Daniel Donaghy Visits Rockville High School

On Monday, May 15, 2017, American poet and professor, Daniel Donaghy, visited the Rockville High School Creative Writing Department.

He was accompanied by 2013 graduate, Julia Bonadies, who is a junior at Eastern Connecticut State University where Donaghy works as a professor of English.

Donaghy’s poetic career started in a college classroom when he decided to take a poetry class.

As an engineering major, this was a bit out of his comfort zone, but he had so much energy and wanted some place to put it toward.

“There is just some part of you that when you are going down a road, and some part of you just says ‘ take this turn.’” Said Donaghy. “I didn’t know anyone who took the class. I didn’t know anything about the professor. I just wanted to go down this avenue.” He continued.

He decided to try “this poetry thing,” as he referred to it, reflecting back to his state of mind in his youth.

“It was one of the most blind and fortunate decisions I’ve ever made.” Donaghy said.

Throughout the year, I have met various writers through the RHS Creative Writing Department. Each writer -poet or novelist - has their own ideas and issues that concern them that they reflect through their writing.

I found that Donaghy is not afraid of his past. In fact, he embraces it. Much of his work is centered around his early life back in Philadelphia.

“It was a place where the world didn't make a lot of sense to me when I was growing up.” He said. “Inside of my house and outside of my house, a lot of things did not make sense to me.” He continued.

Donaghy grew up in Inner city Philadelphia. The cover of his first book, Street Fighting, is an actual photo taken around the corner from where he grew up.

He said it was a violent area, both inside and outside of his home, and there was no art or culture around him.

“The world was imposing an energy on me and I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit into that world.” He said.

That is when he found poetry in college. With the help of his professor, Harry Hunes, his writing blossomed and he soon changed his major the following academic year.

Donaghy’s writing focus not only on his early life, but the people who were present in his life as well. He likes to look at a situation and think ‘why do you react that way?’

It revolves much around a person’s personality, whether they are apathetic, hurtful, deceitful, or disinterested. And looking through the lens of his older self has given him insight to the world around him.

A big philosophy that he stands for is that the past informs the present. And through this, he was able to look back on his family and his experiences and take those and apply them to his now adult life, or avoid those mistakes.

He derives this idea from the Japanese philosphy that everyone should be an artist.

If you are an artist, you get to live your life twice. Once, going forward. And second, looking back and understanding it as you age.” He explained.

As for his writing technique, Donaghy is no stranger to the ebb and flow of writing. He likes to work mainly in the morning hours of the day because that is when he said the world makes the most sense to him.

Whether the work is good or not, he still writes a little bit every day, making a dent in his next collection of poetry pieces.

“If too much time goes by when I’m thinking about what I’m going to write; it’s like when you’re going to exercise and you’re just putting it off.” He explains.

No matter how the work turns out Donaghy stressed his most important piece of advice for young writers.

“Believe in the power of your own voice, and believe that your story is worth telling with all your heart.” Donaghy said.

He presented the class with a workshop that tied in both of his philosophies as well as his ideas writing about people and their personalities.

The class read two short poems and then continued to write their own. After ten minutes of continuous writing, the class was encouraged to share their work.

The prompts centered around a person or place that somehow shaped a person in their personal life thus far.

Donaghy loved each and every student's work and was amazed at the skill level presented, especially becasue the majority of the class was made up of underclassmen.

The student's enjoyed and appreciated Donaghy's insight to his personal life and his experience as a published author and poet.

Photo Credit: Victoria Nordlund