Lowell-rooted poet Joe Donahue is one of the subjects of an essay titled “Apocalypticism: A Way Forward for Poetry” in the Chicago Review. Read the essay by Peter O’Leary here.

Donahue has spent years mastering long serial poems that combine elements of mysticism, esotericism, protest, and the alienation of the urban experience.

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What does it mean to say a poem is apocalyptic? Typically, it means that a poem, or its poet, suggests catastrophe or the quality of conclusion signified in Revelation, the final book of the New Testament.