Tony Hoagland, "a widely admired poet who could be both humorous and heartfelt, often in the same poem," died October 23, the New York Times reported. He was 64. Hoagland "found insights and imagery in the everyday: a pool in an Austin, Tex., park; a spaghetti strap on a woman's dress that won't stay put; an old man dying awash in paranoia from too much Fox News."
His publisher, Graywolf Press, tweeted: "We are deeply saddened to hear of Tony Hoagland's passing. Tony was a longtime Graywolf poet and essayist, and our thoughts are with his loved ones."
Hoagland's books include Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God (2018); Recent Changes in the Vernacular (2017); Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays (2014); What Narcissism Means to Me (2003); Application for Release from the Dream (2015); Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (2010); and Donkey Gospel (1998).
He "liked jarring juxtapositions, and he wasn't afraid to throw pop-culture references into his poems or go for a laugh-out-loud response," the Times noted, adding that a poem he read often--including on the PBS NewsHour in 2012 for Valentine's Day--was "Romantic Moment" (2007), about a couple who has just watched a nature documentary.
Rich Levy, a colleague at the University of Houston and director of Inprint, said: "You could see this anti-elitism in his publications--witness Real Sofistikashun: Essays on Poetry and Craft, which by its title says, 'Come on in, we promise not to take ourselves too seriously.' Even though Tony loved poetry so deeply, he didn't want his passion for it to exclude anyone who was open and ready to read and think."
From Hoagland's poem "Lucky":
If you are lucky in this life,
you will get to raise the spoon
of pristine, frosty ice cream
to the trusting creature mouth
of your old enemy
because the tastebuds at least are not broken
because there is a bond between you
and sweet is sweet in any language.