James Murdock Poems

If I have any advice it is to think
think think dear daughter
of actions as cannonballs laying waste
of words as timbers crashing down
...

If I had not seen
the golden sap, sapping gold;
if I had not seen a fire
illuminate your face;
...

It's a hard life
no matter what age you're living in
it's a hard life
whether you're pushing a plow
...

When the last breath of night
has been exhaled
and when its sigh has been heard
through these wooden windows.
...

The rolling sage at dusk, and the rolling dusk
did slide the brown-tinned house, face-onward,
did pull all the soft fields unto speckled star-light
and all the chinaberry trees sideways wisped by
...

Today we bow our piggy faces down toward
thermoplastic tables to give
thanks for mother Massasoit.
Barely minutes we have for rituals.
...

If you find me sometimes
walking away to quiet places
know that it is only because
I can no longer hear myself
...

The gleam upon your bluely eyes
it dances like the universe,
speaking to me of the seriousness
of not one single thing,
...

green little footsteps
all through the browngreen garden
and little holes little holes
all where her green little thumbs
...

There is no luxury
which can wrap you
with the feeling of a
homeplace. Soft
...