Tony Hoagland
Poems by Tony Hoagland
Recent Changes in the Vernacular
"Tony Hoagland's images, his metaphors, and his ideas crack like a whip, like a loud shout cutting across a noisy room. His style reads conversationally but belies a great verbal ingenuity that hooks the ear and mind, that holds the attention and elevates our engagement. It is this flash, this boldness, that ultimately raises Hoagland's poetry to the level of great art."
– Nick Lantz, author of You, Beast
"Tony Hoagland's work grapples with the distortions of contemporary America and what it takes to remain human in these strange times.”
– Joan Logghe, poet
About Tony Hoagland
Tony Hoagland is the winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize, as well as the James Laughlin Award, the O.B. Hardison Jr. Prize, and the Mark Twain Award, given by the Poetry Foundation in recognition of a poet’s contribution to humor in American poetry. He’s the author of eight books of poetry, three essay collections and a craft book.
Excerpt from:
Elegy
by Tony Hoagland
It’s easy to write an elegy.
All you have to be is sad.
It’s more difficult to drive a car, or open a can of soup
than write an elegy.
It’s easier than keeping the ones you love alive
or trying to tell them how crazy they make you
with their foolish, self-destructive ways,
and their refusal to change.
To love people feels often like a battle,
but to write an elegy is easy.
An elegy comes after the battle is over
and the soldiers are sitting around on the ground,
their faces dirty and relaxed,
telling stories and taping up their wounds.
To live is to pay the rent,
to have dishes dirty in the sink,
to start a fight with the one you love
in the car on the way to the store.