Black Hole and Other Poems

About the Book

Black Hole and Other Poems, a new compilation of verse by poet David Murray, focuses on the role played by hunger for power in reducing the success of heterosexual romantic relationships. Divided into four parts, this collection explores the topic in a wide variety of styles and approaches.

The first part of the collection, ‘Poems in a Lighter Vein’, interprets the familiar vampire story as being an allegory of common male fantasies of having power over many ‘brides’, and most of its verses are satirical in nature. The second part, ‘Black Hole,’ contains examples based upon Murray’s experiences of the personal power, all too easily abused, exerted by men over women.

‘Treading Water,’ the third part, describes Murray’s feelings when he found himself forced to compete with a male rival to see which of the two could exert the most power over a particular female’s affections. In the fourth and final part, ‘Bagatelles’, each poem attempts to arouse, in only two lines, core emotional responses of the kind that are usually assumed to require longer poems.

Satirical, gutsy and succinct by turns, this book explores the role of power in sexual relationships and the varying aspects of that power.

About the Author

David J. Murray was born in 1937 and raised in Manchester, England; he earned a doctorate at the University of Cambridge. Now emeritus professor of psychology at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, he is a resident of Toronto. In addition to scholarly books, articles and encyclopedia entries, he has previously published six books of poetry.