Sharon Lopez Mooney
Poet & Interfaith Chaplain
A Selection of Published Poems to Read -Click title below
if a title is not underlined, poem is only scheduled for publication
Sharon Lopez Mooney, poet, is a retired Interfaith End of Life Chaplain, living in Mexico now with frquent visits to family in northern California. Mooney has been writing since the 1970’s when she owned a used bookstore in a rural arts locale in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mooney was given a California Arts Council Grant for a rural poetry series; was nominated for “Best of the Net” 2022, and chosen for “Editor’s Choice” 2022; co-published a regional anthology; co-owned an alternative literature service; produced poetry readings, and continues facilitating poetry feedback workshops.
Mooney’s poems are in publications nationally and internationally, like: “The Blotter, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Kennings Literary Galway Review, California Quarterly, Ginosko, Door is a Jar, The Ricochet Review, Glassworks, Tipton Literary Journal, Sybil, Revue {R}Évolution”; anthologies: “CALYX, Cold Lake, & Smoke & Myrrors” (UK), amongst many others.
1980's
2020
So many ways to lose your heart
Stepping into 5 am, San Carlos
My folks had private morning rituals
La Bahia summer sits on my writing
2020 (continued)
2021
Dying from a different kind of arid
Father, was the cost too high?
It's time to let go, mother tree
Dying of a different kind of arid
Somewhere days are being counted
Momma, Max Factor & The Catholic Church
2022
His heart cries as he tries to....
Love song to a moving target
Northern California fire season
I am Big
a date with god
Eavesdropping on the Redwoods
Writing History
I never wrote poetry as a youngster. I grew up in a mildly diverse ethnic working class community where the closest I got to literature of any kind was the 'Reader's Digest' condensed versions of books. Once I got to Catholic boarding high school, my greater education began, but still I did not write my own poems. Even in college the thought never came to me to write poetry.
In 1975 when my young family and I moved to the West Marin County California small community, Point Reyes Station, I did start writing with the inspiration of the community of writers who met at the used bookstore we owned. The store and book collection had developed a literary reputation even before we took it over, and we continue to build it. It was in that writer's group, which morphed into a group that lasted for twelve years, where I learned to write and edit poetry.
In 1978 I received a California Arts Council Grant to establish a rural poetry series; also over those years I co-published a small regional arts anthology; was a co-owner of an alternative literature service; and produced poetry readings and performances, all the while as I was mother and life partner to a wonderful photographer, and was known to be a political activist. That was the beginning of my writing career.
I've been seriously writing since 1978. Now, I am a crone writing in an uncommonly common voice of age and experience about people’s stories, death, aging, and witnessing our culture, while I put shoulder to the wheel of change and hope, with all I write. I retired from Interfaith Chaplaincy in the End of Life field, and live in Sonora, Mexico, and visit my thriving family in northern California. Over the decade my poems have been published in a variety of journals and publications, check above to read those published poems.
Only poems that have been published are included on this website. On the poem page is the publication date and where it was published. The links that are live (underlined) are poems that are available to read, but the non-underlined pieces are waiting the publishing dates.
Publications:
Fallow Dee
The MacGuffin
Muddy River Poetry Review
The Voices Project
The Avalon Literary Review
Adelaid International Magazine
Galway Review
Ginosko Literary Review
California Quarterly
Sybil Journal
Poetic Medicine
Door is a Jar
Glassworks Magazine
Amethyst Magazine
Shot Glass
Young Ravens Literary Review
The Field Guide Magazine
Midwest Zen
California Quarterly
The Blotter Magazine
The New England Monthly Poetry Digest
Publications:
The Ricochet
RoundTable Literary Jouranl
Hags on Fire
NewVerse News
Visible
Writing in a Woman's Voice
Evening Street Review
Unlikely Stories Mark V
The Mindful Word
Smokey Blue Literary & Arts Magazine
Field Guide Poetry Magazine
Soul-Lit
Umbrella Factory
Literary Forest Magazine
Existeré
Kennings Literary Journal
ClockHouse
Revue {R}Évolution
Ginosko Literary Review
Memory House - University of Chicago
Anthologies:
Cold Lake Anthology
CALYX: Women and Aging
Songs to the Sun
Poetry is a Mountain
The Wide Open Sky
Words are Power
Smoke & Myrrors (UK)
Revealing Everything Anthology