autobiography

1>

it grew unclear whether
it was time to have been lonely

waves scheduled swelled on time
receded as the weave
of flesh and atmosphere held
salt spray

2>

"tumult picnicked here"

3>

then for a little while
a story that would finally
not fit
moved toward the line
distinguishing the sea from land

4>

being just away

might improvise

to locate

merits

things apart

from impulse

stringent rules

as pattern

placates

sundries

5>

divisions usually
encapsulate the fragrance
ends of limbs

6>

no north of here seems
likely to continue

7>

I map
out only
where I
am obey
these muscles
tranced once
listen

8>

savioring under
waters
carries or
pulls out
to sea

9>

the lift of what we each imagine
changes what we hold

10>

recall
until emotion

 

her it age


some what clan

destined o

'er r eaching

tend riled mat

u ration most

im pounded or

c lean s ed in

can de scent lying

on par

quet

 

good friday

don't anybody talk
this pale inner whisper
is too difficult
to hear in wind

a story passes undiscerned
I am to recreate the story
listening as the day unfolds
is it my job

to reach somebody's
shoulders father
forgive another
midnight captioned

so I cannot read
the quiet lines
reflexively unbroken
but this stillness

lapses in a while
I learn the motions
of neglect I am
neglected then

a purple drape covers
the evidence somebody
prefers this color
apart from story

one long line
teaches another
line absorbed into
mere feeling

 

broach

I want to tap in-
to the subject that is
difficult entirely and
with you with you
resemble some-
thing infinite I want
to wholly own the nonce
and chip away at
confidence while
building building

I want to elevate the customary
obligation to a simple
quiet sacrament I want to
be devoted to and leaf
through viable young
plants I want to know
perfume

I want to enter some young
stalwart sphere where
baskets rarify
and self-
contain some shelf life
practicing itself awake
too numerous
to beg back into
circulation whitening
small indications
of and of and sheepishly
to vent their sacraments
one one and withering
till depth confounds
conformance there and only
there the weeks between
when we confide in
how our answers mesh
with other answers

I want to sanctify
what reaches where each
tonsure limns the scalp
and scapular I want to
pray myself awake
in missives touched by you
the very ordered ration of
opinion staged and scented
wide amid the branches
with the feverish
barometer read daisily
until a patch of streaming
gives the melody
its former backing

 

---

Sheila E. Murphy's book manuscript Letters to Unfinished J. was selected in this year's open poetry competition sponsored by Sun & Moon Press, and will be published by Sun & Moon. Dennis Phillips was the judge. Falling in Love Falling in Love With You Syntax: Selected and New Poems has just been released by Potes & Poets Press. Recent works include A Clove of Gender (Stride Press, 1995). Murphy's work has been widely anthologized, most recently in Fever Dreams: Contemp orary Arizona Poetry (The University of Arizona Press, 1997) and The Gertrude Stein Awards in Contemporary Poetry (Sun & Moon Press, 1994, 1995). The Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series recently brought out an autobiography of Sheila E. Murphy, including photographs of Murphy with family and friends.

Sheila Murphy co-founded with Beverly Carver and continues to coordinate the Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Series, now in its eleventh season. Murphy is President of the management consulting firm Sheila Murphy Associates. Since 1976, she has made Phoenix, Arizona, her home.

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