Tony Towle

Tony Towle Poems

1.

Dawn turns up black and important
before the sun shows it's only dawn
blackness and all.
The picture is different,
...

In August I will visit a distant land, and in September
a beautiful woman will fall in love with me.
In autumn I look out the window.
In December I go to the movies.
...

The two knights suggest to the king that he take the hero
into his confidence. The pantomimes are spaced to accommodate them.
It is a work of great beauty. It is night. Four boys
remain on the scene. They choose four girls. This is what happens:
...

The decision is for continuing?
The plans are as impetuously dispatched,
the note to the embassy is as mandatory,
...

We move frontally toward dominion,
which is something I've wanted to do;
but with too much appeasement in that advertisement,
too brief,
...

Only one at a time of mourning,
in which the edge of the hill
is going down
and I was close to loving you for it.
...

Checking off the list, I saw you
as you really were,
spiced, like a fist in my sleep,
finished, like the purr of a galley.
...

8.

The ability to create illusion, that's what I have, what
all true actors have. By our mere presence on a stage
we can create any image we choose. We haven't eaten
...

You've left me by myself and I fall to pieces into the river.
It's the same voice, this time between 3 and 4 a.m.;
four lies about blondes. Boom, a quiet sun. I still like
toast and jam, in fact I feel like toast and jam; it's spring,
...

You've left me by myself and I fall to pieces into the river.
It's the same voice, this time between 3 and 4 a.m.;
four lies about blondes. Boom, a quiet sun. I still like
...

We plunged into the Western Hemisphere. The chances
are one in five I've taken a capsule of poison.
The air smells like flowers; I look up:
...

My unconscious mind spun in delirium. The wings
are right over me and in a moment the claws
will be ripping me apart. The pictures crowded in;
a tremendous blast of air swept over me,
...

Here are the wheels of the new kingdom and here,
here are the radical tires. You believe me of course, a plant,
a cup, who have demonstrated affectionate indifference,
the blundering forest charm plunked you into, number 32.
...

If you still have charm
you have been underutilized;
but tell us, which do you love more,
your dagger or the moon?
...

Her body was a temple,
where the miniature tinkling of bells would persist
until the visitor's attention was fully engaged.
...

On any given subject,
when encouraged by the absence of his wife,
he would squeak with complete authority.
...

The little Hispanic girl at the stationer's
on Park Avenue South just now
asked me my name, and repeated Tonio
when I replied Tony. ¿Estranjero? Is
...

Tony Towle Biography

Tony Towle (born 1939) is a native New Yorker and poet. He began writing poetry in 1960 and John Ashbery has referred to him as "one of the New York School's best-kept secrets. Towle currently lives in New York City with actress Diane Tyler. He has two children. In the 1960s, Towle became associated with the New York School, taking workshops with Kenneth Koch and Frank O'Hara. He has received, among other awards and prizes, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Poets Foundation, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation.)

The Best Poem Of Tony Towle

Snow

Dawn turns up black and important
before the sun shows it's only dawn
blackness and all.
The picture is different,
going across the room as the bed,
occupied for hours is the shadow,
or the shadow is dust
following the sun across the room;
talking on the bed
as the physician pronounced his words,
making the room a nightmare.

When I wake up I'll be reading.
The first line, a climax
summing up the past, a trap in the paper,
is crossed out. The smoke curls around her waist;
green and white, it is straightforward and
understandable, literally storming
the castle of our subconscious.

How do I think about endings -
four cups of coffee and
falling into an abrupt dream;
the temperature is falling,
the hand is a motor,
the effect of light on shapes.

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