CRUDE RED BOAT
By: Ralph Murre
Cross+Roads Press
P.O. Box 33
Ellison Bay, WI 54210
Price: $10.00 / 72 pages / 50 Poems
ISBN 1-889460-18-4
Review By: Charles P. Ries
Word Count: 219
It always surprises me when I read a new book of poetry by a writer
I've read and enjoyed in various journals and discover it is their first
book. “How could this be?” I wonder when the writer has such
talent. “Crude Red Boat” by Ralph Murre is published by the
venerated Norb Blei’s Cross + Roads Press. It is a wonderful coming
out party for a writer who began to write poetry just a few years
ago. Murre uses plain spoken language in this collection of fifty-
three poems, and the subjects of his musings are also common as
noted by a few of the titles from this collection, “Rock”, “My Room”,
“Gust”, and “Neighbor”. These poems are so immediate they made
me feel like I was sitting across the table from Ralph having coffee.
Indeed, he is the coffee counter philosopher in “A Good Reed”: “we
are those of us who survive / slender reed / bending with each
passing wave / changing with the tide yet unchanged / as the ocean
is unchanged / by each reed on it shore”. And again, in “Running
Things”: “Another year / Another chance to get it right / To do the
things I shoulda done / Tear down that fence I built / Quite the party
/ Let running things run”. These poems are fresh and honest - a
wonderful first book of poetry.