The fourth collection from Murray (Queen of the Mist) is divided into three sections. "Now We Know," mainly set in upstate New York, presents ducks, geese, blackbirds and blue jays as observed, along with commentary on what it is like to live next to an exotic game farm. "Twenty-first Century Pastoral," the second section, features poems about small towns and the artists one sometimes finds in them. In the poem "Toby's Body," the narrator contrasts early slides of an anthropologist surrounded by the Asmat of New Guinea with his aging and clothed body sitting by a pool at what might be the artists' colony Yaddo, while in "The Clockmaker's Wife," the speaker channels worries over a husband's obsession with time. The third section, "Where It's Taking Us," centers on going to church or other religious observances. Many of the poems throughout are stories told by wise elderly people (or about them), and they often feature long stretches of characters speaking in quiet voices devoid of the colloquial. While often perfectly pleasant, the poems and characters consistently fail to surprise. (Apr.)
Forecast:Murray, poet-in-residence at the New York State Writers Institute at the State University of New York at Albany, recently edited the Beacon anthology
Poems to Live By in Uncertain Times. That collection contains "Survivors—Found" (sometimes found on the Web as "The Greatest Generation"), Murray's poem about the heroism of firefighters and working people written (in rhyming quatrains) after the September 11 attacks. The poem has aroused great interest, having been read on NPR and elsewhere. It ends: " 'The greatest generation?'"—/ We wondered where they'd gone—/ They hadn't left directions/ How to find our nation-home:// For thirty years we saw few signs,/ But now in swirls of dust,/ They were alive—they had survived—/ We saw that they were us."
