Obituary
Michael Donaghy, one of the most important poets of his era, traditional Irish musician and creative writing tutor, 24th May 1954 - 16th September 2004.
Michael Donaghy was born in the New York Bronx in 1954 to Irish Catholic parents. He was educated at Fordham University New York and as a postgraduate at the University of Chicago. While there, he became poetry editor at the Chicago Review. He also worked as a traditional Irish musician, which he continued when he moved to London "in pursuit of a beautiful and talented Englishwoman" in 1985.
His first collection, Slivers, now somewhat of a collectors' item, was published in Chicago in 1985. Some of the poems made their way into the collection that launched his career in Britain: Shibboleth (OUP, 1988), the title poem of which had taken second prize in the National Poetry competition. The book itself won the prestigious Whitbread Poetry prize and established Donaghy's reputation as a rising star. Other publications include Errata (OUP, 1993) which was awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial award and Conjure (Picador, 2000) which won the Forward Prize. Dances Learned Last Night, selected poems 1975-1995 was published by Picador in 2000. In 1994 he was selected as one of the New Generation poets.
Michael Donaghy was often hailed as the best public reader of poetry, reciting poems by memory. This was greatly aided by the clarity and precision of his writing. He was the natural choice to be the Poetry Society's reader in residence in the Poetry Places promotion. This led to the publication of his monograph, Wallflowers, A lecture on poetry with misplaced notes and additional heckling (Poetry Society, 1999). There he rehearses his views on poetry and art evincing "a weakness for those wilfully eccentric philosophical and theological precepts valuable for their beauty alone."
Due to his comprehensive and finely-tuned understanding of the English lyric, Donaghy had, in his poems, the ability to be at once romantic, metaphysical and contemporary. Perhaps these elements came together most completely in Black Ice and Rain from Conjure. As a dramatic monologue that is a modern Ancient Mariner, complete with Curtis Mayfield, Elvis and Jesus Christ, here too disaster is foreshadowed by a violation: a single, illicit kiss.
It is as a mentor, colleague and great personal friend that I will remember him. He was the most entertaining of men. His tall-tales, impressions, pig jokes (complete with sound effects) together with his encyclopaedic intellect made it impossible to be bored in his company. He was also unstinting in his professional help to me and countless others. I think this was to due to the fact that poetry or music were simply variations on the theme of his intense, idiosyncratic passion for life itself: Michael genuinely wanted to love everyone and to see everyone succeed and be happy. Thanks to his consummate craftsmanship and skill, his body of work stands testimony to his gorgeous talent and his open heart. As such, may it provide for a lively appreciation of what, with his passing, we have lost.
Michael Donaghy is survived by his wife Maddy Paxman and their son Ruairi. A trust fund for Ruairi is in the process of being established, details of which will be available from the Poetry Society at the end of October.
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