Poetry. In this quiet sequence of morning poems, poets Taylor Stoehr and Elizabeth Murphy trade answers to the question "How is it with me?" Inspired by the Gestalt writing practice of poet and social critic Paul Goodman, their daily exchange of "little prayers" is a collaborative exercise in naming the experience of a moment.

Author Biography

Teacher, translator, and critic Taylor Stoehr published more than a dozen books of literary and cultural criticism, with much of his work focused on the writings of his friend the social critic and anarchist Paul Goodman. His books range in content from education and community planning to the origins of the Gestalt psychology movement. Changing Lives, his final book, describes the transformative experiences of twelve participants in an alternative sentencing program that Stoehr helped found, and in which he taught for fifteen years. As Paul Goodman's literary executor, Stoehr edited and introduced many volumes of Goodman's essays, fiction, and poetry. But Stoehr too was a devoted poet. His poems and translations have appeared in Agni, Blue Unicorn, and The Straddler, among other venues. Ask the Wolf, translations from the medieval French of Francois Villon, was published by Unicorn Press in 2006, and his translations of classical Chinese poets of the T'ang Dynasty, I Hear My Gate Slam, was published by Pressed Wafer in 2007. Elizabeth Murphy is a poet and editor, and cofounder of the online interdisciplinary journal The Straddler. She is also an editor and publisher with Grid Books and its imprint Off the Grid Press. In 2013, her edition of the literary correspondence of American poet Donald Justice and novelist Richard Stern, A Critical Friendship, was published by the University of Nebraska Press. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in Salamander and Hopkins Review.