Matthew Murrey
LightNews LightNews
banner
mytwords.bsky.social
Matthew Murrey
@mytwords.bsky.social
1.2K followers 940 following 810 posts
Poet (BULLETPROOF - Jacar Press in 2019 and LITTLE JOY - Cornerstone Press in 2026), retired school librarian, and Midwest transplant from Florida long, long ago. he/him/his
More at https://www.matthewmurrey.net/
#poetsonbluesky
Posts Replies Media Videos
mytwords.bsky.social
The painting can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. collections.mfa.org/objects/3173...?
December 19, 2025 at 8:43 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Five years ago, a Vatican Nativity scene (pictured below) provoked a lot of outrage. I was provoked to write a poem. Whether you observe them or not, may you have some lovely time during the holidays. dissidentvoice.org/2020/12/a-te...
Post-modern nativity scene set up in the Vatican in 2020. Photo shows a ceramic donkey, and a ceramic & cylindrical Joseph, angel and Mary. Close up of a post-modern nativity scene set up in the Vatican in 2020. Photo shows the top part of a ceramic & cylindrical soldier and astronaut. Post-modern nativity scene set up in the Vatican in 2020. Photo shows a wide angle view of the display featuring unusual ceramic & cylindrical figures including Joseph, angel and Mary. Image of "A Terrible Nativity," a poem by Matthew Murrey from December 2020. Poem opens with the following epigraph: "We have grown used to beauty without horror. — Andrew Hudgins, from 'Piss Christ', April 19, 2000 " Text of poem is as follows: " I’ll take an angel presiding on a column of ribs and spine. If we can love astrologers heading off for the horizon with only a bright star for a map, then why not one dazzled astronaut still awestruck from earthrise over the moon, from his rebirth through fire, air, and splashdown? Let the soldier fresh from killing come, as long as he carries a rucksack of remorse, and is willing to trade helmet and halberd for forgiveness. I want to be the brother of Mary in her robe of stars and mourning, wide-eyed in prayer and fear. She has only guessed the half of it. We are strange in our dirt and clay, often ugly to the core, though sometimes our kind can turn kind over something as helpless as a baby just born, who like us will wear the stink and smudge of the world and will die terribly, looking in vain for something or someone to bless."
December 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
My second book of poems, Little Joy, is coming out at the end of January from Cornerstone Press. I couldn't be more pleased with the cover!
Image of cover to Matthew Murrey's upcoming book of poems, titled Little Joy. Cover features the painting, "The Bewitched Mill," by Franz Marc which is a 1913 expressionist oil painting showing water falling on the wheel of a mill and showing birds and an animal drinking - all in exhuberant colors of blue, green, orange, yellow and red.
December 12, 2025 at 5:45 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Franz Marc's "The Bewitched Mill"
www.artic.edu/artworks/902...
December 9, 2025 at 2:35 AM
mytwords.bsky.social
ChaplinGPT definitely recommends the shoe.
Still from the 1925 Chaplin film "The Gold Rush" showing Chaplin in an icy cold rustic cabin serving up a plate with a steamed shoe on it.
November 25, 2025 at 5:06 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
My second poetry collection - LITTLE JOY - is coming out from Cornerstone Press in January! I'm so happy about this. Click on the link to pre-order.

secure.payconex.net/paymentpage/...
Image from Cornerstone Press showing "PRESALE" of poetry book Little Joy by Matthew Murrey. States that it will be published January 27, 2026 and that the presale link has "20% off retail price." Image shows the cover of the book and features a quote by Athena Kildegaard, author of Prairie Midden: "A book of prayers for finding joy in little things."
November 19, 2025 at 4:28 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
and...
Altered NYT headline. Original read "Epstein Emails Reveal a Lost New York" It now reads, "Epstein Emails Reveal a Lost New York Times"
November 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
If only there were some way to set this aright. 🤔
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a...
#spellingbeegripes #spellingbee
screenshot of today's NYT Spelling Bee showing the common word ARIGHT not being accepted as a word
November 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
You've got twelve days to get some SPF 50.
Page from comic book The Watchmen showing the first appearance of Dr. Manhattan on November 22nd as a bright blue man who gives off ultraviolet radiation. The comic ends with "Sunburn in November."
November 10, 2025 at 9:09 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Speaking of generalissimo...
Image of old school fascist General Franco of Spain, next too similar looking modern techno-fascist Jeff Bezos.
November 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Fixed it.
Erasure of yesterday's letter to Trump from Hakeem Jefferies and Charles Schumer so it now reads, "Dear President Trump: e p st e i n Thank you for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, followed by official signatures of Jefferies and Schumer.
November 6, 2025 at 7:29 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump...
Oh snap!
Photo. President Donald Trump sits next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a "Great Gatsby" themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago residence. ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images "From the depths" (1906) by William Balfour Ker. Print shows a lavish social event in a large ballroom attended by the well-to-do; the party is disrupted when a fist erupts through the floor, beneath which are the struggling masses of the less fortunate who provide the foundation support on which the wealthy rest.
November 1, 2025 at 6:05 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
At least Pride Day here in Urbana, Illinois was a lovely event. Big crowd, joyful participants and observers. It was wonderful to march with the @dylanthomasblaha.bsky.social contingent. He's running as a Democrat to defeat Democrat @budzinski.house.gov a neoliberal supporter of the genocide.
Image of Matthew Murrey, man in gray porkpie hat at the Urbana, IL Pride Parade standing by an arch of rainbow balloons. He's wearing a black t-shirt that says "Trans Rights are Human Rights, Dylan Blaha for Illinois-13," waving a pride flag and carrying a sign that reads "People first, Dylan Blaha for Congress IL District 13"
October 27, 2025 at 3:54 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
My @newyorker.com poetry submission turned 2 this weekend 🎂. I would have pulled it months ago, but now I'm just curious how old it will get. Many other journals have figured out how to deal with the deluge of submissions (monthly caps, periodic closures, etc) but not the New Yorker. Sigh...
Screenshot of a Submissible poetry submission to the New Yorker showing it was received on Oct 24, 2023 and is still sitting in the queue on Oct 27, 2025.
October 27, 2025 at 10:37 AM
mytwords.bsky.social
What's the best name for the gaudy and offensive ballroom that Trump is having set up on the ruins of the historic East Wing of the White House which he is having demolished?

