You Too Were Once on Fire

Murphy takes you on a journey through the cosmos, an intergalactic dad asking philosophical questions to ponder, but the fire is in moments of eclipse where the "I" is examined through a microscope, and the speaker is "tided / into the fog," admitting blindness. New Jersey references to zombie-like traffic jams and Atlantic City Boardwalk realizations underscore the harsh realities that this collection welcomes into its universe with naked introspection. Shoreline floods are connected to both Galileo's visions and myopia, and when contemplating dust, the use of second person doesn't hide the speaker's own fear of "an ego so fierce, it sucks you / into its own black hole." The "Bad History" that spurred many of these works, from butchering times to no less gruesome Insta influencer moments, ends with a star wish to "be somebody." Murphy is clearly still immersed in flames and invites us to share in the warmth, and the burn.

-Grisel Y. Acosta

Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and grew up in New York City. He is the author of a dozen previous books and chapbooks of poetry and prose, including A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, New Welsh Reader, North American Review, The Sun, and elsewhere. His honors include six fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and residencies at Yaddo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Millay Colony. He has been a consultant to the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, and numerous school districts around the country. In addition, he has been an educational advisor to three PBS television programs on poetry produced by Bill Moyers. He is the founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton University in Atlantic City.