Last Poems

by Timothy Murphy, Catherine Chandler (Editor)

Prolific prairie poet Timothy Murphy wasn’t going to be done writing until the good Lord made it clear. But in early 2018, hearing the diagnosis “bone cancer,” he reckoned it might be sooner than later, so he set about creating what might be his final collection, giving it the working title of, Last Poems? The question mark was later removed; Murphy succumbed to the disease on June 30, 2018, at his humble Fargo home, strewn with Charles Beck art and cigarette butts, near the Red River. As described by the collection editor, poet and translator Catherine Chandler, Last Poems is a veritable journal intime, albeit one that Timothy Murphy wished to share with his readers. In his unmistakable voice, and often in stark language almost too painful to read, Tim chronicles his physical, spiritual, and emotional life during his final months, beginning on the day of his cancer diagnosis in early January 2018, through his various treatments, and ultimately his decision to withdraw from clinical trials. . . . Let [Last Poems] be my Last Will and Testament, Murphy writes in "Envoi." And so it is. Last Poems bears witness―with grace, grit, and gratitude―to the life and loves of this major North American poet.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published July 29, 2021

About the author

Timothy Murphy was an American poet and businessman. Murphy studied at Yale University under Robert Penn Warren, graduating (B.A.) as Scholar of the House in Poetry in 1972. Murphy returned to Minnesota, and subsequently became involved in several farming and manufacturing enterprises in North Dakota, experiences which are reflected in his later writing.

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.