Among the Enigmas

By Robert Jesse Murphy

Poetry. "To spend time with Robert Murphy's AMONG THE ENIGMAS is to be in the presence of a great soul. At the center of Murphy's vision�for he is, make no mistake, a visionary poet in the line of Blake, in touch with truths that exist far beyond the page�is a battle between stasis and dynamism, between appearance and reality, between Truth and a diversity of truths. In his stunningly bleak psalm, 'As if Cattle, ' Murphy observes the herd in 'bland bowed calm' as long as its 'hunger, thirst, or fear is slaked, '�that is, until it meets its mortal fate. 'Jumping Jehoshaphat ' he exclaims in 'The Appearance of it All, ' one of the volume's finest poems, 'Only a Holy Fool / Would come down here' to attempt to reason with common sense and the world of appearances. While Murphy's poems are animated by a dynamic spirit, they're thoroughly skeptical of received truths. That skepticism breeds a black humor and a wild, Joycean paronomasia. The punning Bursts forth in Murphy's major sequence of nine 'Imp' poems, which importunately explore, in the persona of a Socratic inchling/inkling, various imponderables, impositions, impostures, and a great deal more. Adding to the serious fun is the engrossing artwork of David Golder, which engages with, rather than illustrates, Murphy's verse."�David M. K

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1948017520
• ISBN13: 9781948017527
• Release Date: September 2019
• Publisher: DOS Madres Press
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.9"