Sheila Murphy
Encyclopedia
Sheila E. Murphy is an American text
and visual poet
who has been writing and publishing actively since 1978. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona
.
She earned:
With Beverly Carver, Murphy co-founded and coordinated the Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Series for twelve years. Murphy has engaged in a broad range of poetic styles over nearly three decades of writing and publication.
The emphasis on sound and the use of neologisms and cadences derive from study of music theory
and performance
. These same linguistic
processes are evident in Murphy's prose poetry
. As Jen Tynes[1] noted in a review of Proof of Silhouettes published in the Feb. 2, 2005 issue of Verse, "The varied structure of the poems creates a super-awareness of prose versus broken line that seems organically fitting--[sic] the reader is never quite lulled into recognition of the landscape or movement of this book, and yet it manages to move together, to speak a whole thing with clarity but without oversimplification. The form of the book as a whole creates...its own considerate and considerable relationship between lines of verse and prose, progression and procession..."
In referring to Murphy's prose poems in Letters to Unfinished J., Simon DeDeo (Rhubarb is Susan, Feb. 2006) wrote that
"Murphy has the sensual fluency of Gertrude Stein
..." [and possesses] "... a decided openness that leads to the sensation of risk, of stopping the torrents to speak directly ... that maintains a distinctly non-narrative attitude, filling the writing
... [I]t is in that pouring that we get the whole Murphy ... the Murphy who wants to point out, to judge, to indicate."
Recently the prose poem has been the form of choice for Sheila Murphy, who coined the term for a new kind of prose poem, the "American Haibun
" [2], which is quite separate from the traditional Japanese
form. "American Haibun" is being written by other innovative, English language poets, suggesting a possible trend.
References
She has or is currently collaborating with poets and artists such as Douglas Barbour, Dan Waber, Scott Glassman, Charles Alexander
, mIEKAL aND, Lewis LaCook, Joseph Lease, Peter Ganick, K.S. Ernst, C. Mehrl Bennett, John M. Bennett
, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jim Leftwich, Scott Helmes, Al Ackerman, Andrew Topel, David Baratier, Carol Novack, and Jeff Crouch
.
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
and visual poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
who has been writing and publishing actively since 1978. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
.
She earned:
- B.A. degree (magna cum laude, music/English) from Nazareth CollegeNazareth College (Michigan)Nazareth College was a Catholic college in Kalamazoo, Michigan that operated from 1924 until 1992.-Origins:Nazareth Academy opened in 1897 and based on the charter that was issued, it provided for the future extension of the school to the collegiate level. On May 7, 1913, Monsignor O’Brien...
, Kalamazoo, MichiganKalamazoo, MichiganThe area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to... - M.A. degree (English Language and Literature, Michigan College Fellow) from The University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
- Ph.D. degree (Educational Administration and Supervision, Emphasizing Community Education, Charles Stewart Mott Fellow) from Arizona State UniversityArizona State UniversityArizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
.
With Beverly Carver, Murphy co-founded and coordinated the Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Series for twelve years. Murphy has engaged in a broad range of poetic styles over nearly three decades of writing and publication.
Poetry
-
- Toward a New Year
-
- One whittles something, perhaps to reckon with an atmosphere
- in which the strategy remains produce, send forth, consume.
- From cold the wild geese fly away. In a pattern of advance/recede,
- velocity’s amended. The human spirit falls to virtuosic silence.
- As if to shift the factual in favor of the show. Perception’s
- inexperience informs oncoming history. Whose viscosity inverts
- clear thought during deliberation of a wind quintet.
-
- A trellis poised mid-snow, hosting the myth of climb until it’s so
The emphasis on sound and the use of neologisms and cadences derive from study of music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
and performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
. These same linguistic
Natural language
In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...
processes are evident in Murphy's prose poetry
Prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery and emotional effects.-Characteristics:Prose poetry can be considered either primarily poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether...
. As Jen Tynes[1] noted in a review of Proof of Silhouettes published in the Feb. 2, 2005 issue of Verse, "The varied structure of the poems creates a super-awareness of prose versus broken line that seems organically fitting--[sic] the reader is never quite lulled into recognition of the landscape or movement of this book, and yet it manages to move together, to speak a whole thing with clarity but without oversimplification. The form of the book as a whole creates...its own considerate and considerable relationship between lines of verse and prose, progression and procession..."
In referring to Murphy's prose poems in Letters to Unfinished J., Simon DeDeo (Rhubarb is Susan, Feb. 2006) wrote that
"Murphy has the sensual fluency of Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
..." [and possesses] "... a decided openness that leads to the sensation of risk, of stopping the torrents to speak directly ... that maintains a distinctly non-narrative attitude, filling the writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
... [I]t is in that pouring that we get the whole Murphy ... the Murphy who wants to point out, to judge, to indicate."
Recently the prose poem has been the form of choice for Sheila Murphy, who coined the term for a new kind of prose poem, the "American Haibun
Haibun
Haibun is a literary composition that combines prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of prose: autobiography, biography, diary, essay, history, prose poem, short story and travel literature....
" [2], which is quite separate from the traditional Japanese
Japanese poetry
Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
form. "American Haibun" is being written by other innovative, English language poets, suggesting a possible trend.
