Having Lived

Joseph Murphy's Having Lived leads us quietly through a land of his memories, giving us glimpses of family, friends, streets, towns, ships, and events large and small that have shaped his life. The journey starts early in his life, when "Success seemed inevitable . . . every street Easy Street," closing the collection with a poem noting that had he spent years unable to write, "but whatever was broken / has healed." We meet five generations of his family. We hear their stories, how they lived, how they loved, how they suffered. In "Your Footprints" he retraces the life of a family patriarch, an uncle to whom he says, "I'm the age you were then: . . . no less burdened; no better off . . . It's no surprise / to find your footprints / at my feet." No fireworks, no explosions, just quiet, well-written, accessible poetry. A fine odyssey.

Art Elser, Ph.D., is an award-winning author of four poetry collections, most recently To See a World in a Grain of Sand.

Joseph Murphy's Having Lived is a fine book by a gifted poet with a strong, authentic voice, one that is able to touch the reader's soul. The poetry in this collection ranges from moving elegies and lyric poems of homecoming and longing, like "For Emily," to personal histories retold as narratives with deft ironies such as "Greensky Hill" and "The Story Teller." Common to all these works is a collective poignancy that cap-tures many of the shared sentiments from our times, both the comic and the sad. As the book progresses, the reader has a sense of the poet hav-ing traveled great distances, emotionally and spiritually, with the haunt-ing power and energy of his imagery from such poems as "Shooting Star" and "The Robin" lingering on long after the reading. Murphy's subtle grasp of our contemporary lives, as revealed through his accessi-ble poetry, will have a wide audience appeal. I highly recommend Hav-ing Lived.

Dan Guenther has published two poetry collections. His award-winning fourth novel, Glossy Black Cockatoos, is set in Australia and Laos, following the fall of Saigon.