Paul Murray’s third and fourth collections of poems, The Absent Fountain (1992) and These Black Stars (2003) are still much sought after and admired: the precision and economy of the language is exemplary, its concentrated focus well suited for the task in hand. Murray’s is a mystical journey, informed by the vocabulary and symbols of the spiritual quest, and he regularly engages the reader - and indeed God - in dialogue, drawing us into an exploration of memory and desire, of dream, darkness and rebirth. The closing poem, paradoxically entitled Beginning, at once celebrates and challenges: I have come through / after all. I have a new / dawn on my shoulders.
The Absent Fountain is the product of a passionate and sometimes playful mind, which teases out paradoxes, making the absent seem palpably present and the material seem ultimately immaterial. It is, in every sense, an inspired work. - Dennis O'Driscoll, Doctrine & Life Paul Murray was born in Newcastle, Co. Down, Northern Ireland in 1947. He entered the Dominican Order in 1966 and currently lives in Rome where he teaches the literature of the mystical tradition at the Angelicum University.