Stephen Moran

@sjmoran.com

1143 Followers 329 Following

London Irish from Dublin. 1954-2854. Published poetry, fiction and blogs. Made a living from computer programming. Banner photo: some books I was in. Website: StephenMoransMuseumOfIllusions.WordPress.com. "It's never too late to change the future" (HCR)

Picturesque view from roadbridge over railway line with a few buddleia fronds and pink blossoms in the foreground growing from the wall, dense trees and shrubs either side of the tracks under a vee of sky mostly filled with radiant clouds. Some buildings and a white footbridge can just be seen in the distance.
Book just arrived in Amazon cardboard, taken out and it's Soundings poems we did for our leaving cert Augustine Martin foreword by Joseph O'Conner "back by popular demand" (The book is brand new but the cover design is made to look like a battered schoolbook.)
Mount Rushmore but with the heads of Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump
Evening. Mackerel sky, fleecy rippling white clouds in blue occupy two thirds of the photo above scene of entry to service road beside Greenford Road (almost out of shot on the right). Things noticeable, old gatehouse beside entrance to park, large David Lloyd sports centre sign above entrance, "hand car wash this way" sign, tall lampposts, a litter bin, and further along on the pavement a "Welcome to Harrow" sign, people in the distance etc.
Daytime, cloudy but radiant sky above, tracks go across from the left foreground and away round a bend in the distance, dark greenery on both sides and the horizon, viewed from a height above a small railway station with small platforms and small shelters, some lamposts and fences, all looking very neat with no one at all and no trains
My photo taken in the middle of the Venetian Lagoon showing one-man cargo boat crossing in front of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the distance.
Day, bluish sky with gauzy white. A large black fence in the left, trees lining right and left, a street with a faded painted roadmarking "20" dips down a bit in the middle distance then rises away again out of signt. Far along cars are parked. A small delivery motorbike is heading away in the middle of the road, on the right there are also trees but the nice thing is the way several lines from a telephone pole catch the light.
PAIN AND THE STARS Robert Mitchum’s expression says, I have a little pain but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Burt Lancaster says, I can bear it, I can bear it, how about you? Mastroianni seems to say, I fear I might be next but I’ll be ready for the day. Paul Newman of course has heard about it, would like to talk about it, if you wish. Steve McQueen is dead, died of pain, always looked like he would. Which brings us to Jimmy Dean and all those other martyrs, well they got what they wanted. But Eastwood, now he offers pain, you want it, (well do you punk?), there’s plenty to go round. Bogart is not really thinking about his own pain, his terrible pain, he only wants to ask about yours. Edward G: I’ve got it, now you’re going to get it. Cagney thinks it’s all the same, joy or pain, best get it while it’s going. Brando: What have you got, I’m hedging my bets but I’m thinking how can I get out of this before it hurts. James Mason: Don’t talk to me about pain, my back is killing me. George Sanders is thinking, pain you say – we’ll see about that. There were women too, shrieking and tittering, they knew it served us right. But that was all a long time ago. (Day of the Flying Leaves)
Day. Blue sky, white clouds. A very large yellow JCB-type digger on caterpillar tracks is seen on top of a mound of earth, perhaps twice or 1.5 times its own height, pyramidical and the top with hardly enough room for the digger to stand on. The arm of the digger is outstretched bent down to near the ground. There is no one in the cab. A wire panel fence in the foreground, some blocks of flats in the background. All in the car park or anyway, flat space in front of a block of flats. There's nobody around.
Such a tiny ragdoll with little arms outstretched lost, on a pavement beside a wall with ivy above
Section of grass verge with lots of daisies covered over by a wire grid (not crushed)
Daylight. Red brick wall behind beautiful tall yellow-flowered wildflowers ("false dandelion"?) growing seemingly, must be, from crack paving slabs. Also in the bottom left corner a smaller white flowered plant, probably alyssum, also growing from paving.
Night. Small bunch of flowers on paving stones. Lilacs, a lily and some kalanchoe. Photo taken with flash.
