Description
Anaphora
by Joddy Murray
$14.99, paper
978-1-64662-171-2
2020
Joddy Murray’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in over 70 journals, including The Adirondack Review, Caliban Online, Crack the Spine, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Moon City Review, OxMag, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pembroke Magazine, Poydras Review, Southampton Review, Sou’wester, Texas Review, and Westview. He currently teaches writing and rhetoric in Fort Worth, Texas.
Joddy Murray –
Here is a sample from the book:
________________
I called
to mountains
during the
winter melt.
They said
wait, we’re
busy laughing.
The valleys flooded, and as the banks
smiled wider and wider, the fishes
all knew what to do: feed wildly the
newly drowned—feast on spring.
I boxed some jasmine for a lover,
gave it dirt and water during the journey,
but after days of descending, where
the air thickens like lava, all that was
left was the box, its scent, and my
windblown ears radiant with burns.
Cisalee Morris –
A collection where each is a gem, radiant, a poem of gratitude and wonder. I can’t pick a favorite among them, but here is an example.
My desire
pleases you
I think.
It must.
You wake
near me
and laugh.
The day you bought me cymbidiums, they
bloomed continuously all winter—I’ve counted
twenty-five already. How is that possible? I
think of nothing but how lonely they are to advertise
so much of themselves. Each day I water them, trim
their leaves, and dream about their perfect bodies.
Sounds lovers repeat themselves are like these petals,
but what makes each one so distinguished in its
solitude? You come to me and smell my showered
back. I hear. Hairs on my skin cry out and rise.