Mind of Europe

Rich Murphy's collection, Mind of Europe, time-travels into the past and may act as a sifter for possible insight into our 21st Century liminal times, where liberalism is dead, and fear of a capitalist and technological future reigns. The sometimes-lighthearted re-enactments mirror the thoughts of a host of 20th century European thinkers. The collection of poems could well be described as a séance calling back spirits for commiserating with the Western world today shapeshifting at a threshold. French poet Paul Valery described the "mind of Europe" "Every mind of any scope was a crossroads for all shades of opinion; every thinker was an international exposition of thought. There were the works of the mind in which the wealth of contrasts and contradictory tendencies was like the insane displays of light in the capitals...."