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Unread 09-15-2004, 10:08 AM
R. S. Gwynn's Avatar
R. S. Gwynn R. S. Gwynn is offline
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Word comes from Dana that Michael Donaghy is in a coma in a London hospital. I don't have any details. I knew that Michael had some heart problems, and he had a rather bad spell at West Chester a couple of years ago. Maybe one of our UK members can find out something.

I also have heard that Tony Hecht is undergoing treatment for lymphoma.

Bad news all around.
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Unread 09-15-2004, 11:19 AM
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R. S. Gwynn R. S. Gwynn is offline
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Dana says in a later email that Michael has suffered a massive stroke.
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Unread 09-15-2004, 12:27 PM
Paul Lake Paul Lake is offline
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This is awful news on both counts. Michael Donaghy was a delightful reader at West Chester when I saw him there the year he had some kind of blackout. He's also a fine poet and he's sent me some delightfully quirky emails over the last few years since I met him.

Hecht is of course a kind of national resource. I hope his condition is treatable.
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Unread 09-15-2004, 04:00 PM
Tim Murphy Tim Murphy is offline
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This news really hits below the belt. Mikey squired me round London, and I hugely admired his free and metered verse. The bad spell at West Chester he jokingly called "a gypsy wedding in my heart." I once posted a failed poem here that began "He kept his Hopkins hidden in his hat." It told of his experiences as a doorman on the upper East side of New York, where he once hailed a cab for Pavoratti, saying "I found a vehicle for the tenor!" He is a marvelous raconteur, poet and reader, and if he doesn't come out of this it is a disaster for our renascent art.
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Unread 09-16-2004, 02:59 AM
Clive Watkins Clive Watkins is offline
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Alas.

I met Michael last year at West Chester. He seemed a charming and generous spirit. In the UK, he will be known to teachers and their high-school pupils not just for his own verse but for his contributions to a series of excellent programmes about poetry produced by one of our TV channels (Channel 4).

The news about Anthony Hecht is also dismaying, though perhaps less surprising. Last year’s West Chester conference included a celebration of his eightieth birthday. As Deborah Warren, Carol Taylor and others will attest, it was a most moving occasion. For myself, I felt most fortunate finally to meet someone whose verse I have admired since I was a young man.

On an adjacent thread, I have posted some bibliographical information about Hecht that may be of interest to some members.

I am sure we all hope for better news over the next days and weeks.

Clive Watkins
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Unread 09-16-2004, 09:05 AM
Susan McLean Susan McLean is offline
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This is dreadful news. I know Donaghy through two readings at West Chester, which rank among the best performances of poetry I have ever seen. West Chester is also where I have seen Hecht, though, of course, I knew and admired his poetry long before. I hope that both can recover from these very serious illnesses.

Susan
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Unread 09-16-2004, 06:31 PM
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R. S. Gwynn R. S. Gwynn is offline
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Tony Hecht and Dick Wilbur are the twin pillars of all I have ever loved, from the beginning, about contemporary poetry. Both have had long, full lives filled with many honors, and I shudder to think that I may live long enough to see them both pass. There are others, of course, Justice being one, but I list them among the immortals, and it's hard to find that one's immortals are just like the rest of us.

Michael Donaghy I love and revere as well, having come belatedly to his work. I only wish now that I'd spent a little more time with him at West Chester and had got to know the man a little better. That he is some years younger than I, and many of us here, comes as a particular shock.

Bless'em all.
Bless'em all.
The long and the short and the tall . . .
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Unread 09-16-2004, 08:30 PM
Terese Coe Terese Coe is offline
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The gravitas of Anthony Hecht's reading style and work are an unforgettable lesson. I'm grateful I was able to speak to him at West Chester, and to Michael too. Mr. Hecht seemed touched to know he had touched his audience, and Michael's performance was electrifying in 2002. He came through so clear, and needed no text at all. Michael is too young for this.

May they both recover.

Terese
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Unread 09-17-2004, 05:26 AM
Deborah Warren Deborah Warren is offline
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I've had Wilbur's poems as constant companions over thirty years; it was more recently I was borne up on the wings of Hecht's. I agree with Sam completely about the twin pillars: These are the two that hold up the roof and sky.
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Unread 09-17-2004, 08:52 AM
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R. S. Gwynn R. S. Gwynn is offline
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Michael Donaghy, 1954-2004, died in London today after suffering a massive stroke.

The River in Spate

sweeps us both down its cold grey current.
Grey now as your father was when I met you,
I wake even now on that shore where once,
sweat slick and still, we breathed together--
in--soft rain gentling the level of the lake,
out--bright mist rising from the lake at dawn.
How long before we gave each other to sleep,
to air--drawing the mist up, exhaling the rain?
Though we fight now for breath and weaken
in the torrent's surge to the dark of its mouth,
you are still asleep in my arms by its source,
small waves lapping the gravel shore,
and I am still awake and watching you,
in wonder, without sadness, like a child.
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