Results of 2010 general election for constituency Hampstead and Kilburn Party Candidate Votes % ±% Labour Glenda Jackson * 17,332 32.81 Conservative Chris Philp 17,290 32.73 Liberal Democrats Ed Fordham 16,491 31.2 Green Beatrix Campbell 759 1.4 UKIP Magnus Nielsen 408 0.8 BNP Victoria Moore 328 0.6 Tamsin Omond To The Commons Tamsin Omond 123 0.2 Independent Gene Alcantara 91 0.2 Majority 42 0.08 Turnout 52,822 66.3 Registered electors 80,373 Labour win (new seat) * Served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate 1992–2010
Longish very deep trench excavated in suburban pavement between grass verge and someone's front garden. The trench is reinforced by vertical metal stanchions and transverse timber plank. There is rubble and heaps of soil and various building stuff. A white hard hat lies on top of some concrete slabs (?). You can hardly see it and also hardly believe it but there is a man in the very middle of the photo, who is at the far end of the trench and very far below ground level, and all you can see is the back of his hi-vis jacket, which looks so small in this perspective.
Image of page 71 from a book showing the start of a story titled in oversized Garamond Italic "The End", then a section title "Hostel". The opening of the story can then be seen, cut off at the bottom of the page in mid-sentence, as follows: The End Hostel [italics] Tunnel! Forget your shame, your degradation. Let the sound of the train be a machine gun cutting you down. Light again! Shut your eyes. [end italics] He had landed at Dover, carried along in a slow-moving crowd. A uniformed man stamped his Irish passport. The money went quickly in Paris, even living on croque monsieur and draft beer. He had a room under the roof of a pension near the Place d’Italie. At night the spring fragrance of the city filled the room through the open window, bearing traces of Turkish tobacco and lady of the night. [italics] Tunnel! Remember the presents you bought her. She rejected them. Rattle that gun! Let it cut you down. Light! The sound of a sabre as it beheads you is the word, ‘Forget.’ [end italics] England is not black and white, the News of the World
Fenced-off long excavation by a grass verge with old trees on a sidewalk in a leafy suburban street, with infrastructure pipes visible below but also crossed by roots of the tree alongside, roots now uncovered and surrounded by air like the gas pipes and other infrastructure pipes exposed
4x3 photo. Day, 2:16 pm BST. Layer of blue sky on top of "mountains" of white-topped cloud forming another layer above the horizon and smaller and smaller layers into the distance. The sides and the distant horizon are filled in a V sort of shape with railway tracks a bit off centre to the right, with not much shadows part way across them from the right. The light seems to highlight a partial terrace of russet or biscuity coloured houses in the middle distance on the left. The effect is of a beautiful scene (in the biased opinion of me).
A cartoon signed "Zoz" with some coloured areas and some only line drawing. Viewed from behind and side on, Donald Trump is getting a haircut in a basic barber shop. The barber pulls back Trump's fringe and Trump says, "I told you to leave that bit alone." In the mirror we can see Trump's made-up face and above his forehead, in mirror writing, "666".
Bright sunny scene, a train in the distance on the left of two railway tracks into the distance where they bend away, amid trees and various greenery in the foreground. One or tall tree on the right and some smaller ones cast shadows across the tracks which are otherwise mostly in the light. The sky above is a lovely bright blue with some random picturesque white clouds, one of which is quite big and white topped, the rest fainter. There are some houses and back gardens with hedges visible far along on the left. If you take a magnifying glass to the picture, you can make out the tip of the Wembley Arch, in the lower middle of the picture alongside a prominent dark evergreen treetop in the distance.
Growing in cracks in redbrick paving, two little examples of a russet trefoil leaved weed each with a single beautiful yellow five-petalled flower
Hand beside wild bluebells amid scraggy grass and clover etc
Square photo, small. The day moon viewed through bare branches of a London plane tree sapling bedecked with winter seedballs, above a weathered iron railing, stepped a little measure down just where the tree is, all against a background of blue sky.
Bush of pink camellias through window glass, take 2, not as blurred as the one above because on a dry day instead. Reflections of conservatory beams and sundry oddities (chair, plate etc.)
Daylight street. Side view on a low-slung immaculate metallic green sports car parked opposite a William Hill bookies
Daylight. Portrait oriented photo looking out through wet window glass. A bush covered in pink camellia flowers with some pink petals on the ground below. The image is slightly blurred with the glass showing faint reflections of structures and items inside what can be deduced to be a conservatory.
Grim old painting with a pope slouched on his throne, looking dead, and a court case proceeding with everyone in voluminous robes and someone standing at a podium, possibly being cross-examined
Dusk. Ancient oaks, silhouetted bare branched along a road. In the far distance, car lights can be made out, white of some approaching and red of one receding. On the oak side of the road (left) there is no footpath. On this side there is a smaller bare tree and some suburban grass verges interrupted by driveways. There are one or two more substantial trees on this side in the far distance though smaller by perspective. All silhouetted. The sky is nondescript, possibly unlit blue grey, or pale shade of lilac, perhaps.
