George Murray (born 1971), is a

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poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and the current poet laureate of St. John's,

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. Murray was the editor of the literary blog Bookninja.com, a contributing editor at '' Maisonneuve'' magazine, and a contributing editor at several literary magazines and journals. After several years abroad in rural

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and

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, in 2005 he returned to Canada. He now lives in St. John's. 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 In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...

to create intertextual meaning, as opposed to the sound bonding of traditional aural rhyme. Murray's 2010 book of aphorisms, ''Glimpse'', was a Canadian bestseller. His 2012 book, ''Whiteout'', contained a poem titled ''Song For Memory'', first published in ''The New Welsh Review'', that was adapted by the band

The Once The Once is a folk trio based in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. The group features Geraldine Hollett on lead vocals and vocalist-instrumentalists Phil Churchill and Andrew Dale playing a variety of instruments. The group performs a mix of ori ...

for their 2011 album ''Row Upon Row of the People They Know'' (a phrase taken from the poem).

Bibliography

* ''Carousel''. Toronto: Exile, 2000. * ''The Cottage Builder's Letter''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2001. * ''The Hunter''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2003. * ''A Set of Deadly Negotiations''. Victoria: Frog Hollow Press, 2006. * ''The Rush to Here''. Vancouver: Nightwood Editions, 2007. * ''Glimpse: Selected Aphorisms''. Toronto: ECW Press, 2010. * ''Whiteout''. Toronto: ECW Press, 2012. * ''Diversion''. Toronto: ECW Press, 2015. * ''QUICK: Aphorisms''. Toronto: ECW Press, 2017.

References

Canadian bloggers 21st-century Canadian poets Living people 1971 births Writers from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers Male bloggers Poets Laureate of places in Canada {{Canada-poet-stub