• “The Rosemary” Recorded for Poetry File RTÉ Lyric FM

    She said that Aisling let her cut the sprigs. It is 3.15 p.m, it is Thursday, I am examining two rosemary sprigs their blue-green, their silver underlight. She is stripping the small base leaves from a third, tapping its heel, putting it in a glass of crystal-clear-water for planting out with the roses in October.…

  • ‘tree is real silver’ published Poetry Ireland Review (N°138)

      Tree is real silver I. Birds tremble there alighting — (lighting) its stained glass recedes and within each bright ening light ening shape the song of a bird embeds a garnet— Each red-feathered song pewtering silver -ground on lazuli II. I see their (a) -lighting. They leaf the tree in the absence of bud,…

  • from a series by Chris Murray

    cold starlings beech gather their cacophonies to the gates copper -leaved golden -throned. Break bread for them, bring water for them. blue mountain, the sleeping houses a hot-house orchid Mabel chases her ball Beautyberries subsist, |her peripheries stripped| Wintering – a drop of rain blesses each white globe benediction for the tiny bird there Break…

  • fragments 1 & 2 published belfield literary review (N°2)

    from “Violence” I am breathing. I am breathing lightly as, light as, shell — / breath as, moth — / breath as, bird — / breath moon’s faces a triptych sets Mars’ red against turquoise — a sister, (less 6) * serious now, it is — (a purple sonority pageant of silks, their faces —…

  • ‘hook’, and: ‘sequins’, and: ‘spool’, and: ‘red on gold, the new dress’ published indelible literary journal, issue no.6: ‘the feminine’

    hook a hook for an eye this ribbon for a slip there’s a pigeon in the pot and tree makes the room your foot on the boards your head in the sky no mind if your stockings snag are splinter-caught the red thread frayed or snag walk now on swollen feet on feet that are…

  • leaf // settles published ucd pandemic archive

    From the Lares Series. V. leaf // Settles Jewelling | nowhere her Garnets tempering | Scarlet on steel the Sky— a Leaf there is © Chris Murray Published Poetry in Lockdown; A Pandemic Archive, UCD Online URL: https://libguides.ucd.ie/lockdownpoetry The Lares series was first published in The Indelible Literary Journal, January 2021 and was written in…

  • ‘winter street’ published jacar press

    the black mountains rise up cities cloud-urban citadels not the crow clang-tapping a tin post not the screel and soar of the gull can prevent it tails of berries strew the ground littered already with wasp-hasps wet leaves rain washed the trees out my body in its wet and dry calls yours it does not…

  • ‘nocturne for voices one and two’ performed lyric fm

    My poem Nocturne for Voices One and Two – excerpted below this note, was first published in the book Gold Friend (Turas Press, 2020). Una Lee produced the poem in her album Songs to stay awake to in 2020. Una Lee’s interpretation of the poem is featured in How The World Begins- Irish Women In…

  • Amber thrones  Wearing dark robes they send their light Down /           \ below / a bird / note / rises / up

  • ‘sans’ published southword literary journal

    sans it is all ceremony it is all the cloths all gathered-in it is white tailor’s chalk in a neat triangle it is the blanket-stitch before the machine it is the neighbour woman with her bone-pick pulling stitches one by one from the curtain lining the [bone-pick] is ivory coloured a little larger than a…