Meme Measure

By Rich Murphy

German philosopher Byung-Chul Han defines poetry as "luxury in language," and where Andre Breton in his Manifesto on Surrealism claims that "only the marvelous is beautiful," Han states, "I cannot conceive of the beautiful apart from the foreign. All genuine beauty is foreign." The marvelous, the foreign transport the reader to the experience of being alive. Poetry, for the author, remains an attempt to slow the reader down and pull the reader out of the humdrum world of platitude and cliche of everyday language, providing a foreign lodge, a "house of being" and dwelling with ironic wit: the sublime poem. From beginning to the end, it provides a world of thought to expose the contemporary cynicism and foster vision for tomorrow.

The seventy-four poems in Meme Measure have as an initial impetus Rene Girard's writing on mimetic theory, mimetic rivalry, and scapegoat. I see the collection as lodges for dwelling on the various implications for us today, while attempting to plumb emotion as subjective and objective within Homo sapiens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Aug 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666796803

Rich Murphy

Rich Murphy's First Aid was published by Resource Publications at Wipf and Stock in summer of 2023. Meme Measure, a collection of poems, was published by Resource Publications at Wipf and Stock in 2022. His poetry has won The Poetry Prize at Press Americana twice Americana (2013) and The Left Behind (2021) and Gival Press Poetry Prize Voyeur (2008). Space Craft by Resource Publications at Wipf and Stock also came out in 2021. Books Prophet Voice Now, essays published by Common Ground Research Network and Practitioner Joy, poetry by Resource Publications at Wipf and Stock were published in 2020. He has published nine other collections of poetry.

Book preview

Meme Measure

Rich Murphy

Meme Measure

Copyright ©

2022

Rich Murphy. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

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97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-9679-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-9678-0

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-9680-3

06/23/22

Table of Contents

Title Page

Desire Contagion

Confetti Catcher

Grace Note

Smile

The Trigger Range

Horse Power

Progress

Freaking Fomentation

Cloned Backbones

Swank Rank

Adventures in Capitalism

The Unicyclist

Viral Load

Anti-Viral Punch Lines

Inside Out Sex

Course Obstacle

Traffic Address

Night at the Opera

Likewise and So On

Ruby and Ignatius TLA

Marginalia

Cobbling Headquarters

Snapshot: No. 1 in the Wild West

Tongue Twister

Dominoes in America

Foil Toil

Tornado Dodgers

Planting Two Feet on Earth

Altared States continued

I Isles

Sentence Structures

Meme Kiosk

Cartography for Beginners

The Dogged Celebrity

H.R. Department

Corpus Orgini

Metrics for Hysterics

Dopamine Dunces

No Dominion

Posturing Post

Sin Skin in the Game

Trash Talking

Me Meme

Rescue Scene

Cycle Shop

The Code Fold

Hail Seizure

Maybe Magnate

Ta-Da Ta-Da Ta-

Seer in the Main Frame

!

Starting Points

Echo Answer

Narcissus in Wilderness

High-Seas Refrain

Ear Worm

Two-Step

The Gear for a Way

Cannonball, Swan

Just Practice Makes Perfect

Culture Climate Change

Swan Songs

Playing with Matches

Pantomime Sift

A Metaphor Mimesis Ministry

Civilizing Buzzwords

Memegram

Biochem Lab

Cave Man

Glass Half Empty

Prescription for the Master

Flint Offerings

Mooning at the Glitter

How to Become a Model

O Day

Meme Planet

Becoming

Red Letter Day

Otolith: Confetti Catcher and Smile

BlazeVox: Progress

Word For/Word: Echo Answer, Narcissus in Wilderness, and Gospel

Crosswinds Poetry Journal: Foil Toil

Grey Sparrow Literary Journal: Red Letter Day

Book of Matches: The Trigger Range

Terror House Magazine: Cave man, Flint Offerings

Fixator: Tornado Dodgers

Dyst Literary Journal: Adventures in Capitalism

Last Stanza Poetry Journal: Biochem Lab and Memegram

Experiential-Experimental-Literature: Night at the Opera, Traffic Address, and Course Obstacle.

In memory of my parents

Mimetic attraction is bound to increase with the number of those who converge on one and the same antagonist. Sooner or later a snowball effect must occur that involves the entire group minus, of course, the one individual, or the few against whom all hostility focuses and who becomes the scapegoats, . . .

—Rene Girard

Desire Contagion

We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires.

"The distance between Don Quixote and the petty bourgeois