given the giving told
such stories pasttiming in
to mostly assembled (p)
recognition  /  causal
boxes carry the eye
into smaller smaller caves full

as freedom of itself
the string narration is when
in the eye the smallest
save is full as givens
during crucial pastimes when
in boxes all the carried things

dissolve into the crannied
possibilities  /  who'd climb
into those caves if small enough
but for the gleam & grain
of each stepped image eyed
& flung into the mirrored dark

intoxicating fling toward
even fictitious gleam with
in stepped narrow r/eaches
small and mirroring
possible seeds to be-
come grain a hand can wave across

dig in to what hoped for
abyssal shadows filled
with earth or its seed
ed implications   /   each
grained moment of ex
pansion  pression    polished

the sheen is underneath
the shadows and implicit
grain pressed from an under
surface seeds the polish
to be seen expressed
as hope in momentary place

paced slippery & fine
sands  stone  a rip
rap connection upwards
where long shadows fling
& scrabble at sheer sheened
blossoming summits sought

in the events themselves
creamed from plethora
then flung to places past
the shade the blossoms
toward sleek summits
hinged to being paced

tops floating on steam
ed pushup  /  clouds of
lost in    the shadows
cling & clamber with
each stem flowering
into darkness called

protect / called mist /
eventually water / shaded by
the clinging stems /
toward dark / clouds with
and with and into
pushed floating atop

such depths darker &
darker go  / down
along lines laid forth
stemming tidal flow
wave links particles
a misted collage of ing

though gesture locates
what may rise the tidal
magnet and the mist toward
what requires no light
life finds its own
places broken before seaming

sewn or sown light
filled lines of
site  /  flight
fading into bright white
shadows wavelengths
seeded into distant punkt

sight revs generosity
these altogether butterflied
young shadows offer tiny
shade in yellow gray waves
lining seeds as distance
goes to lengths

each turn trammed
to fields shadowed
lined & written far
beyond sharply
grained radials
sighting toward occlusion

the blocked moments equal
grains sharply
felt and simply
shaded with fields expanding
them and written singularities
become the whole in turn

re turn & turn again
how that inscription
shifts the light ploughed
under such reflection
slid lid's shadow
covers the whole wide field

a few thin weeds versus
the plush shift toward
constant shine to lace across
unmasking what is present
as inscribed apart
from inferential turning

folded the soft page
plies implies a field
of yellow leaves
read & fallen (stars
angst against concrete
listed but unheard

is a fleck of quiet
just about a field beneath
the stars or is there folding
that resists the listed
leaving of the sur
faces implied

any resistance plied surface
faded in ambiguous circumstance
not with standing fast but
stood up   left for dead
lined scrolls of names
gone down gone far beyond

surfaces stand until
surfaces are lost as scrolls
named circumstantial gone and
possibly beyond the fade
of full resistance far
from lines with ambiguity
 
 
 

a note on the collaboration:
 

Douglas Barbour and Sheila Murphy met in Arizona when Douglas and Stephen Scobie were in the State to perform their collaborative sound poetry as well as their individual work in association with the POG Reading Series and Chax Press in Tucson and at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Series in the greater Phoenix area. Following that visit, Barbour and Murphy corresponded online. Among the topics pursued in written conversation was Murphy's enjoyment of the collaborative process. Douglas asked her to participate in building a text together. 

Murphy and Barbour find collaborating a chance to get outside the self in linguistically tuned & turned ways. The process brings forth a different creator, representing the combination of energies often vastly different from those of the original participants.

The scope of the work so far is current a full-length book, currently in its 28th section, totaling approximately 100 pages, and continuing. Several sections are scheduled to appear in literary publications or as chapbooks.