Gerry Murphy (poet)

Gerry Murphy is an Irish poet.

Life & work

Gerry Murphy was born in Cork City in 1952 [ [http://www.dedaluspress.com/poets/murphy.html Dedalus Press - Gerry Murphy ] ] . His work is witty, openly intellectual and often satirical and is "highly, self-consciously literary" ( [http://ireland.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10062 Poetry International Web] ). "Much of the most recent work displays intense absorption of the Roman classics either through direct reference or employment of the pithy epigram."( [http://ireland.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10062 Poetry International Web] )

He attended University College Cork where he was part of a resurgence of literary activity under the inspiration of John Montague. Among his contemporaries, described by Thomas Dillon Redshaw as "that remarkable generation," there were Thomas McCarthy, William Wall, Theo Dorgan, Maurice Riordan, Greg Delanty and Sean Dunne. He is a hugely popular reader of his own work. But “...what makes Murphy unique among his contemporaries,” according to John Montague in a brief foreword to the Selected volume, “is his curious integrity, the way he has created an aesthetic out of nearly nothing, ex nihilo.”

After dropping out of university in the early 1970s Murphy spent some years working in London and living in an Israeli Kibbutz before returning to Cork in 1980 where he has remained ever since [ [http://ireland.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10062&x=1 Poetry International Web - Gerry Murphy ] ] . A champion swimmer, he has made his living primarily as a life guard and swimming pool manager.

Murphy's first volume was banned from bookshelves in his native city [ [http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirtwed.htm Galway Arts Centre ] ] . Pocket Apocalypse, his translations of the Polish poet Katarzyna Borun-Jagodzinska, appeared in 2005 from Southword Editions. End of Part One: New & Selected Poems features generous selections from all of those books together with some 30 new poems in a section entitled ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’. Gerry’s poetry has also come to life on the stage, with a stage adaptation by American playwright Roger Gregg at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.

Other poets cited as possible influences on Murphy's work include the American Charles Simic and the Romanian Marin Sorescu.

Publications

Collections

* A Small Fat Boy Walking Backwards (Cork, Commons Press, 1988, Three Spires Press, 1992)
* Rio de la Plata and All That (Dublin, Dedalus, 1993)
* The Empty Quarter (Dedalus, 1995)
* Extracts from the Lost Log Book of Christopher Columbus (Dedalus, 1999)
* Torso of an Ex-Girlfriend (Dedalus, 2002)
* End of Part One, New and Selected Poems (Dedalus, 2006)

Translation

* His translation of the Polish poet Katarzyna Borun-Jagodzinska was published as Pocket Apocalypse (Cork, Southword Editions, 2005).

External links

* [http://apriljosephine.blogspot.com/2007/03/selections-from-gerry-murphys-end-of.html Poems from End of Part One]
* [http://ireland.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10062&x=1 Entry on Poetry International Web]

References

* [ [http://ireland.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10062 Poetry International Web]
* [ [http://ireland.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10062 Poetry International Web] ]
* Irish Writers Online: [http://www.irishwriters-online.com/gerrymurphy.html]