References
-
- [1] http://versemag.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-review-of-sheila-e-murphy.html
- [2] http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/mudlark08/murphy.html
Collaboration
Sheila Murphy writes, "Collaborative projects allow a writer or visual poet to participate in a larger creative mechanism than the usual self, placing the writer in a new, larger system that brings about art that is different from that created by either of the individuals involved. While separate from the individual writer's work, collaboration strengthens muscles that can benefit the individual writer, but not not bear a direct relationship to the writer's individual projects."She has or is currently collaborating with poets and artists such as Douglas Barbour, Dan Waber, Scott Glassman, Charles Alexander
Charles Alexander
Charles Alexander may refer to:* Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , ruler of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, 1853–1901* Charles Alexander , American football player...
, mIEKAL aND, Lewis LaCook, Joseph Lease, Peter Ganick, K.S. Ernst, C. Mehrl Bennett, John M. Bennett
John M. Bennett
John M. Bennett is an American experimental text, sound, and visual poet.- Writing and publishing :As well as steadily producing and distributing his own work, Bennett, through "Luna Bisonte Prods", a small press founded in 1974, has published thousands of limited edition items by writers who...
, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jim Leftwich, Scott Helmes, Al Ackerman, Andrew Topel, David Baratier, Carol Novack, and Jeff Crouch
Jeff Crouch
Jeff Crouch was a leading Australian rules football field umpire in the Victorian Football League in the 1960s, and 1970s....
.
Writings
- The Daylight Sections. White Sky Books. 2011.
- Beyond the Bother of Sunlight (with Lewis LaCook). Blazevox [Books]. 2011.
- Reverse Haibun. White Sky Books. 2011.
- Circumsanct. White Sky Books. 2011.
- Toccatas in the Key of D. Blue Lion Books. 2010.
- Quaternity (with Scott Glassman). Otoliths Press. 2009.
- how to spell the sound of everything (with mIEKAL aND). Xerox Sutra Editions. 2009.
- Collected Chapbooks. Blue Lion Books. 2008.
- Parsings. Arrum Press (Finland). 2008.
- The Case of the Lost Objective Case. Otoliths Press. 2007.
- Continuations (with Douglas Barbour). The University of Alberta Press, 2006.
- Incessant Seeds. Pavement Saw Press, 2005.
- Proof of Silhouettes. Stride Press (UK), 2004.
- Concentricity. Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2004.
- Green Tea with Ginger. Potes & Poets Press, 2003.
- Letters to Unfinished J. Green Integer Press, 2003.
- The Stuttering of Wings. Stride Press (UK), 2002.
- The Indelible Occasion. Potes & Poets Press, 2000.
- Falling in Love Falling in Love With You Syntax: Selected and New Poems. Potes & Poets Press, 1997.
- A Clove of Gender. Stride Press (UK), 1995.
- Pure Mental Breath. Gesture Press (Toronto), 1994.
- Tommy and Neil. Sun/Gemini Press (Tucson, Arizona), 1993.
- Teth. Chax Press, 1991.
- Sad Isn't the Color of the Dream. Stride Press (UK), 1991.
- With House Silence. Stride Press (UK), 1987.
Anthologies
- 1000 Views of "Girl Singing". Leafe Press, 2009.
- Visiting Wallace: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Wallace Stevens. University of Iowa Press, 2009.
- Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh. Salt Publishing, 2009.
- Anthology: Spidertangle. Xexoxial Editions, 2009.
- Visio-Textual Selectricity. Runaway Spoon Press, 2008.
- The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Volume II. Meritage Press, USA. xPress(ed). Finland. 2008.
- >2: An Anthology of New Collaborative Poetry. Editor, with M.L. Weber. Sugar Mule Press, 2007.
- The First Hay(na)ku Antholgy. Meritage Press, 2005.
- Fever Dreams: Contemporary Arizona Poetry. The University of Arizona Press, 1997.
- The Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry,1993—1994; 1994—1995. Sun & Moon Press.
- Primary Trouble: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. Talisman House Press, 1996.
- A Curious Architecture: A Selection of Contemporary Prose Poems. Stride (UK), 1996.
- The Art of Practice: 45 Contemporary Poets. Potes & Poets Press, 1994.
Exhibitions of Visual Poetry and Art
- Visual Poetry Exhibition, Ráday Könyvesház. Budapest, Hungary. April, 2010.
- Asemic Exhibit in Smolensk. Russia. April 17 – May 1, 2010.
- Explanations of Signs. Collaborative Paintings with Rupert Loydell. University College Falmouth. 2009.
- Visual Poetry Etched on Glass Wall. Rondo Community Library and Housing Project, Minneapolis, 2006.
- Blends and Bridges. Cleveland, Ohio, 2006.
- Still Life with Words: an International Exhibition. Gallery 308, Minneapolis, 2005.
- SoundVisionVisionSound III. Nave Gallery, Somerville, Massachusetts, 2005.
- Infinity. Dudley House. Harvard University, 2005.
- Vispo at Durban Segnini Gallery. Miami, Florida, 2005.
Visual Poetry Book Publications
- This Is Visual Poetry. chapbookpublisher.com. 2010.
- Permutoria (with K.S. Ernst). Luna Bisonte Prods, 2008.
External links
- Shadowtrain: Virtuoso Bird: Ian Seed Reviews Collected Chapbooks
- The Argotist: Sheila Murphy Interviewed by Chris Mansel
- Mudlark A Sound the Mobile Makes in Wind: 50 American Haibun by Sheila E. Murphy Mudlark #8
- Jacket Magazine: Thomas Fink reviews Incessant Seeds by Sheila E. Murphy
- Tom Beckett Interviews Sheila E. Murphy at r e a d m e