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Problematica: New and Selected Poems 1995–2020
A best-of collection from one of Canada’s most ambitious poets
Problematica — a scientific term used to describe species that defy classification. See unidentifiable.
George Murray is a strange beast. Lauded as one of Canada’s leading poets, his work has been published around the world, but here at home, he has never really “fit in” with his contemporaries. By turns archly formal and thoughtful, insouciant and hilarious, each of his six books seems intent on staking out its own identity, standing alone in stark contrast to all others.
Yet, in this judicious selection of new and selected poems spanning Murray’s 25-year career, we see threads and patterns emerge like fractals. From early narrative poems to lyrical explorations of the metaphysical to investigations of the colloquial and contemporary, Murray’s work roams a landscape that includes everything from happiness to regret, love to loss, doubt to faith, anxiety to acceptance.
This collection not only represents the best of Murray’s earlier poems, but also surprises readers with a section of never-before-seen new work, revealing a life spent wrestling with what it means to arrive, live, and leave. Problematica is a considerable body of poetry from a mind that obsessively wanders the edges of thought and language, working to identify what boundaries may or may not exist.
Problematica — a scientific term used to describe species that defy classification. See unidentifiable.
George Murray is a strange beast. Lauded as one of Canada’s leading poets, his work has been published around the world, but here at home, he has never really “fit in” with his contemporaries. By turns archly formal and thoughtful, insouciant and hilarious, each of his six books seems intent on staking out its own identity, standing alone in stark contrast to all others.
Yet, in this judicious selection of new and selected poems spanning Murray’s 25-year career, we see threads and patterns emerge like fractals. From early narrative poems to lyrical explorations of the metaphysical to investigations of the colloquial and contemporary, Murray’s work roams a landscape that includes everything from happiness to regret, love to loss, doubt to faith, anxiety to acceptance.
This collection not only represents the best of Murray’s earlier poems, but also surprises readers with a section of never-before-seen new work, revealing a life spent wrestling with what it means to arrive, live, and leave. Problematica is a considerable body of poetry from a mind that obsessively wanders the edges of thought and language, working to identify what boundaries may or may not exist.
- GenresPoetry
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 7, 2021
4 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
George Murray
102 books10 followersGeorge Murray (born 1971), is a Canadian poet.
Murray was the editor of the literary blog Bookninja, a contributing editor at Maisonneuve magazine, and a contributing editor at several literary magazines and journals. After several years abroad in rural Italy and New York City, in 2005 he returned to Canada. He now lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2014, Murray was appointed Poet Laureate of St. John's, NL
Murray's 2007 book, The Rush to Here, a sequence of 57 sonnets, reworks a number of traditional forms (Petrarchan, Spenserian, Shakesperian sonnets) into a new rhyme scheme that employs what the poet refers to as "thought-rhyme", conceptual and semantic pairings that work on the level of synonym, antonym and homonym to create intertextual meaning, as opposed to the sound bonding of traditional aural rhyme. His latest book, Whiteout: Poems, was published in April, 2012.
Murray is married to writer Elisabeth de Mariaffi.
Murray was the editor of the literary blog Bookninja, a contributing editor at Maisonneuve magazine, and a contributing editor at several literary magazines and journals. After several years abroad in rural Italy and New York City, in 2005 he returned to Canada. He now lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2014, Murray was appointed Poet Laureate of St. John's, NL
Murray's 2007 book, The Rush to Here, a sequence of 57 sonnets, reworks a number of traditional forms (Petrarchan, Spenserian, Shakesperian sonnets) into a new rhyme scheme that employs what the poet refers to as "thought-rhyme", conceptual and semantic pairings that work on the level of synonym, antonym and homonym to create intertextual meaning, as opposed to the sound bonding of traditional aural rhyme. His latest book, Whiteout: Poems, was published in April, 2012.
Murray is married to writer Elisabeth de Mariaffi.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2021
I was thrilled to have received an advanced copy of this. I really enjoyed this collection. It was my first experience with Murray's work, and what an excellent collection to discover his poetry! Each poem felt like a vignette into someone's life, but only the most essential sliver of it instead of an expansive display. It was like each experience was a concentrated version--almost too much at times, like soup from a can without water--that packed a punch through the language.
from Ectopia Cordis, my favourite of the poems
What an artful junkyard
life is, made by chance
piled in hip-high drifts and cords.
from Ectopia Cordis, my favourite of the poems
Displaying 1 of 1 review