Normal is What Normal Does
written by: Jim Murdoch
The mistake people make—one of a litany of mistakes—
is to assume that broken means useless.
A broken piano can still make an awesome doorstop
and, after a while, it will forget it ever was a piano
finding purpose in being a doorstop, peace even.
I’m a poet and I’m happy being a poet, content at least.
I did used to be something else but that was long ago.
I wouldn’t know how to be anything else, not now, no,
but I still can’t shrug off the feeling
I’m paying through the nose for something.
Jim Murdoch has been writing poetry for fifty years and has graced the pages of many now-defunct literary magazines and websites and a few, like Ink, Sweat and Tears and Poetry Scotland that are still hanging on in there. For ten years he ran the literary blog The Truth About Lies but now lives quietly in Scotland with his wife and, whenever the mood takes him, next door’s cat. He has published two books of poetry, a short story collection and four novels: Jim, not the cat.
Latest posts by Jim Murdoch (see all)
- Normal is What Normal Does - August 16, 2025
- The Bickerers - February 18, 2025
- Politics - September 5, 2024
