Comment on this article

WIND / WHERE MUSIC WAS
By Sharon Auberle & Ralph Murre
113 pages / 85 poems / $15 + $3 Shipping
ISBN: 978-0-9823419-8-8
Little Eagle Press
PO Box 684
Baileys Harbor, WI 54202
littleeaglepress@gmail.com

Review by: Charles P. Ries

Wind / Where Music Was is collaborative book of poems by Ralph Murre and Sharon Auberle.
It is a mature reflection on love and life. Wind / Where Music Was is broken into five
general thematic sections. As I read this collection, it was not clear to me who of the
writers authored various poems since there was no attribution associated with each poem.
Yet at the end of the collection I found an index that tied the poems to one or the other
author. So it felt to me that on one hand, the writers wanted to create one voice, but
then wanted to inform the reader, who authored the poem. I asked Ralph Murre to explain
this decision. Here is what he told me, “None of the poems are jointly authored, and we
didn't think it very important for the reader to attach one identity or the other to the
individual pieces, though many are clearly from a male or female perspective. Yes, we hedged
a little by including our initials with titles in the index.” He went on to say, “We did
offer each other bits of revision suggestion, here and there, and we did work completely
together on the order of the poems, to try to find a coherent "story-line". Works in the
book range from near forty years old to little more than forty days old when the book was
published”

I feel the collection benefits from the ying and yang of mature male and mature female writer.
This voice gives the piece a rich timelessness as it explores life’s quintessential questions -
their deep pain and sweet surrender. And while the young can love and live, it really does take
seasoned travelers to make sense of it all. These reflections are deep and moving as in this
except from, “Through a Glass Darkly”: “The image of you / at the window that night / haunts
me still… / you looking out, / me looking in, / the glass between us / thick, impenetrable”.
Or this one from, “Cold”: “and I said what I did / and then you // and now // this frigid
afternoon / comes between us”.

The connection, separation, confusion, and yearning for love is considered from every angle.
Murre and Auberle do a masterful job and one enjoys considering if the two of them are lovers,
were lovers, or will be lovers; or equally, if they are just two poets on the road of life who
decided pause, reflect, and create a collection of poems focused on the journey through life
thus far.

There are glories to all choices we make, but we only get to make one choice at a time. Do we
take the path to our right, or to our left? This eternal dilemma is addressed often in Wind /
Where Music Was. Here is, “Discover Fire”: “burn that old house of your yearning / it is no
longer fit for your habitation // forgive / forget / forever / the man who constructed is / he
built with rusted nails / (probably the best he could find? // burn down that old house / so no
one you love / will ever move in / build now an abode of satisfaction / with a view toward the
sunset / (use the best nails you can find) // leave not room on your mantel / for any ash-filled
urn”.
This is rich reflection on both the small and large moments which become the canvas of a life
lived when heart is in hand, and eyes are wide open.

_____________________________________ 

Charles P. Ries lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His narrative poems, short stories, interviews,
and poetry reviews have appeared in over two hundred print and electronic publications. His
full collection of poems titled, Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love was published by Propaganda
Press earlier this year. He is a founding member of the Lake Shore Surf Club in Sheboygan, Wisconsin
the oldest fresh water surfing club on the Great Lakes.
 

Return to: