Tony Towle: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In Progress

 

We adjust the background

so that I am still in a forest,

but the traditional kind,

not one made of cement and glass,

but composed primarily of wood

and auxiliary vegetal matter,

aerated with avian sonorities,

and partly veiled by more “air products”:

innocuous mist or fog —

for there is such a generous

spacing between predators

that it would make our Paleolithic relatives,

wherever they might be watching from,

think that living in our world

would be a safe and wonderful thing.

 

I pause in the mist or fog, because

it is a good place for retrieving ancient data

to supplement the present with;

that is, what’s left of the present

after the morning news

has finished most of it off —

 

and I found something: When Phil Niekro

retired from the Atlanta Braves

there was no longer anyone

playing in major league baseball

older than I was. He achieved

this distinction in 1987             

and will never relinquish it.

 

What has happened since then?

 

Honestly, I don’t keep track of him.

Oh, you mean to me? Well, lots of things,

really, but I’ll get to them later,

since I’ve often admonished myself

for living in the past, although

I only did that when living in the past.    

The Phil Niekro discovery

came through one of the newspapers

I perused during the eons of down time

consequent to proofreading at Forbes,

where in two years my only noteworthy

“catch” was pointing out that Luxemburg

was not a principality, as written—a synonym

for a minuscule polity—but a grand duchy.

In the following week, while

resting imperceptibly on my laurels,

I missed a typo so egregious that my luster

was tarnished beyond reclamation.

 

So back to the present, or what’s

left of the present after the evening news

has chewed it to pieces —

but there was not a word

about the Somali pirates

who attempted to seize my poems

and hold them hostage.

 

What were your poems doing

in the Strait of Hormuz?

 

You mean the Gulf of Aden.

You may well ask.

I wish I were at liberty to say.

                        *

So that’s as far as I got with the first draft on my laptop,

while sitting unnoticed for an hour in the shoe store

except by the guy in the chair on the other side of the aisle,

who was keeping an eye on me until my contact showed up—

2 o’clock was that approaching hour—and then he abruptly left

a minute before she, the no-nonsense-taking Mrs. Blackstone,

walked in from a long-past-due assignment,

and when I mentioned the departed observer, she said

that he wasn’t one of hers; and I looked down at my watch  

to evade the stare that italicized my blunder,

and saw it was a quarter to three—I had just lost 45 minutes!

but in fact it was 55 years that I needed to go back and fix.

Those alterations will never fit in the space at the end of the file,

though they set off reflections enough to beguile the obfuscating eye.

                                                                                     

  2019-20

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Tony Towle began writing poetry in 1960. His connection to the New York School dates from 1963, when he took workshops at the New School with Kenneth Koch and Frank O’Hara. Since then, he has published thirteen books of poetry, most recently Noir (Hanging Loose Press, 2017); as well as a book of prose: Memoir 1960-1963 (Faux Press, 2001). My First Three Books (Vehicle Editions, 2020), combines an interview, photographs, and a CD of Towle reading some of his early work. More of Towle’s poetry, interviews, readings, etc., can be found at his website and at Penn Sound.

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                                                                         Vintage photo of men in shoe store

Comments

[Barbara Henning]

So cool. I love it.

[Martin Stannard]

Wonderful! Tony is one of my favourite poets. My best wishes to him, as always. Hang in there, Tony.

[JS Venit]

WOW

Who else could write

so that I am still in a forest,

but the traditional kind,

not one made of cement and glass,

but composed primarily of wood

and auxiliary vegetal matter,

aerated with avian sonorities,

and partly veiled by more “air products”:

innocuous mist or fog —

for there is such a generous

spacing between predators

Not to mention the rest of this delightfully undulating poem. I have to admit I am biased....I have loved and admired his poems and his sly wit for longer than I care to remember.

Bravo, marchons

[Don Berger]

As Terence says, Tony Towle really is incomparable--totally original, intelligent, uncanny in the way this poem travels so widely while still staying right on a great beam of light. It's my first look at anything he's written and I'll certainly start this week by looking for more. Fabulous pick, colossal poem!

[Greg Masters]

I've never been more delighted having my senses rearranged. Love it.

[Wanda R Phipps]

This poem is fantastic! Love, love love it! Thanks Tony for writing it and Terence for bringing it to us!

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

The Tao of Towle is impressive here. We are ALL in progress--or should be. Then again, regress is a tough adversary. Towle makes this poem as adventurous as it is self-questioning. Perhaps Ron Padgett said it best: “Tony Towle went beyond writing the kind of poem that is fixed in place, like a butterfly specimen, which might be beautiful but certainly is dead. Towle’s poems are beautiful too, not because they form decorous displays, but because they are alive with intelligence, urbanity, and multiple voices and views, alive the way the real world is alive anytime we are brave or naïve enough to open up and let it be as astonishing as it is.” Thanks, Terence, for using your unerring critical trowel to unearth for us this evergreen poem by Towle.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

Kudos also for including the baseball card showing pitcher Phil Niekro. He threw knuckleballs, something like Tony Towle. What a complete treat!

[Justin Jamail]

Thank you for bringing us this. “The stare that italicized my blunder” !! One pleasant surprise after another — lurking intricacies — a complete success.

[MARK PAWLAK]

Quintessential Towle: wry humor, linguistic brilliance, playfully seriousness. Whenever I need a poetic recharge, I pick one of Tony's many books off my shelf .
,

[Terence Winch]

Don: Thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Thank you for the comment, Wanda.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Earle, for your comment (& for Ron's!).

[Eileen]

Wonderful poem. I love it!

[Dick Lourie]

How does Tony manage to get all the outrageous leaps into a perfectly clear narrative, and to establish a perfect tone for the risky diction? It’s because he’s doing what he does so well. Nice work.Terrific poem.

[Gerald Fleming]

This Tony Towle poem goes so many wonderful places, tour through consciousness, riveting all the way, completely original. So glad you featured it.

[lally]

bedazzling, yet restrained, exquisitely so

[Gillian McCain]

One of my favorite poets—- from the forest to Forbes to the evening news—- love this. Gillian mccain

[Vincent Katz]

Tony is always at the top of his game. Great choice, Terence. Terrific photo of the author as well.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Vincent.

[Malcolm Towle]

Dad's graduated to relatively unknown national treasure-hood. So it is with artists - gone today celebrated tomorrow ...

[Andrew McCarron]

So wonderful to read this amazing poem by one of my favorite living poets! Tony Towle has a magical way of turning every poem into an occasion for wit, free association, humanity, and historical reportage.

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

Many thanks, Terence and Tony. Really magical.

[Tom Goldenberg]

Tony has a knack for taking us around the world in a warp of time with a palette of spectral color that is unimaginable without ever having left the room. Brilliant and magnificent.

[David Kelley]

When you sign up for a Tony Towle Tour he may take you away into the forest, thru the mist or fog, past Paleolithic relatives, Phil Niekro’s retirement, the Gulf of Aden, and into a shoe store – if you’re lucky.