With the open eave of her scarf she catches the tree snags blue
winter Skylight ceiling of criss and cross In the naming of them
colours empty of themselves is this a quote she no longer knows
Straight off pavement licked lyrics you are the outlaw you split
dawn shoot footloose tread threads they cut out his heart
[heart/art] place it on the dead man’s chest that’s the show
weighed out in small portions organs attuned to a tune There is
the pulse of stars the screech of their last stop her life in another
universe a family shard visiting from one time or another in the
same time Earthing when she is most There are moments when
this land opens fetches her in who knows why it would be so but
can you feel it? The world spins before each crisis she thinks the
fog is too grey there is mass manipulation the lie is hard as knee
caps shattered truth a curious man children of troubles A
baptismal veil of mist stretches from this sea line to that a
functional fantasy a fanciful fiction a fictional function rising from
the ground the ploughman’s bones the storm’s surge the cyclical
incident the nerve of the tree its stubborn grain its spicy centre the
end of its flower cannonade You can be cruel to a bee Someone
said Radio again that other world seeping through open car
windows cracked back doors passing rooms There they go again
Lizz Murphy has published 12 books of different kinds. Her seven poetry titles include Portraits: 54 Poems and Six Hundred Dollars (PressPress), Walk the Wildly (Picaro), Stop Your Cryin (Island) and Two Lips Went Shopping (Spinifex). Her eighth poetry title, Shebirds, is forthcoming (PressPress). She is widely published in Australia and overseas. Lizz was born in Belfast, Ireland and has lived in the NSW/Canberra Region for a long time.
Lizz’s awards include: the 2011 Rosemary Dobson Poetry Prize (co-winner), the 2006 CAPO Singapore Airlines Travel Award, the 1998 ACT Creative Arts Fellowship for Literature, and the 1994 Anutech Poetry Prize. Special mentions include: Highly Commended – 2013 Blake Poetry Prize, and finalist – UK’s 2013 & 2014 Aesthetica Poetry Competitions.
You can read more of Lizz’s poetry and find out about her upcoming events on her website, Lizz Murphy: A poet’s slant, and on her blog.