Get Me Out of Here

Why is it so difficult to stay present in the moment? Murakami’s poems, written in response to her open call on the Internet, search airport departures and arrivals for a handhold on the fleeting present. Working within and wriggling out of the constraint of 14 lines, the poems explore how to stay when the mind is begging to leave.

Get Me Out of Here furthers Murakami’s investigations into collaboration that began with Project Rebuild, the companion website to her 2011 poetry collection Rebuild, and that continued with her online projects, HENKŌ A Powell Street Manyway Renga and WHITBOAM. Working with the idea that poems arise out of conversation and are built by communities, Murakami continues to invite the public into her poems - to rebuild them, to help write them, and in the case of Get Me Out of Here, to provide the inspiration that is supposed to come to a poet without effort. Murakami also invited observers into the editorial process.

A companion website works with the theme of exchanging experience and inspiration.

Sachiko Murakami is the author of two previous poetry collections with Talonbooks, The Invisibility Exhibit (2008), a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and Rebuild (2011). She is the creator of the online poetry projects Project Rebuild (projectrebuild.ca), HENKO (powellstreethenko.ca), WIHTBOAM (whenihavethebodyofaman.com), and co-creator of FIGURE (figureoracle.com), an online poetry oracle, with Angela Rawlings. She holds an MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Concordia University (2006) and is currently pursuing an MFA in the Digital Futures program at OCADU. She has been a literary worker for various Canadian presses, journals, and organizations, and sits on the poetry board at Talonbooks. Her website is sachikomurakami.com.