Persistence and Other Poems

By David J. Murray

Spring summer summer winter she is there,
The laken depths of girlish eyes:
Come, she cries, I banish care
I come and winter summer summer spring
Her raven hair blows on, come on,
And when I get there, she is gone
Although the fields still hear her sing
I try to love and when the gate
Is banged against my face, I try to hate.

In his fifth volume of lyrical expressions, award-winning poet David Murray combines both traditional and free verse while exploring the powerful emotions behind the timeless theme of romantic love.

Over some fifty years, Murray has been writing and compiling poetry relating to remorse, regret, and rejection. As he returns emotionally to the times of his youth and his memories of discontent during two unhappy romances that took place during the 1960s, he offers a compelling glimpse of moments in relationships that erratically vacillate between despair and elation. His verse traces the story of two people who fall in love, evolve as a couple, and realize in the end that sometimes love fails.

The poetry in this memorable collection will remind anyone that lovelike lifeis unpredictable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450272285

David J. Murray

David J. Murray has published twelve books of poetry. Born in 1937 and raised in Manchester, England, he earned a doctorate at the University of Cambridge. Now emeritus professor of psychology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and a resident of Toronto, he has published scholarly books, articles and encyclopaedia entries.

Book preview

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

NIGHTMARES AND BACK-SCREAMS

PORTENT #1

PORTENT #2

NIGHTMARE #1

NIGHTMARE #2

NIGHTMARE #3

NIGHTMARE #4

NIGHTMARE #5

NIGHTMARE #6

NIGHTMARE #7

NIGHTMARE #8

NIGHTMARE #9

NIGHTMARE #10

NIGHTMARE #11

NIGHTMARE #12

NIGHTMARE #13

NIGHTMARE #14

NIGHTMARE #15

NIGHTMARE #16

NIGHTMARE #17

NIGHTMARE #18

NIGHTMARE #19

NIGHTMARE #20

EX-PARAMOUR

BACK-SCREAM #1

BACK-SCREAM #2

BACK-SCREAM #3

BACK-SCREAM #4

BACK-SCREAM #5

BACK-SCREAM #6

BACK-SCREAM #7

BACK-SCREAM #8

BACK-SCREAM #9

BACK-SCREAM #10

BACK-SCREAM #11

BACK-SCREAM #12

BACK-SCREAM #13

BACK-SCREAM #14

BACK-SCREAM #15

BACK-SCREAM #16

BACK-SCREAM #17

BACK-SCREAM #18

BACK-SCREAM #19

BACK-SCREAM #20

BACK-SCREAM #21

BACK-SCREAM #22

BACK-SCREAM #23

BACK-SCREAM #24

BACK-SCREAM #25

BACK-SCREAM #26

BACK-SCREAM #27

BACK-SCREAM #28

BACK-SCREAM #29

BACK-SCREAM #30

BACK-SCREAM #31

BACK-SCREAM #32

BACK-SCREAM #33

BACK-SCREAM #34

BACK-SCREAM #35

BACK-SCREAM #36

BACK-SCREAM #37

BACK-SCREAM #38

BACK-SCREAM #39

BACK-SCREAM #40

BACK-SCREAM #41

BACK-SCREAM #42

BACK-SCREAM #43

BACK-SCREAM #44

THE MORAL

PERSISTENCE

YOUR SPECTRE

SELECTIVE PERCEPTION

FUELS

THE WAY IT WAS #1

POST-MORTEM

SOMEWHERE ELSE

BLUENESS

UNBALANCED

EQUIVOCATION

A SPRING DELAYED

THE LYNX

THE TIMES WHEN I FEAR YOU MOST

VERITY

INNOCENCE #1

OVERTHROWN

INNOCENCE #2

THE BROWNS OF WINTER

THE FORESTS OF MY THOUGHTS

QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS

CONTROL MODE

MODERATION

WISHFUL THINKING

WHERE’ER YOU WALK

INFORMATION

NO ANSWER

LISTENING

EARLY TO RISE

ART AND ANTIPATHY

WHEN EAGLES MEET

ARROWS

CHANGE

SUNRISE

INEVITABILITY #1

INEVITABILITY #2

ENOUGH?

YOUR REVENGE? MY REPLY

DAMN!

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

INTRODUCTION

In this fifth volume of a series, in which I am putting into print poems I have been writing over some fifty years, all the poems have to do with remorse, regret, and rejection in the field of heterosexual romance. While scattered poems on these topics can be found in each of the earlier volumes, the exercise of putting 106 previously unpublished poems into the present volume has been both upsetting and uplifting. Because the initial perusal of them after many years forced me to go back to times of my youth, I found it upsetting to have to revisit those early years with their memories of discontent. On the other hand, it was also uplifting to realize that I had been able to overcome those discontents in part by writing the poems you will read here. The usefulness of poetry as a medium for relieving mental distress, by way of self-therapeutic outpourings, is now being acknowledged in professional care-giving and occupational therapy circles; I recently contributed to a volume entitled Celebrating Poets Over Seventy, edited in 2010 by Marianne Forsyth Vespry and Ellen B. Ryan, who are associated with both the McMaster Centre for Gerontological Studies and with the Tower Poetry Society of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

The poems in the present volume all describe unhappy romances that took place in the 1960s. The poems have at least two lessons to offer to readers of any gender or age. The first lesson is that memories of exceptional misery, in particular romantic episodes, will not fade away as time passes; they merely lie dormant and can be awoken readily if an incident in everyday life serves to remind you of that misery. For