Close-up of some pretty flowers with five splayed petals. The petals are separate like the wings of a windmill, as it were. The inner edges of the petals are paled down to white and the centre of each flower appears to have a tiny white-line pentagon shape. The whole flower is kind of weirdly geometric, yet frail and delicate. They are amid glossy green leaves edged with yellow and appear to be in side of a large plant pot in a white-painted wrought iron structure. Underneath there are pebbles and further back, grass.
Daylight. Cobbled courtyard with bunting. 20+ people seated in a curved array around table on the left with seated woman reading from a book and man seated alongside.
Afternoon, not very bright, mostly clouds above of various shades, few blue lacunae. Some sort of hedges or scrub all along a bend in the road and across the horizon and silhouttes of tree branches mostly bare. White road marking. A footpath on the right hand side only. A tall minimalist modern streetlight (not lit) also silhouetted. Nobdy around, no traffic. Far in the distance, a cricket clubhouse entrance area with what seems like a small white feature beside the bending road in the distance in the dead centre of the photo. Standard 3x4 size.
Facebook post screenshot. Text visible: Stephen Moran Shared with Public RFK: "Let them eat steak." Snippet that stood out. [QUOTE] The January inflation report, out yesterday, showed prices rising faster than expected, inspiring Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to suggest Americans should buy cheaper food. “Most of the cheap cuts of meat are very inexpensive,” he said. “You can buy liver or the cheaper cuts of steak.” [UNQUOTE] -- Heather Cox Richardson February 28, 2026 (Saturday)… See more
Square photo. Dusk, a classic picturesque painterly clouded sky above a view into vanishing point in the distance along from the middle of a suburban street in deep shadow, with London Metroland 1930s semi-detached houses on either side, a few silhouetted trees along the verges, mostly still without leaves but some with early spring blossom, with faint trace of pink in the dark silhouette.
View from raised position down a dead end lane with no parking double-yellow lines, gable walls on both sides and average duplex suburban house framed in the view. On the right side gable is a mural design with Welcome to Metro-Land. On the street there's an arrow and a Stop sign. On the black gates of the suburban house there's a large crude painted message in white that says in capitals No Parking Any Time. (This is a detail from the adjoining photo posted together with this one.)
Looks like evening. Huge car park almost dark below a dramatic cloudscape, forming a dark line just above the horizon but loaded up with clouds of varying shades including silver white, grey and charcoal.
Daylight. Portrait orientation. Brick paving with an access shore underneath which is painted, in large bright yellow paint, the word "End" underlined by a left pointing arrow. At the bottom edge of the photo, the tips of [presumably the photographer's] two black shoes are seen.
Very cloudy, wet looking, late afternoon. Bend in tarmac road with footpath on one side only, part of railing in foreground. Railbridge wall away into the distance on the right, hedges on the left, bare trees across the bend-limited horizon, heavy grey clouds lined with light grey, just visible in small patches. To the right there's a bright slash of white where light is getting through. A tall solitary minimalist modern lamppost in the middle distance ready to light the bend. Sharp-cornered gable of a rust coloured apartment block with one tiny white window only to be seen. Nobody and no traffic, no nuthin...
Daytime. Crowd of red Voi eBikes, half of them knocked over and partly into a service road and half of them blocking a footpath beside a busy A-road with a possibly elderly person approaching them dragging a shopping trolley. There is also one Lime e-Scooter
Lime eBike lying flat, discarded in a grass verge near a bend in what looks like a quiet road
Self portrait
Cartoon of Donald Trump having a haircut and the hairdresser has lifted his fringe exposing, as we only see in the mirror, written on his forehead 666.
White pointer "arrows" pointing in three different directions and sort of "open corners" painted on a cracked mostly flagstone pavement around a rectangular manhole cover next to the base of a redbrick wall. There is also some marking in red paint in the top left corner that says "." LV 0.5 and a line.
Almost dusk. Mostly sky in a splayed U shape above the middle of a 1930s Metroland street with unbroken lines houses in shade on either side, shrinking into the distance under picturesque smoky clouds across the horizon, which glows silvery white over the left. The nearer sky above the viewpoint is mostly blue.