Michael Longley Dies Aged 85

Hello Gentle Reader,

Michael Longley was one of the great poets of an informal triumvirate, which consisted of fellow Northern Irish poets, Seamus Heaney and Derek Mahon. The three were a particular blend of Irish poetry, recognizing its ancient roots, traditions, and customs, while being acutely aware of the struggle and conflict between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant British. Like his compatriots, Heaney and Mahon, in addition to his fellow disparate of immense reputation and poetic spirit, Paul Muldoon and Ciaran Carson, Michael Longley was a poet of international reputation and reach. One of Longley’s most famous poems “Ceasefire,” was serendipitously published the day before a ceasefire was announced in 1994, between the waring factions in Northern Ireland. As a poet within the borderland which demanded allegiance of either Irish Green or Protestant Orange, Michael Longley transcended such concerns, and enveloped readers within his contemplative and humorous warmth, which was far more concerned with the matter of humanity, then it was the delineation of national identity. Throughout his lengthy career, Michael Longley’s poetry received not only praise but accolades. The collection “The Weather in Japan,” reviewed the gravitas of conflict, mediating on the battles of pre-Civil War in America, the Great War, and the Holocaust and horrors of the Second World War, won the T.S. Eliot Prize. In 2001, Longley received the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry, and honour shared with Derek Walcott, Fleur Adcock, Paul Muldoon, and David Constantine. The personal and intimate poetry collection “The Stairwell,” won the International Griffin Poetry Prize in 2015. In 2017 Longley won the PEN Pinter Prize, with the Scottish poet Don Paterson and chair of the prize committee, praising the particular humanism of Michael Longley’s work: “For decades now his effortlessly lyric and fluent poetry has been wholly suffused with the qualities of humanity, humility and compassion, never shying away from the moral complexity that comes from seeing both sides of an argument.” In a world entrenched in the silos of solipsism, Michael Longley’s measured and thoughtful approach will sorely be missed. Yet, the wisdom of poets is rarely seen as public currency or in their best interest. Dismissed as frivolity or a flaneurs fancy, its dismissed. Michael Longley will be remembered as one of the great Irish poets of the of the 20^th and early 21^st century. A poet whose work was tempered with technical brilliance, but softened with a sardonic sense of wit. Topics ranged from the civil unrest, the human capacity for atrocity and brutality, but also the overwhelming and inextinguishable ability for redemption and love, and an appreciation for nature. Michael Longley was a poet of enriching and quiet wisdom.

Rest in Peace, Michael Longley.

 
Thank you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read

M. Mary