Her
Red Songs
Chris
Murray
Turas
Press
(
87 pages)
If we start with the title, we must always start with
the title, these are songs! The poet would seem to be reminding us of the very
intimate connection between poetry and song, which I would say has largely been
lost when one considers the amount of prose, as opposed to prosody, which has
slipped into contemporary “poetry” these days. The irony being that while I
write this, I am finishing an almost year long study into the prosody of the
seldom read French novelist Louis Ferdinand Céline whose poetic lineage goes
back to chanson de geste and Le Roman de la Rose of Frech
medieval poetry and which was to have such a profound influence on not only
western literature but on western notions of chivalry and what we understand in
a modern sense as romantic ‘Love’ today!
The second thing I should like to point out is the
dedication to the poet Evan Boland ( 1944-2020). Chris Murray has been curating
Poethead now, a website that is dedicated to publishing the work of
women writers and poets, though I should also point out that she has also
published the work of men. Feminist though Chris Murray obviously is, she is
not, thankfully, a man hater. She is essentially a humanist and this is born
out in every sense by the multi-dimensioned nature of her writing.
The first cycle of poems, for example, are named after
the ancient Roman deities or gods that were known as Lares. In Roman
times, rather like in places like India today, gods were everywhere. Domestic
Gods, in short. There was the god of the kitchen that one prayed to or
worshipped in order to help one with one’s culinary endeavours. There were the
gods of the garden, dwelling in the wells and in the plants themselves so that
despite being a pagan society spirits, and so spirituality, was everywhere and
I think this is a very useful key into unlocking the very complex and delicate
structure of this latest collection of poetry by Chris Murray.
As with her previous collections, the poems in Her
Red Songs are delicate micro-structures yet which prove themselves to be
remarkably robust, as well. Murray the poet has a background that is as complex
and multi-dimensional as her poetry. Being at one time chorister, stone mason
as well as poet, these very different experiences inform her work. I think the
stone mason is ever present working behind the scenes, as it gives her
incredibly delicate imagery, as Murray is essential an imagist, the stoney
flintiness and robust inscriptive sonority to each piece.
I.
Ferns,
once
We
awaken in our bodies,
their
smooth hurt, winged.
The
mourning dove awakens too,
her
back to the city,
she
curves into the rain.
There it is forever inscribed, the image! I can think
of very few poets writing today in the English language who can imbue a poem in
so few words with such power and force and yet with such incredibly delicacy.
It is this twin act or power and delicacy, a Heraclitean element, that runs
through not only the entire collection, but which also runs through the entire
body of writing that Chris Murray has written to date. While I am on this
point, when will a publisher in this country finally wake up and publish a
selected works of this most remarkable poet, who has already several
collections to choose work from to date. As there are recurring themes and
techniques that readers who are familiar with the poet’s work will see in Her
Red Songs, and if a selected works were to be brought into the light this
very hallmark, the sign of a true poet, would be so readily seen.
For example, all of the rather curious punctuation
typically involving colons : forward slashes // or even | or dashes - … all the
very curious signs that Murray brings into her constructs are on display,
indeed seem to take on an even more elaborate and altogether essential
dimension in the work. Let me show you, here is another poem, complete.
Coda:
Leaf // Settles
jewelling
| nowhere
her Garnets
tempering |
scarlet
on steel
sky
–
a Leaf
there
is
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