Once I asked myself, when was I happy?
I was looking at a February sky.
When did the light hold me and I didn't struggle?
—Deborah Digges
As sad news about the death of Deborah Digges by suicide over the weekend filtered though emails and blog posts yesterday morning, I heard words of praise for the woman many had admired, and I felt the emotion of sorrow expressed by those who knew Digges well for years, even decades, far beyond my one brief meeting with her. Some comments complimented her as a teacher and mentor, while others spoke of her as a good friend or caring mother. However, all of us who have read her wonderful poems in various collections or who have assigned to our students her anthologized poetry, works in which the poet’s intelligence and insight were always evident, realized how significant the loss to contemporary literature with the silencing of her lyrical voice.
Therefore, I believe listening once again to the poet read her own lines may be the best way to remember Deborah Digges. Consequently, I recommend readers celebrate her life and work by watching the above video of Digges offering a few of her poems at an event in Pasadena only one month before her death. I invite viewers to take this opportunity to observe her contribution to poetry once more and to share in the appreciation for her as demonstrated by the audience’s heartfelt applause at the close of her presentation. The reading was part of an event co-sponsored by Claremont Graduate University and Red Hen Press.
Deborah Digges was the author of four collections of poetry. Her first book, Vesper Sparrows (1986), won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Prize. Late in the Millennium was released in 1989. Rough Music (1995) won the Kingsley Tufts Prize. Trapeze (2005) represented her most recent release. She was in the process of completing a fifth volume of poetry that had been scheduled for publication in the fall. Digges also wrote two compelling memoirs, Fugitive Spring (1991) and The Stardust Lounge (2001). In 1995 Digges translated Ballad of the Blood, poems by Cuban dissident poet Maria Elena Cruz Varela. Additionally, she had been the recipient of a number of impressive honors, including grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation.
12 comments:
It's terrible the way that she went. I keep thinking of it.
Thank you. I didn't know her as a poet, but I will listen and learn. And thank you for this blog, which helps me to stay in touch with poetry during my prosey life.
Ed, I listened to Deborah Digg's astoundingly heartbreaking reading this morning and have come back tonight to look for comments by others -- surprised to find so few. I have found very little information out there so I guess people are too stunned to say anything. Once again you have done just the right thing by posting this reading for us. Thank you.
Isn't she a wonderful poet. She was also a most wonderful woman, a most wonderful friend. A heart as grand as the world itself. I miss her so. Thank you for posting this recording.
On a brilliant, sunlit day in April in a private ceremony, Deborah Digges was laid to rest next to her beloved Frank on their plot in the forested section of Wildwood Cemetry, Amherst, Massachusetts. May she rest now, toward eternity.
Thank you for this tribute, Ed, and this opportunity. I have all her books and admired her work but had never heard her.
I am just getting to know the work of Deborah Digges. Thank you for the gift of the video which gave me her voice reading her own poems. I wish the light had held her through April and beyond.
Thank you,
E.R.
Ed, thank you for posting this video. I have admired Deborah Digges's poetry for some time, but have never had the privilege of hearing her read. I hope her spirit has found peace at last.
It was such a very sad thing to happen, I do believe this was a suicide and not an accidental death. Suicide is a terrible thing to do to one's students and to one's children.
I wish there had been ssome sort of intervention with and for Deborah after she published her last book Trapese. That book screamed "I want to die."
So sad about Deborah.I met her once many years ago. Suicide is a terrible thing to do to one's children and students.
I am coming to Deborah Digges' work vey late. Only this morning did I read her poem " The Coat" and I knew at once I must order her recent book of poems. Such a tragic loss is her death - but what a gift to discover her. B
I was at that reading in Pasadena, for my poetry course at CSUN. It was stunned to hear about her death. I spent weeks denying suicide. I will never forget that night, or the tears her poetry brought out of me. Forever changed by her. It's a tragedy that her voice is gone. Thankfully, she wrote so she is immortal.
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