Following are excerpts from a seqence of poems titled “Purple Ritual” in Joseph Donahue’s first book of poems, Before Creation (1989). The sequence in much longer and more complex than these passages suggest, but today it seemed important to me to share part of this composition for the record. At…
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Joe Donahue (Joseph Donahue of Duke University in North Carolina and the literary constellation Lowelliana) has a poem in the Dec. 24 issue of The Nation magazine, one of the few remaining nationally distributed publications that regularly make room for poets–and thus a fantastic location for widespread viewing of literary compositions.…
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Poet and writer John Olson reviewed Joseph Donahue’s new collection of poetry, “Dissolves: Terra Lucida, IV-VIII,” on his blog called Tillalala Chronicles. Read the thoughtful, in-depth review here. I have Joe’s book on the side table in the living room and am reading it in small sections. When I have…
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Under the title “Dissolves,” the new sections of Joe Donahue’s long poem “Terra Lucida,” are due in January from the publisher Talisman House in New Jersey. Joe is on long-term leave from Lowell, based at Duke University, where he researches eternal questions. The reading public rarely catches up to a visionary poet in…
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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…
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Lowell-linked poet Joseph Donahue and his poems are examined in a dense and cerebral essay-review by Jeanne Heuving in the Seattle-based literary magazine “Golden Handcuffs Review” (Winter-Spring 2008). Read Heuving’s take on Donahue here. Joe has new fiction in the current issue of the magazine (Summer-Fall 2010), but unfortunately his selection is…
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