Rob's Blog

22 October 2020

Episode 026: Phobos

We're approaching Halloween and so I turn from my weeks of earnestness into something a bit more ... spooky? Not that last week's episode didn't have shades of spookiness, what with all the ghosts of the past haunting those words. But this week we mix together my two written creative loves: Poetry and Science Fiction. "Phobos" is the experience of someone approaching that larger moon of Mars for the first time, about to set foot on an alien world.

I want to hear what you think of the podcast, whether it's a specific poem or the format, or whatever's on your mind! Leave a review or a comment in your podcast app, or catch me on Twitter @Lefthandrob.

After listening to the podcast (or while listening), visit one of these sites and donate for the cause, because All Black Lives Matter and my fellow white (and cis) people we need to get in the game:

Donate to Black Lives Matter

Donate to the Souther Poverty Law Center

Donate to the Equal Justice Initiative

Transgender Law Center

The poems will continue to flow, but so must the Justice.

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

15 October 2020

Episode 025: And I Will Then Be Ashes

After a smattering of absurdity, I've been choosing poems that are, in a word, earnest. This week's selection is no different. From Regret and Opportunity, this episode is the poem "And I Will Then Be Ashes." Though earnest, it takes a turn for what I hope is inspirational, which is something that I have a feeling a lot of us can use. So, stick with me on this brief journey, let me set the table so that I can reveal my true thoughts as we wind our way through to the end.

I'd love to hear what you think of the podcast, whether it's a specific poem or the format, or whatever's on your mind! Leave a review or a comment in your podcast app, or catch me on Twitter @Lefthandrob.

After listening to the podcast (or while listening), visit one of these sites and donate for the cause, because All Black Lives Matter and my fellow white (and cis) people we need to get in the game:

Donate to Black Lives Matter

Donate to the Souther Poverty Law Center

Donate to the Equal Justice Initiative

Transgender Law Center

The poems will continue to flow, but so must the Justice.

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Books for Sale

On this page is my bibliography, complete with preview links so you can sample the content of each book before you buy it. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Krakken and Phoenix
vol2 of the Titan Run Trilogy
Science Fiction

November 01, 2016

ASIN: B08HBMFRL2
ISBN: -SOON-

When we last saw our crews...
Hugh Saracen and Ann Bell had successfully escaped their pasts on Mars and found themselves heading for Titan aboard the mining ship Krakken.
Meanwhile, Hugh's husband, Captain Dalton Simmons of the state-of-the-art cruiser BPOE Phoenix led his new crew likewise away from the red planet to see if their new ship was as good as she appeared on the screen.
Hugh, Ann, Dalton, Gonzo, and the rest are back in the second volume of the Titan Run Trilogy where instead of running away, they'll be pulled headfirst into danger.

Breaking Orbit
vol1 of the Titan Run Trilogy
Science Fiction

October 21, 2016

ASIN: B01M8LQ41J
ISBN: 1539561364

Sign on for the deadliest job in the Solar System.
200 years in the future humanity is no longer a victim of gravity and circumstance. Earth's children have realized their birthright and colonized the Solar System. Mars, the moons of Jupiter, the asteroids ... but none of those fantastic worlds is as welcoming as Earth. To warm the frozen surface of Mars humans look into their past and employ internal combustion technology to blanket the red planet in heat-trapping greenhouse gasses. In this future where Earth has become an ecological utopia there is only one place in the Solar System that has the hydrocarbons Mars desperately needs: the moon Titan.
Join the crew of the mining ship Krakken as she embarks on her three-year journey into the depths of Solar space &emdash; far from other people, far from other ships, far from help.

Regret and Opportunity
Poetry

May 21, 2016

ASIN: B01E7Y53GK
ISBN: 978-1530145966

Join poet Robert C. Murray on his third adventure into verse as he shares his clever observations about this and other worlds (that one can safely assume he is imagining). As usual he covers everything from life to death, with some duck sauce thrown in for good measure (you'll see). If you enjoyed "Stand Right, Walk Left", and "Blue. Poems", you'll also find yourself quite pleased with this latest effort. If you're not sure that you enjoyed his previous poetic works, it is recommended that you go back and review them.
Some items to look for:

This collection is mostly in chronological order.
It covers some fairly stressful events if you know what to look for.
I used to wait tables at a Denny's.
Something about mental sorbet.

Enjoy the book.

Blue. Poems
Poetry

November 22, 2014

ISBN: 1503303551

If you enjoyed “Stand Right, Walk Left,” then you will love “Blue,” Robert C. Murray’s second collection of poems. Poetry is where we turn when the world fails to make sense. Poetry is the song we all sing when the world does make sense. Poetry is there for you, as is this humble volume of some of those very poems gathered for all your moments whether you are happy, sad, or just feeling Blue.

Stand Right, Walk Left

Poetry

September 13, 2012

ISBN: 9780988552111

I started writing poetry as a teenager because it was a clever game, matching rhyme and meter, filling pages with epic tales told in four-line stanzas of rhymed couplets (none of which will ever see the light of day, I pray). It turned into a coping mechanism, and those poems especially have been lost to the ages. The passing of the years has afforded me the time to study the work of great poets, revealing to me the freedom in a line of verse not stuck to a rhyme or even a meter, but inherently rhythmic – musical – without arbitrary restraint, but still within the bounds of its own making. And so I write for the love of the word, of the phrase, of capturing a thought or feeling in a line the same way I capture a moment with a photo.

If you are a reader of my site, you have seen some (but not all!) of these poems posted there. This book is the first of what I hope to be many collections of poetry in years to come, though the next volume may not be so much a picture-book, but it is so that I am also quite proud of my photography work and I think this experiment of pairing photos with poems to help frame the imagery is worthy. If you prefer, however, you may certainly skip the photos, but if you enjoyed the photo pairings that appeared after each poem, you can purchase prints of these and many more here:

http://1-rob-murray.instaprints.com and here: http://instacanv.as/lefthandrob

This is a work of poetry in earnest, but I’d have been remiss if I had not made those links known to you. I leave you, dear reader, with two final thoughts: Yes, I know some of my haiku have the wrong syllabic structure. I strive to be accurate to the form, but am alas only human. Finally, it’s my (and every poet, I’ll wager) dream to be read on the Writer’s Almanac by Mr. Garrison Keillor. His is often the voice in my head as I envision my work being read aloud. So, kindly I ask if you’re acquainted with him, please pass Mr. Keillor a copy of my effort, and I’ll say a small prayer that one of these is to his liking, though I hope all of them were to yours.

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22 October 2020

Episode 026: Phobos

15 October 2020

Episode 025: And I Will Then Be Ashes

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