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SM from IN

Poets from Indiana, Sheila Murphy

 

Wait, Indiana, what? I know that Sheila Murphy lives in Phoenix now. And yes, she's published books with Green Integer, Meritage Press, Pavement Saw, The University of Alberta Press, and many, many more not in Indiana. In fact, she's published so many books that I've lost count. Visual works, haibuns, hay(na)kus, ghazals--her books cover the field of innovative poetry, and the rumor/uber myth about her is that she writes so much that she burns out her computer keyboards quickly. Wow! Yep, that same super talented and imminently brilliant Sheila Murphy was born in Mishawaka and then moved to South Bend at eight. Her parents were both educators in the area, one at Notre Dame and one at the South Bend Community Schools. In fact, she lived in Indiana until she was 23. So, yes, Indiana poet.

You can find her work all over the Internet (though the Poetry Foundation only has one poem, come on!). Her work is not for the faint of heart. She requires you to engage with it fully, but if you do, you'll come away with a head full of ideas. Here's a little bit from one of my favorites. You can find the full poem and others in Jacket. 

Let me waste time in your eyesight,
Own nothing learned in bounds
Cheat both of us when 
Documents begin to feed themselves
 
A scrawl onto plain shirts
We don't wear without emblems
That remind us to vote according to 
Conscience, pasteurize some something

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