Poetry. Almost Too Much both tactfully and relentlessly interrogates our human experience in these dehumanizing times. There's not a sliver of false hope in these pages, but reading them, we catch glimpses of the paradox of our lives, that The sound of geese /overhead, their thin cries clear /as night through the ceilings and roof / of the house, is either the saddest /sound [we] will ever know / or one of great lifting joy. Barbara Murphy's quietly brilliant poems move us readers toward usable truth.--David Huddle Author of Glory River and Blacksnake at the Family Reunion Murphy's lyrical narratives, lively and exact, speak of braveries and hesitations, fugitive beauties and stations of calm. A lifetime of truths take the reader through first games of hide and seek, the boys so far away/lost in their secret places/there was no way/they'd ever get home in time; first loves and second marriages where desire is more of a casual friend./It will not/always be there breathless and flushed; loving children and step-children with different needs in different time zones. These poems should be read aloud for their honesty and musicality. They do the heart good. Almost Too Much is a stunning debut.--Dzvinia Orlowsky Author of Silvertone and A Handful of Bees Deeply intimate, each line a breath. In flashes of brilliance against a landscape of existential dread, these poems flare up and stare down this given world until it surrenders its grace.--Nancy Mitchell Author of The Near Surround and Grief Hut
