Almost forty years ago, Ron Silliman’s anthology IN THE AMERICAN TREE served as a definitive punctuation mark in the emergence of Language poetry. Was it a period or a semi-colon in marking the end of the “first” portion of the practices of writers who were almost uniformly on either the West or the East Coast? In any case, one of the poets whose work in Silliman’s anthology most impressed me was Tina Darragh, whose contribution was entitled “Raymond Chandler’s Sentence.” To my knowledge, it has not been reprinted in any other anthology, even though it is one of the best poems I’ve ever read. I still remember where I was sitting when I read it for the first time, as well as my most recent encounter. It’s a visibly embedded text in the midden of my lifetime of reading poems.
I spotted an obituary for her the other day and wondered yet again why so few people in Los Angeles have taken note of her passing. No doubt Doug Messerli and Diane Ward were the first to hear of it, and maybe then Harold Abramowitz. I know of no plans to honor her at Beyond Baroque, however.
Here is the biographical note that George Washington University has posted for her literary archive at that institution’s library.
“Tina Darragh (November 21, 1950 – November 18, 2025) was a poet and librarian. Born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, grew up in McDonald, Pennsylvania and moved to Washington D.C. to attend Trinity University. While at Trinity, Darragh became interested in writing poetry and met many other local writers. Darragh would meet up with these writers at Mass Transit and later at Folio, local community bookshops. She worked with Some of Us Press (S.O.U.P).
Some of the poets Darragh knew as fellow writers as well as friends included Diane Ward, Joan Retallack, Tim Dlugos, Bruce Andrews, Terrence Winch, Beth Joselow, Lynne Dryer, Doug Lang, Douglas Messerli Welt and P. Inman. These poets and others came together to form the east coast branch of the Language group of poetry. This style of poetry emphasizes the reader’s role in the work. Darragh spent much of her professional life as a librarian working at Georgetown Univeristy firt in the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature and later as a more general refernce librarian.
She and the poet P. Inman were married and have a son Jack and two grandchildren.
Tina Darragh died November 18, 2025 in Washignton D.C.”
Her cohort of exuberant comrades includes an all-star team of her generation’s most judicious members of a poetic avant-garde: Diane Ward, Joan Retallack, Tim Dlugos, Bruce Andrews, Terrence Winch, Beth Joselow, Lynne Dryer, Doug Lang, Douglas Messerli Welt and P. Inman. I repeat the list because I think readers tend to skim such lists without reflecting on how different these poets are from each other. Anyone who can’t detect how different they are simply isn’t willing to put in the work that poetry demands of those who would claim to be its advocate.
Here is a link to the notice of her passing posted in JACKET2:
https://jacket2.org/commentary/tina-darragh-obit
And here is an interview with her:
https://www.dcpoetry.com/history/darragh
My condolences go to the poet, Peter Inman, her husband, who also had admirable work in IN THE AMERICAN TREE and Tina’s and Peter’s family.
About Bill Mohr