Customer Reviews

Stubborn Child

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Peter Murphy's poems are haunting and funny by turns--and sometimes both at once. They demonstrate a mastery of condensation, pacing, and specificity. Stubborn Child tells the vivid story of a child shuttled from one household to another--and a self destructive man drinking, having sex with the wrong people, and finding his way out of dead end jobs to a complicated life in which he is a thoughtful teacher and a loving husband and father. In the vivid stories of what saves him, we get clues to what might save us as well--truth telling, respect, generosity, and humor.

There's no fluff poetry here. Mr. Murphy's words are as raw and thought provoking as poetry can get. The personal insights that he writes about made the corner of my mouth stretch to a smurk and made me mutter, "this is awesome." I couldn't stop reading, and I haven't read poetry since Shel Silversein.

Many people in the New Jersey area have heard of and known Peter E. Murphy and have looked hard for a collection of his work. Now, the looking has an end result. This is a fine overview of poems from various stages of the poet's life as a person and as an artist, exemplifying a wide array of roads to happiness. Of course, the happiness conveyed in the book has come with various prices, as only true happiness can. In all, Peter E. Murphy offers a poetic world of hope when misery and failure seems just as accessible.