|
Notices |
It's been a while, Unregistered -- Welcome back to Eratosphere! |
|
|
10-24-2018, 03:33 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 4,664
|
|
Tony Hoagland
|
10-24-2018, 04:13 PM
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Canada and Uruguay
Posts: 5,857
|
|
Everyone should read that article in its entirety.
|
10-24-2018, 06:44 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 4,237
|
|
x
I did and I'm dumbfounded.
Thank you Cally, thank you Catherine, thank you Tony Hoagland. I am saddened, yes. But, strangely, I feel buoyed after reading his final essay.
So there it is.
x
|
10-24-2018, 06:44 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Iowa City, IA, USA
Posts: 10,098
|
|
I am very sorry to hear this. Thanks, Cally, for the link to the article. I agree with Cathy that it is well worth reading. I had just finished reading Hoagland's last two poetry books. Since he talks about his illness in his poems, I was worried that Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God might be his last book. He is one of the few poets whose poems often make me laugh out loud, but not because they are light verse. They are often quite serious about difficult subjects, but the honesty of the voice is often startling in a way that makes me laugh with recognition. He seems unusually resistant to the need to make himself look good in his poems, and more than happy to laugh at himself. I would have liked to hear him read.
Susan
|
10-24-2018, 06:52 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 4,664
|
|
Exactly how I feel, Susan. Well said. And Catherine, and Jim.
Susan, did you play the video of him reading in his obituary in the NYT? It's given me a big laugh and a lot of joy this morning. I have some very big reasons to be very grateful for the life of Tony Hoagland. I so wish we could have had more of him, but what we got is fabulous.
|
10-24-2018, 08:31 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA
Posts: 3,140
|
|
I posted a link to this recently in the Personal Canon thread. It is one of my all time favorite poems:
I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU by Tony Hoagland
There are people who do not see a broken playground swing
as a symbol of ruined childhood
and there are people who don’t interpret the behavior
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process.
There are people who don’t walk past an empty swimming pool
and think about past pleasures unrecoverable
and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians.
I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings
do not send their sinuous feeder roots
deep into the potting soil of others’ emotional lives
as if they were greedy six-year-olds
sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw;
and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without
debating the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality.
Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?
There are some people, unlike me and you,
who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as
unattainable as that moon;
thus, they do not later
have to waste more time
defaming the object of their former ardor.
Or consequently run and crucify themselves
in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.
I have news for you—
there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room
and open a window to let the sweet breeze in
and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.
David R.
|
10-25-2018, 01:49 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Taipei
Posts: 2,624
|
|
I think he was a genius.
|
10-25-2018, 04:42 PM
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: a foothill of the Catskills
Posts: 968
|
|
David R, that poem is SO good. Thanks.
|
10-25-2018, 07:40 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 6,258
|
|
Thank you, David, for that poem.
|
11-16-2018, 04:43 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Taipei
Posts: 2,624
|
|
Sorry, in a way, to bump this up. Most or everyone who knows him will know the poem I link here. He's been a pretty big influence on me, and I guess I can't help myself.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...lor-of-the-sky
|
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Login
Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 8,403
Total Threads: 21,890
Total Posts: 271,305
There are 2313 users
currently browsing forums.
Forum Sponsor:
|
|
|
|
|
|