Sheila E. Murphy & Douglas Barbour
Douglas Barbour continues, happily retired, to live in Edmonton, Alberta. His latest book is Listen. If (University of Alberta Press 2017). his occasional reviews (mostly of poetry) appear in Eclectic Ruckus (https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/).
Sheila E. Murphy's recent books include Reporting Live from You Know Where (Meritage, i.e. Press, and xPress(ed), 2018), As If to Tempt the Diatonic Marvel from the Ivory (Broken Sleep Books, 2018), and Underscore (Luna Bisonte Prods, with K.S. Ernst, 2018).
Two volumes of Continuations have so far appeared, from University of Alberta Press.
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Continuations CXX:
see sea change all
ships abandoned there
               s having loss
as leader chip
off the hold
               blocked by failed regs
hip of the lock step
               ailing process fosters
motion           albeit
fragile                complicit
               rustling paper thin shorelined
broad leaves
                              bread loaves
water to wine a gift
economy / forget it
               for getting help
               s a story now
                              denied by reader/ship
overtime               the water
               drifts commingling with
                              a storied atmosphere
pace of the whipsaw blends
               with wind
                              slipping               past
tense a kind of
               lack of kind
ness monsters of
their ids no kids safe
but any embryo
               a yoyo punishment
stirring the ruckus con brio
               shifts the rills
                              to rushing tones
               to fast track
whole notes
               dis guised as creed
sonant greed sonar speed
               a thing below beyond
                              belief system
(auto)matic manic manacled
               as mind full (of
                              dark (no) matter
shade trees
               still        raw
                              ticklish topics                green clad
spark mindful
               sound                  shifted
               to matter               although nicked
damned dimestore theologies
               occlude it
                              s a cloud (in)formation
shade of shed of shoddy workmanship
               as in (or if) a wonky construction
                              made of iron clod faith
dramatis personae       blinkered
               blip once more
                              strictures hamstring critical
th ought                              pseudo faith
               projected                challenges hope
                              to a duel with charity
as chosen only a chase
               man handled banked
                              on IT the intel
a lost leader shipped off
               sent a long way beyond
                              the field of empathy
hastening to be imagined
               yonder where the tipoff
                              blades its way into
the poor cloth of diminution
               covering the misguided
                              leaders banked on
backed into a closer closet
               that darkness seen as out
                              there elsewhere
in someone else s hands arms
               manned up but silent
                              as more grave tidings
if an ark               then
               pairs dot the line toward
safety               to rave reviews
               a coalition of the tilling
                              of the s oil
backing away from now
into a future passed (by
               whose choice chance
                              chased from the inn
er sanctum to let
               them eat coke trade
                              market forces out
proclaiming chastity
               in lieu of charity
                              neglect stings
one plus               one          whose sanctity
               s defunct               with only
echoes in the coffers
offers minorities hear
               they must not refuse
the refuse they obviously chose
               to bear the bare
               necessary recessionary
                              twelve steps programmed
cessation works               quiet works
               ear training supersedes
                              all other modes
                                             bearing witness
to the stated versus                the state
               gram by gram
mar what s heard sheared
               the sheep look down
                              avert the eyes
the ayes for something in
               vested interests
                              gains as given (grabbed
equals owned                no equal sign
               means I for an aye
                              mean spirited
as in do you take
               to be
                              your owned etcetera
adding up a bonus plus
               a bonus plus
                              bone um
pire judgment burned
vanitas vanquished
               a genial lie
no though of intimacy
               fine white lace of branch
                              the vase with traces
of a gesture                seen felt left
               upon a surface               changed
                              within us
there s hot glazed lines
               broke baked mounted
as a trophy cracked
               that s age or anger
               made a puzzle
                              scattered (scarred
bits     requires standing
                              back to see a whole
clay being
                              and the surface
not the essence               quite
shiny               dust
rust a musty odor
               essential to what
revivification old thought
               worst thought first
found rooting in (for)
               another ancient dumpster
doorways revive motion
               within
                              our history
the sense                of taking
               perfectly               equivalent
                              to giving
way back (where or)
               when men
                              sang a song
along the lines of lost rituals
               so much bad faith
                              enacted for (but against?
anticipated life spa
               n             longer than
imagined want
                              self      c enters the draw
and now gathering
               lifeless force
face d off of the hat
               e motion to rescind
first words worst
               thought raised up
               wards against
                              what projected fear
gray autumn scatters
               quiet    then the cinders
                              sound the crush
of wheels venturing
               to raise prospects
                              of change by chance
Douglas Barbour continues, happily retired, to live in Edmonton, Alberta. His latest book is Listen. If (University of Alberta Press 2017). his occasional reviews (mostly of poetry) appear in Eclectic Ruckus (https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/).
Sheila E. Murphy's recent books include Reporting Live from You Know Where (Meritage, i.e. Press, and xPress(ed), 2018), As If to Tempt the Diatonic Marvel from the Ivory (Broken Sleep Books, 2018), and Underscore (Luna Bisonte Prods, with K.S. Ernst, 2018).
Two volumes of Continuations have so far appeared, from University of Alberta Press.