Go home, boy. Sink your toes in that rich soil and grow some roots."" So America's first poet laureate urged his apprentice Timothy Murphy, back in 1972. 'Very Far North' is the third book depicting the consequences of that advice. After his undergraduate years at Yale, Timothy Murphy turned his back on cities and the academic world. Returning to the Red River of the North, he bought and sold, farmed and failed like his forebears. All the while he distilled what he saw, heard or felt into his tall tales and short verses. His first collection compiled more than twenty years of work. Published in 1998, 'The Deed of Gift' promptly sold out its first printing, no small feat for the work of an unknown from North Dakota.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Author's Caveat,
By
This review is from: Very Far North (Hardcover)
I'm not reviewing my own book, just expressing my concern that the first five reviews of VFN below are authored by Leo Yankevitch, who slips in a rave of his own self-published book. Yankevitch has also posted pseudonymous negative reviews of Rhina Espaillat, Kate Benedict, Alicia Stallings, and many other fine formal poets. It is a despicable practice, and Amazon should find a way to screen this person out.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling and accessible poems,
This review is from: Very Far North (Hardcover)
Timothy Murphy continues to be one of my favorite poets. He writes in a clear, concise, musical style reminiscent of Robert Francis and Robert Frost, although he is never derivative. He writes about life as a farmer and rancher on the Midwestern plains, about nature, and about love and spirituality (among other things). He is never maudlin or sentimental, yet his poems often get a "rise" out of me. The immediacy of life and death is present in much of his poetry, which is one of the things that makes it so compelling. Indeed, to a city-dweller like myself, his poems are a breath of fresh air, as they remind me of the natural and primal struggles that I routinely avoid. Not all of his poems are so serious, though, as he can be very witty when the mood grabs him. His poems are metered and rhymed, and the majority are short, in the range of 4 to 15 lines, although there are quite a few over 20 lines. If you want to preview his poems, a selection can be found on my site, called "The Poem Tree" (do a Google search to find the URL).
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
queen in a bar full of breeders,
This review is from: Very Far North (Hardcover)
My Gay Studies' professor, (...) recommended that I read this book. I'll come straight out and say, that I found it somewhat disappointing. There must be a dozen poems in it about dogs, all of which are meticulously rhymed and metered, but all lacking verve and high seriousness.Others deal with bird hunting, and business failures, but only a few have "gay" themes, among them a few man-boy poems, which I found very erotic, though somewhat over the top, even for my tastes. I suppose my biggest problem with the poems are their forced rhymes, paddiness of diction, and artificial tone. Murphy never comes off as sincere. He knows his meters, but he sings like a queen in a bar full of breeders. He should write solely for his own kind on topics such as gay pride and gay love.
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