David J. Murray's "Confusion Matrix and Other Poems" is a collection of poetry that weaves together many different components of life using the thread of our most unavoidable emotion-confusion. Language and content combine beautifully as Murray seamlessly blends concrete detail into abstraction. This mellifluous marriage of the tangible and the universal shows that confusion is an emotion as valuable to the human experience as fear or grief or even love. We move smoothly from one aspect of life to another, from one poem to the next, carried along by the familiar and inevitable undercurrent of confusion. The title work, "Confusion Matrix," takes us on a winding, existential path through the confusion created by man's examination of nature, love and life itself. This epic saga is followed by ten sets of poems, each with a specific theme, including art, music and even madness. Whether about a change in seasons or an unthinkable tragedy, Murray's extraordinary poems speak to the questions we all ask ourselves during the most quiet and thoughtful moments in life.