ustxtxb_obs_1994_05_06_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

to wind in his soul before the wind dies or tie it before he sleeps to one of the gate posts of Paradise Le. Papillon In whatever language your name shows the awe at your beauty, the wonder of your dancing flight your design not letting any flower put you to shame your dress challenging the nymphs of spring to diaphanous audacity But alas, they lost the game to the angels who cut out your wings from patterns in distant galaxies where Greeks couldn’t go or know the music you follow The Alchemist: Bronze to Silver Bless’d of the summer sun burnished in bronze That phase of my courtship is done I dive no more from the high board. I pursue you no more through spring silver waters Now lying in the zebra shade, nude in rude spring, you simply call to me. The amber fades from our skin Pale trees light green as plankton waters, sheen of private souls, burns the time of all suns’ fires away. This smouldering is a bolder blazing, a craze to which eternal things aspire a poet is not at this time as well documented in print as is should be. Early poems appeared in the Texas Quarterly and the Southwest Review, and his work was included in Southwest: A Contemporary Anthology, published in New Mexico in 1977. More recently his poetry has been published in New Texas ’91 and New Texas ’93, and more is scheduled to be published in several anthologies and magazines. But like so many poets who have been as prolific as Joe Murphey and Walt McDonald, single poems fail to illustrate the poet’s range or vision; in this regard only larger collections can do justice. Joe’s one representative volume is A Return to the Landscape from 1979, although a dozen of his later poems were included in Three Texas Poets from 1986. The edition planned by Sue Littleton should present Joe Murphey as he needs and deserves to be presented, and perhaps with the availability of a fuller sampling of his poetry, readers will understand why he merits a much wider audience than he attracted during his lifetime. WHILE IT IS EVER to be lamented that a poet must go uncelebrated in his own day, it remains appropriate to render to a figure like Joseph Colin Murphey the belated recognition accorded him at Mexic-Arte Gallery, which after an inaugural December 1 reading following his death has established an annual reading of his poetry. Joe, always a modest, unassuming person, would have been quietly pleased by the readings the reminiscences on his life and writing at the December 1 gathering attended by old friends and colleagues that included William Barney, Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth, Joanie Whitebird, Foster Foreman, C.A. Wiles, Albert Huffstickler, Grady Hillman, John Berry, and Herman Nelsonand by the thought that friends and admirers will now gather for a reading of poetry, in his honor, each year, as they did on Easter Sunday in Austin. The following selection of Joe Murphey’ s poetry will be included in the forthcoming, posthumous volume, The Perfection of Beauty: Kites Flying on the Bedpost Overnight The way a kite comes dancing, seeming never to be on a string that’s the way April lifts my spirit and lets it fly But a man who flies a kite without a string should be ready Tell a friend about The Texas Observer. The best advertisement for The Texas Observer is a recommendation from a friend. Please let us know if someone else might be interested. Name Address City State Zip I enclose$32for a one-year subscription. Bill me for $32. Send a sample copy to the address above and say it’s from: $3 enclosed for each back issue. Please indicate dates: Some popular issues: Henry Ross Perot: Hit or Myth David Duke and White SupremMolly lvins guest-editor issue Out and About: Gays in Texas For information call 512/477-0746 or write: The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701 ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23