Versions of May

Without seeming to at first glance, Jim Murphy's Versions of May succeeds in speaking to the anxieties that move beneath the surface waters of our times. It is a collection of tremendous depth and breadth, piercing insight and tenderness. Global, and yet attentive to particulars of nature and human spirit, these poems artfully blend elements of elegy, Zen, jazz, and popular music. In line after line that resonate with echoes of terror and loss, but simultaneously with stunning celebrations of beauty, they sweep us off center, in the traditions of Zen or jazz masters, leaving us almost breathless, startled by the silence and light. "No truths / but this bright and noble moment," Murphy writes, and elsewhere, "We vanished. We left in total silence." These are poems to be savored, ones that will stay with us long after our reading.

-Anand Prahlad, Curators Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri-Columbia