FEATURED POET: SHEILA E. MURPHY

Galatea Resurrects is pleased to present an excerpt from Sheila E. Murphy’s book-length poem Reporting Live from You Know Where which recently was awarded The Hay(na)ku Poetry Book Prize judged by hay(na)ku experts Vince Gotera, Jean Vengua, and Mark Young.  Sheila’s manuscript will be published by the original publishers of the first hay(na)ku anthologies, Meritage Press (San Francisco & St. Helena) and xPress(ed) (Finland), in 2018.  About this book, we also present some advance words by other poets who’ve written extensively in the  hay(na)ku form:

Reporting Live from You Know Where is a jeremiad, a book of lamentations, a poem "it/hurts to/write."  It is an edgy and affecting work of political art.  It is Murphy's masterpiece.

—Tom Beckett

In her powerful new hay(na)ku long poem, Sheila E. Murphy brings her ceaselessly resourceful troping, her bold, imaginative leaps of association, to bear on our contemporary U.S. political situation, "replete/ with despair." Countering the "assault on sensate// being" with processual poises, she keenly exposes "rancor ill-disguised// as/ confidence" and "patriarchal dross." Although we learn that "it/ hurts to/ write this poem," Murphy will not permit us to be "excused/ from attention/ spanning," as she sings: "my/ country 'tis/ in pain, please// recover who we/ are again."

—Thomas Fink

Readers will recognize where Sheila E. Murphy is coming from. You will find such pleasure reading between the lines, meditating, and musing on the text, as she navigates recent history, modern-day politics, and popular culture, with her usual deftness, and musicality, that create an internal rhythm, sometimes through displacement, humor, measure, or esthetics. No matter what avenue Murphy takes, she will make you think. You will witness her expertise as with other verse forms, such as the non-English ghazal (the hay(na)ku is itself a naturalized form of the haiku), and will be affected by her spirituality. An evocative tour de force from one of America's leading contemporary poets.
—Javant Biarujia

from Reporting Live from You Know Where

nothing about this

feels quite

familiar

*

so

blanking what

just drive on

stamina may denote

routine energy

expenditure

or

possibly investment,

your eminence, in

reporting live from

you know

where

all

the commandments

stand alone, until

you can, yes,

put your

arms

around

this little

leader, you are

not yet God,

only partly

human

it

hurts to

write this poem,

*

protect

and serve

first do no

harm, that motorcade

proceeding unimpeded

along

wide

crowdless roadways

empty of feeling

yet replete with

despair the

new

normone

catastrophic contagion

of sleazed over

unfeelingness father, forgive

them for

whatever

(t)reason

first person

irregular monstrosity boomer

boombox boomerang the

litmus doppelganging

up

on

honeymooning vagabonds

this close to

sentimental journey remembered

wrong homonyms

stronghold

sounding

oversimplified take

the day on,

not off, think

if you

agree

practice

makes pure

watch this space

*****

Sheila E. Murphy is an American text and visual poet who has been writing and publishing actively since 1978. She is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Murphy is known for working in forms including ghazals, haibun, and pantoums in her individual writing. As an active collaborator, she has worked with numerous writers in long poems spanning multiple volumes. Murphy’s visual work, both individual and collaborative, is shown in galleries and in private collections. Initially trained in instrumental and vocal music, her work is often associated with music in its language and rhythmic pulse. Murphy earns her living as an organizational consultant, speaker, and researcher and holds the PhD degree. She has lived in Phoenix, Arizona throughout her adult life.  Sheila E. Murphy’s Wiki Page.