“Reading this collection will make you feel like you just had a long conversation with one of your best friends, and one of our finest poets,” said poet Jim Daniels, praising Murphy's "long and distinguished career" and adding that the award-winning poems “surprise and delight across an impressive range of forms and subjects.”
Poet Susan Rich pronounced Murphy “a wizard of the poetic form” and noted her “kaleidoscopic view of the world matched equally by her depth of feeling — the curiosity, and then connection, she offers to all of us, her fellow humans, in our complex imperfections and joys.”
Jen Karetnick, poet and editor of SWWIM magazine, said “Swoon” is “simply exceptional” and praises the poems’ wisdom, insight, humor and ability to “educate us about art, pop culture, current events, and how to be a full and complete human.”
“Swoon” is published by Grayson Books of Hartford, Connecticut. The cover image features a photograph by Peter Hopsicker, associate vice provost for faculty affairs for Penn State. The photograph, “Super Pink Moon Over Juniata Valley,” captures the April 2021 supermoon, the subject of Murphy’s demi-sonnet “Metaphor.”
Metaphor
The night of the closest supermoon
in 70 years, I scrolled through Facebook
posts of friends’ photos. Peter’s was best:
the moon floated above a red barn
in Roaring Spring like an illuminated balloon
without a string. I’m ashamed to say how long
it took me to look outside at the real thing.
Murphy is the author or editor of 15 previous books, most recently “Human Resources,” “Mother as Conjunction: Lyric Essays” and “Fluent in Blue,” winner of the American Book Fest Best Book Award.