Robert Smart

First Aid

“First Aid is Rich Murphy’s twelfth book-length collection of poems that interrogates the perils of surviving half-lived lives in a consumerist society. The genius of consumerist culture is that it enforces a kind of myopia that supports it, preventing us from noticing the steady retreat of our humanity from the noisome culture around us. Murphy’s particular genius is his ability to see the connections, the invidious logic of this culture. But this collection marks an important change in his oeuvre; his gaze has shifted towards a Stevens-like recentering, a refocus around his own pressing humanity. First Aid is, I believe, Murphy’s strongest work in a decade or more.”

Storage Shed

Arts & Literature

“The genius of consumerist culture is that it enforces a kind of myopia that supports it, preventing us from noticing the steady retreat of our humanity from the noisome culture around us. Rich’s particular genius is his ability to see the connections, the invidious logic of this culture. . . . His gaze towards a Stevens-like recentering, a refocus around his own pressing humanity.”