Nina Murray

I've enjoyed this book of poetry, with Nina Murray's observations on life. Some of the poems are her Memory Theater weaving their way through the volume. One of the poems "collection need", obviously Moscow, could be any city with skateboarders which maybe disturb a middle class woman with their erratic swoops, but has a fetching quality about it. Lviv, January 2017, comments about history in cedar tree rings where unknowledge is perdition, but just look at the palimpsest of series. "for L. B." comments a backdoor way to get travel out of aBaltic country at the height of the Iron Curtain. Murray's poems are reworked memories developed in unexpected ways.… (meer)

Nina Murray takes on the likeness of Alcestis, the Greek legend who agreed to die in place of her husband, who went into the underworld, and who was rescued by Hercules, as a way of structuring this book of poems. The book is in three parts, maybe relating to Alcestis’ time before, in, and returned from the land of the dead. This land may be Russia, Ukraine, Chicago, or some unnamed frozen forest, all of which are mentioned and have been part of the author's life.
I find Murray’s poetry, approachable, easy to read - not that I understand everything on the first or second reading, or that I’m always willing to research places and words and references that would make them clearer. But when I guess or wonder at the meaning of a line, I feel confident that the poet is not playing tricks on me.
I don’t keep many books that I’ve read, but plan to hold onto this one.… (meer)