Chained Dog Dreams by Carol Guerrero-Murphy
$19.99
Carol Guerrero-Murphy’s poems are earthly and unearthly, fierce and generous, and brimming with enduring meaning. In Chained Dog Dreams her brilliant “Birth Epic” illuminates the nature of giving birth as the act resists language and turns the mother herself into a warrior and survivor. The most telling moments of a life emerge with new clarity through the focusing lens of this poet’s attentive sensibility and astonishing craft.
–Lee Upton, author Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles: Poems. No Mercy won the National Poetry Series.
These gorgeous poems speak of politics, family, motherhood, animals, landscape—with the foundation of honesty, grace, and above all else, mercy. This collection is a quietly moving, deeply felt look at our vulnerable world, our vulnerable souls.
–Laura Pritchett, author Sky Bridge winner of the PEN USA award.
Guerrero-Murphy has given her readers a rhythmic and beautiful paean to a world blessed by rain, flowers, the prayer and religion of horses as well as the power and pain of family, womanhood and personal history. These poems take the reader from desert to grassland, from the bloom of childhood to the shadow and wisdom of adult knowing, always lingering at the heart sound of redemption and grace, even in the midst of the tragic and impure. Chained Dog Dreams is the work of a poet whose soul is full, whose life is both mirror and salvation.
–Aaron Abeyta, is the author of 4 books of poetry including Colcha (winner Colorado Book Award and American Book Award) and the novel Rise, Do Not Be Afraid.
Description
Chained Dog Dreams
by Carol Guerrero-Murphy
$19.99, Full-length, paper
978-1-64662-066-1
2019
Carol Guerrero-Murphy’s first book of poetry, Table Walking at Nighthawk (Ghost Road Press 2007) earned a WILLA poetry finalist. She is a professor Emerita (PH.D. English/creative Writing, Denver University) and continues to teach in the College Prison Program of Adams State University. Many of these poems are set in the San Luis and Huerfano Valleys of southern Colorado where she lived for most of her adult life, or in Alaska, where she was a child.
Annie Dawid (verified owner) –
“Chained Dog Dreams” lingered in my consciousness long after I finished turning the pages. Guerrero-Murphy’s sensibility speaks indelibly, allowing readers to hear and absorb: sweetness, sadness, light and dark, seeking and finding.
George Parrish –
I like your poems because they are genuine. I think an awful lot of poetry (like every other form of art) isn’t. Your stuff seems pretty real to me. I just finished Chained Dog Dreams and I would like to add the word “generous” to the previous “genuine”. It felt like taking a life supplement, almost- sort of like a vitamin B shot for the spirit. Thank you. George Parrish
wildheartcrone (verified owner) –
Carol Guerrero-Murphy’s penetrating vision shines through her new collection, “Chained Dog Dreams.” Her intimate images of how we live and thrive both radiate and inspire. She is truly a wayfarer in the realms of nature, family, and one special horse whose presence enlivened in her the ‘awareness of god.’ Her moving and graphic poem, “Birth Epic,” captures her unique talent; she is truly, ‘Mother and author and hero.’ Pam Noble
Gail Coray (verified owner) –
Mysterious, lucid, heart-wrenching and hilarious, often all at once, Guerrero-Murphy’s poetry invites us on an odyssey both personal and universal. Captivated, one eagerly follows her lines into a world both surreal and concrete, from yaks, horses and reflective newts to birth, magical childhood, challenging illness, love and loss. Always her work scintillates with the sheer astonishing beauty of being alive.