C. Derick Varn

Practitioner Joy

Arts & Literature

“Murphy’s poetry in Practitioner Joy often begins with ‘the myth playing technicolor in the cranium’ but moves through the ‘caveat acts, the bracketed, ellipses’ to show how modern life often begins with a joke and ends with a sigh—a sigh of resignation, a sigh of relief, a sigh of despair, but a sigh. Poetry in this collection moves from all the shades of emotion and often meta-poetically reflects back on itself and society through a slanted mirror. Serious in his whimsy, and joyous in his irony, Rich Murphy gives us a collection that practices what it preaches: telling the truth, but slant and with a wry smile.”