a) The Speer Ballroom
b) The Flight 93 Ballroom
c) The Epstein Ballroom
Model showing Albert Speer's plans for Nazi remake of Berlin as Germania Photo of Trump's ongoing demolition of the White House East Wing. 1992 photo of admitted sexual predator, Donald Trump, with his close friend, convicted pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
October 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Long ago I had a braid (see photo below), and then I didn't. My poem about it, came out in 1994 in a now defunct journal. Much thanks to @doublebackreview.bsky.social for giving it a second run. doublebackreview.com/issue-7-2-oc... BTW, my newborn in the photo is now 34 yrs old.
Image of the following poem by Matthew Murrey: Memento Away from you today I thought of my severed braid lying on the bookshelf where I left it. I thought of wet hair, evenings when I sat naked with my back toward your hands, and you would weave the limp strands into a straight, tight cord. Four years of my hair, four years of your hands, four woven years clipped by scissors in a single snip. Away from you today I feared I might die before coming home to see you and you would come across my braid lying like a cut flower, like love’s thin cord, like a little dead pet curled up on the shelf where I left it. Photo of a young man holding a month old baby. The man has a long, thin braid hanging from the back of his head.
October 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
William Gropper, The Have and the Have Nots, 1954–1956

whitney.org/collection/w...
#NoKings
Black and white lithograph from The Whitney museum showing a large wealthy ruler standing over smaller figures who appear emaciated and suffering.
October 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Congrats, @cbsnews.com
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Black block with white text and white "circle-eye" CBS logo but now reading "BS NEWS"
October 6, 2025 at 3:46 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
apnews.com/article/supr...
Hi @apnews.com , fixed it for you. #scotus #media
AP headline story (see link) screenshot showing photo of the Supreme Court where the original headline - "New Supreme Court term confronts justices with Trump's aggressive assertion of presidential power" has been partially crossed out and text added above so that it now reads, "New Supreme Court term gives fascist justices an opportunity to further Trump's aggressive assertion of presidential power"
October 5, 2025 at 5:36 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Getting hard to tell them apart--a kind of Fujiwhara effect of Zionism and fascism. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
ADL disinformation specialist and radical pro-Zionist, Jonathan Greenblatt on the upper left. Racist Trump Deputy Chief of Staff and fascist, Stephen Miller on the upper right. At bottom image of Hurricane Imelda and Hurricane Humberto moving around and merging with each other in what is known as the Fujiwhara Effect.
October 2, 2025 at 12:19 AM
mytwords.bsky.social
What's your sign?
Photo of a yard sign which reads, "Private Sign. Do not read."
September 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Tony Blair edged out the competition for who the "West" wants to put in charge of Gaza after its annihilation is complete. Sources noted that it came down to who had the greater appetite for blood, stating, "There was no competition there." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
Black and white photo montage showing Tony Blair on the Left and Count Orlok from Nosferatu (1922) on the right.
September 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
Rapture, again...
www.culturaldaily.com/matthew-murr...
Rapture “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” — Genesis 1:26 (English Standard Version) Garbage bags glassed windows. Siding hung from houses like rags. Kids cried all morning but never came out. Then a low, loud angel roared out of nowhere and plunged over there in thunder, raised a wedge of black smoke the wind smudged away. Amen. It is good to praise the end of the ones in charge. Though they fed us, they also drove the trucks, held the stinging prods, and did their best to hide their bloodcut blades. They were here Saturday, then done for by Sunday. They became churches for ants and flies, the tip of the inverted steeple of each vulture’s spiral, relics for their unleashed, lean dogs to fight over. They never dreamed rejoice would be for us, the ones they’d penned and preyed upon. We bow our heads to earth, eat what it provides.
September 23, 2025 at 11:47 AM
mytwords.bsky.social
All those in favor of genocide please raise your hand. No partisanship on that issue. www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Clockwise starting at top left, shows the last four US UN Ambassadors (or deputy ambassadors) vetoing ceasefire resolutions in the UN Sec Council.
September 19, 2025 at 11:35 PM
mytwords.bsky.social
I couldn't help but notice this. Usually, mass-murders like Rubio just wear suits, so this was an interesting choice. www.npr.org/2025/09/14/n...
Side by side photos. On the left is the FBI-released surveillance photo of suspected assassin of C. Kirk. On the right is a Reuter's photo (I have slightly blurred) showing Sec. of State, Marco Rubio arriving in Israel to consult with the Israelis about the ongoing genocide that both countries are committing against Palestinians.
September 14, 2025 at 4:23 PM