Two Poems by
Sheile E. Murphy
Tighten
for Tom Beckett
Practice until
squeakless flow
blesses past itself
then loosens gifts
ways through
kudzu
no license
to relax yet
rising to reach
default plane
itself fleeting
within reach
Page Music
Scores unheard might be themselves
Beautiful warm leads beyond twelve-toned
Arrangements unplanned seeming versus a way through
Various bluebirds overtly naturally prized
Not difficult a cult of patterned waves whose code
Once left undeciphered in routine pursuit
Of equivalence lacking making something new
Until two agree and such accord
Scoreboards win or lose unrelaxing
A relieving weave of warbling bling
As pretty on the page as on the stage
If to watch the actual seeking to
Depose the page from its secret sterling
Dispatch past the mundane thatch of actual
Sheila E. Murphy. A Pushcart-nominated poet, Murphy recently read at the New Orleans Poetry Festival. Recent appearances include Gargoyle, Poetry Bay Poetose, Volta, and others including ē·rā/tiō. Most recent book publications are I Want to Be Your Radio (Unlikely Books, 2025), Escritoire (Lavender Ink, 2025), and Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023). She won the Gertrude Stein Poetry Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003) and the Hay(ha)ku Book Prize for Reporting Live From You Know Where (Meritage Press, 2018). She lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Sheila E. Murphy at Wikipedia. @shemurph.bsky.social.