The Cottage Builder's Letter

by MURRAY, GEORGE

• ISBN13: 9780771066726
• ISBN10: 0771066724
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-17
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Summary

WithThe Cottage Builder's Letter, gifted poet George Murray comes into his own with a new book of sumptuous lyrical narratives. He constructs his remarkable stories-in-song around challenges in the lives of people claiming their right to exist in a world seemingly set against them. Highly crafted, generous in tone, and always with a moral authority,The Cottage Builder's Lettertackles the larger historical issues of Murray's own Irish background by creating heroes of well-storied, fictional characters such as a nameless Muskoka cottage builder, the singular Seamus Me Fein (Seamus myself), and his parents and his grandparents, vaulting their hard luck and hard work into poetry driven by bardic rhythms. Murray re-invigorates traditional rhythms the same way he surprises us by creating fresh figures from old tales. Whether his subject is a modern-day Damocles, a drowning man waiting for Noah, an Egyptian on the Red Sea, or the Cassandra myth updated to contemporary urban scenes, Murray's poetry bursts with a protean vigour.

Author Biography

<b>George Murray</b> is the author of two acclaimed books of poetry, <i>Carousel</i> (2000) and <i>The Cottage Builder’s Letter</i> (2001). His work has appeared in many newspapers and magazines in Canada, and in the U.S. and Australia, including <i>Descant</i>,<i> The Iowa Review</i>,<i> The Globe and Mail</i>,<i> Jacket</i>,<i> Mid-American Review</i>,<i> Nerve</i>,<i> Painted Bride Quarterly</i>, and<i> Slope</i>. He is also an editor at <i>Maisonneuve Magazine</i>. Raised in rural Ontario, he now lives in New York City.<b><br></b><br>Selected poems from his most recent book of poetry, <i>The Hunter, </i> have appeared in <i>The Globe and Mail</i> and in <i>100</i> <i>Poets Against War</i>.

Table of Contents

A Good Life in the Converted Church	p. 3
The Last of the Sinners Waits on a Rock for Noah	p. 5
Memories of the Snake	p. 8
The Cottage Builder's Letter	p. 10
The Bridge	p. 23
Two Hundred Acres: First Draft of a Coroner's Report	p. 25
Questions for an Elderly Gentleman	p. 27
The Bats	p. 29
The Bird	p. 31
The Third Ewe on the Left Behind the Nativity	p. 33
Chasing Sky: A Great Lakes Photographer's Manual	p. 36
Mayflies in Autumn	p. 37
A Rustle in the Bush	p. 39
The Dead Are Drinking at My Door	p. 41
The Interview	p. 43
The Train	p. 45
Nostalgia for the Second Just Past	p. 46
Two Degrees: A Small Town Survival Guide	p. 48
Pressure	p. 50
Excerpts from Great Literatures of the Past	p. 53
Library	p. 55
Despite the Hunger and Delicious Taste	p. 56
Cassandra Complex: A Still-Life Suite	p. 58
Clock, Compass, and Sword	p. 66
Jonny and the Fish	p. 68
It Always Rains on Remembrance Day	p. 70
Escaping Laughter	p. 72
The Former Contender Contemplates His Reflection in a Mirror	p. 73
Thunder in the Hollows	p. 75
Rain	p. 76
An Egyptian Soldier on the Red Sea Swims Away from Moses	p. 78
The Unrecorded Life of Seamus Me Fein	p. 83
Acknowledgements	p. 101
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