Michael Donaghy 1954 - 2004

Continuing my theme of 'discovering' people and constellations, I picked up a copy of Michael Donaghy's collection Conjure (2000) in a bookshop last week and on first reading knew immediately I'd love his poems. Doing some research I found that Donaghy had been born in New York to an Irish immigrant family in 1954 was already a successful poet when he moved to London in 1985. In his lifetime he published Shibboleth (1988), Errata (1990), Dances Learned Last Night : Poems 1975 - 1995 (combining both collections) and Conjure (2000).
Very sadly he died of a brain hemorrhage in 2004.

 Conjure contains some wonderful poems including Refusals,

 Shooting their horses and setting their houses alight,
The faithful struck out for a hillside in Sussex
To wait for the prophesied rapture to take them
At midnight, New Year's Eve, in 1899.
(extract)

 and Resolution,

 The new year blurs the windowpane,
Soho surrenders to the rain
as clouds break over Chinatown.
See how the storm's resolve winds down?
Its steel pins thin and mist away,
Get up.Come here and see the day.
(extract)

Many of Donaghy's poems, including his epic Black Ice and Rain have a startling quality that are a joy to read and make me want to rip everything up and write better, edgier poems. Highly recommended.

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