Tag Archives: Tony Hoagland

Bad or Failed Poems vs Bad Person – In the Age of Social Media Another Look at Tony Hoagland (1954-2018)

The Hero’s Journey I remember the first time I looked at the spotless marble floor of a giant hotel lobby and understood that someone had waxed and polished it all night and that someone else had pushed his cart of cleaning supplies down the long air-conditioned corridors of the Steinberg Building across the street and […]

A Great Send Up of National Poetry Month – Tony Hoagland, in April 2013

People Magazine Sponsors National Poetry Month On this page Angelina Jolie is wearing a skimpy barbarian leotard, laughing and throwing a copy of Sonnets From the Portuguese across the room at the head of Brad Pitt, who is deeply immersed in his sixteenth reading of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. He is […]

For Valentines Day – A Love Poem with a Difference and R.I.P. Tony Hoagland – #3 in an On-going Series

Love The middle-aged man who cannot make love to his wife with the erectile authority of yesteryear must lower his head and suck her breasts with the tenderness and acumen of Walt Whitman And if the woman has lost her breast to the surgeon and his silver knife, she must hump the man’s leg in […]

R.I.P. Tony Hoagland (1953-2018) – Second in a Series

Too Soon, Tony, Too Soon – R.I.P. Tony Hoagland (1953-2018) – Poet as Wounded Citizen

At the Galleria Just past the bin of pastel baby socks and underwear, there are some 49-dollar Chinese-made TVs; one of them singing news about a far-off war, one comparing the breast size of an actress from Hollywood to the breast size of an actress from Bollywood. And here is my niece Lucinda, who is […]

Happy Birthday Tony Hoagland – Two Days Late!

                  from Faulkner That is what I learned from Faulkner: there is evil in the world like a virus, or a lingering disease that sleeps inside the rivers and the trees— the reason for suffering isn’t some bad choice you made, or something you did wrong, it […]

Adrian Blevins – Yeah, She’s Happy Saying This!

Ars Poetica She was not blissful in that garden. Not blissful harvesting it.  Not blissful not. She was not blissful, not inseminated, and couldn’t stand getting vast. She didn’t like the godforsaken vaccinations: Christ how those children wept! She didn’t like it when school was cancelled, and she liked it even less when it was […]

And There Is No More – But Lots More of Poet, Christopher Locke

In January 2007 I was preparing to lead my first Recovering Words poetry writing workshop at The Orchard, a drug and alcohol recovery centre on Bowen Island, offshore West Vancouver. I was looking for poems on addiction from an addict’s point of view. I had found a chilling one called Half-Hearted Moon from the section […]

An Alphabet of Poets – B is for Bly

To celebrate National Poetry Month I am featuring a new poet for each day of April. I will be at my abecedarian best and go through the alphabet from a to z, followed by 4 random choices!   The Roof Nail A hundred boats are still looking for shore. There is more in my hopes […]