Carousel: A Book of Second Thoughts

by George Murray

At times satirical, ironic and tenderly sincere, this collection charts the wandering course of faith by examining the death records of a diverse cast of characters. Presented as eulogies, elegies, obituaries, and panegyrics, these poems explore the cyclical nature of belief and loss, living and rebirth, with lyrical regret and narrative celebration. Fragments of memory, excerpts from longer stories told and retold: this is how we remember.

80 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

George Murray (born 1971), is a Canadian poet.

Murray was the editor of the literary blog Bookninja, a contributing editor at Maisonneuve magazine, and a contributing editor at several literary magazines and journals. After several years abroad in rural Italy and New York City, in 2005 he returned to Canada. He now lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2014, Murray was appointed Poet Laureate of St. John's, NL

Murray's 2007 book, The Rush to Here, a sequence of 57 sonnets, reworks a number of traditional forms (Petrarchan, Spenserian, Shakesperian sonnets) into a new rhyme scheme that employs what the poet refers to as "thought-rhyme", conceptual and semantic pairings that work on the level of synonym, antonym and homonym to create intertextual meaning, as opposed to the sound bonding of traditional aural rhyme. His latest book, Whiteout: Poems, was published in April, 2012.

Murray is married to writer Elisabeth de Mariaffi.