Ryan Murphy's Poetry

Ryan Murphy's imagination is as wide ranging as his eye is clear to what's in front of him. This poem is from a short chapbook titled Poems for the American Revolution. His full-length collection is down with the ship


Ryan Murphy
Commodore John Barry


Speed the day.
Yes, the streets are full of threats
and children,
money managers and movie stars.
Singing in the wires.

And there is a feeling of fall
and summer and winter
(the wind from the west
off the river—
                                   starry blight
persuasions).

And it is inside you
on certain days, when the light
is right.
And it is falling asleep,
and it is beside you.
Sleep the color of ashes.

3:17 am and the nightpilots
return with their charges.