Awards and Honours:
Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas
“Sometimes I’m certain those who are happy
know one thing more than us... or one thing
less.”
Published in 1986, The Weight of Oranges created a sensation, garnering the kind of praise rarely accorded a first book of poems.
Praise for The Weight of Oranges:
"These are poems that go way beyond games or fashion or politics ... they represent the human being entire." - Michael Ondaatje
"Michaels negotiates the universal in poems which are at once dance and revelation ... They are filled with ferocious strength and a primal, candid intelligence. The Weight of Oranges is incandescent with a 'human light.'" - Christopher Dewdney
"... these moving and original poems are shaped with painter-like delicacy and the vividness of an impressionist." - Earle Birney
"A fall into light ... the writing is richly sensuous." - Quill & Quire
“All is gentleness, tenderness and grace in The Weight of Oranges … [M]elody and image blend effortlessly. As into a pellucid spring, one can dip a pail almost anywhere and come up with something delicious.” - Globe and Mail