend’s embrace is more sacred than a million tanks,
because every war is a wound in the body of our future.

Son, every father is moved by wild dogs and their bones.
Every father is incapable of context when it comes to their genes.
Remember, freedom is more important than the size of your pockets.
I am sorry I could not save you from the spectacle of spite and violence,
there are nuances in every tile and crevices in every ceiling
but we must know certain houses we cannot possibly condone.


My shoulders fall every time I flick a page or watch the screen;
there are missing limbs in the billboards of Times Square,
there are children who know too soon the ways of the wolf,
There are
there are fathers who will never see their children drink afternoon tea.

But I cannot fail you like my father failed me and his father before and so on.
I cannot leave you with the ominous forebodings of a drunken troubadour
Who only found Ithaca in


Son, I am staring out into the green mountains of Bavaria.
I hear the chirping of a bird I have never heard before.