tony gloeggler
72tony gloeggler - poet
I ran across this man's poetry and was impressed so I thought I'd give others a chance to check him out.
here's the link:
and the link for this guy, Tony Gloeggler, whose work I ran across is on there. below is the piece I liked best. check out the links by year under his work and read the others. I especially liked "midnight" and "love and baseball" as well.
good - tony gloeggler
After a week of rain, it's sunny and May.
It's spring, you're walking Brooklyn streets
and you got this inkling that something good
could be beginning when you step to the side,
let a young mother wheel her stroller slowly by
and her smile reminds you of Diane. Ah Diane,
that years-ago girl with her shiny black skin
and wise-ass mouth, the tiny sound she made
the first time you undid the two top buttons
of her jeans, hooked your finger inside her
as you stood on the Bergen Street station
waiting for the F train to come. The way
she rocked herself to sleep the five weeks
you couldn't keep your hands off each other,
even after she told you that first morning
she was pregnant, maybe two months along.
You said you never would have guessed
and she said her breasts already felt bigger
and fuller and you kissed and sucked them
until you started fucking again. She never
mentioned the father and looked at you
like you were crazy when you asked about
an abortion. Somehow, she had it in her head
she was carrying a girl and named her Sydney.
She said she didn't give a shit if she turned
into a fat ass project mama like her mother.
It wasn't too long before she started wondering
what was going on with you. You didn't know,
said you needed time while she kept coming over.
You tried convincing yourself you were in love,
pictured growing old together. She ended it
one Monday morning, saying it would never work.
You mumbled something about bad timing, how
much you would miss her. Mostly, you remember
trying to stop yourself from thinking you'd give
almost anything to fuck her one more time.
She got out of bed, showered real quick and fit
her things into a red back pack while you threw on
sweat pants, wishing she was the kind of woman
you usually fell for, the kind who lived according
to some plan, the kind who believed abortion
was a right and a sacrament, the nice white kind.
When she wouldn't let you walk her to the subway,
you kissed her cheek at the door. You're pretty sure
you called a few times, left messages with cousins
as you counted down the months, feeling better
and better until you knew she was gone for good.
New Book! Tony Gloeggler Greatest Hits 1984-2009
From the book, this poem:
1969
My brother enlisted
in the winter. I pitched
for the sixth grade Indians
and coach said
I was almost as good
as Johnny. My mother
fingered rosary beads,
watched Cronkite say
and that's the way it is.
I smoked my first
and last cigarette. My father
kept his promise,
washed Johnny's Mustang
every weekend. Brenda Whitson
taught me how to French kiss
in her basement. Sundays
we went to ten o'clock Mass,
dipped hands in holy water,
genuflected, walked down
the aisle and received
Communion. Cleon Jones
got down on one knee, caught
the last out and the Mets
won the World Series.
Two white-gloved Marines
rang the bell, stood
on our stoop. My father
watched their car
pull away, then locked
the wooden door. I went
to our room, climbed
into the top bunk,
pounded a hardball
into his pillow. My mother
found her Bible, took
out my brother's letters,
put them in the pocket
of her blue robe. My father
started Johnny's car,
revved the engine
until every tool
hanging in the garage
shook.
Tony's new book Greatest Hits may be purchased
Tony Gloeggler Greatest Hits 1984-2009
From:
Pudding House Publications
81 Shadymere Lane
Columbus, Ohio 43213
Phone: (614) 986-1881
or jen@puddinghouse.com www.puddinghouse.com
or write to Tony Gloeggler via his email: agloeggler@nyc.rr.com
The price is $10, but Tony says if you have two of his other books, let him know and $5 is okay. :)
And Tony, if you drop in here at all, I think it's a grand book and thank you so much for the lovely inscription. I remain a devoted fan.
interview with tony gloeggler
http://www.pavementsaw.org/books/onewish.htm
From an exclusive pavement saw listserve interview with Tony Gloeggler:
DB: Many people think you are the basketball poet of our generation. What constitues a great basketball poet?
Tony Gloeggler: "To begin with you would have to rather play basketball than write or read poetry even now when you are old and slow on the court. It would help if you wanted to be Dr. J, the Dr. J when he was flying through the ABA with his pumped up Afro, when you grew up and then you have to play, write a lot."
"A good basketball poet can go both right and left and can break down his man. He plays tough, tight-to-the-skin D, boxes out well, rebounds in a crowd. He can see the whole court, find the open man and hit an open jumper."
"A great basketball poet is fundamentally sound, but shows you something new every time he steps on the court. He makes the people around him better and wants the ball when the game is on the line."
Some of these poems first appeared in Bogg, Bottomfish, Chiron Review, Coal City Review, 5AM, Graffiti Rag, The Ledge, Mangrove, Manhattan Poetry Review, The Montserrat Review, Mudfish, The New York Quarterly, One Trick Pony, Pavement Saw, Pearl, Potato Eyes, Puerto Del Sol, Rain City Review, Rattle, River City, Urbanus, West Branch, Wisconsin Review and Yellow Silk. The following were anthologized: "Rock N Roll" in Essential Love (Poetworks, An Imprint of Grayson Books, 2000), "One On One" in Full Court: A Literary Anthology of Basketball (Breakaway Books, 1996); "Quincy, California" and "Midnight" in SPLIT VERSE (Midmarch Arts Press, 2000); and "Lucky" in The Cancer Poetry Project (Fairview Press, 2001).
"Gloeggler's poetry is a harsh music, dissonant and true. These are rock 'n roll songs of love and lust, of the persistence of lonliness and the power of memory. A book with duende to spare, One Wish Left takes us into Bruce Springsteen's 'darkness on the edge of town' and offers us his battered valentines."
-- Kim Addonizio
.
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tony gloeggler links
- Issue 25 Sample Poems
Getting Away By Tony Gloeggler - Contest-winning Books: P
- Poetz.com: Poetry Changes People
- http://www.pavementsaw.org/books/onewish.htm
- The New York Quarterly - Poetry Magazine
A magazine devoted to the pure craft and technique of poetry writing.
tony gloeggler on love
"I don't know if I can define what love is, but like pornography I can tell when I'm in it..."
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thank you for commenting. he certainly caught my attention. I'm purchasing two of his books myself, "one wish left" and "my other life". I am looking forward to their arrival.
Yeah, this guy's really good. I saw him read just last Monday at Cornelia Cafe in NYC and was looking up more information on him and found this. His reading personality lives up to the grittiness of his written words. I've also played basketball with him before on the playground in Queens. He is definitely a better "basketball poet" than basketball player - I never once saw him box out or hit the open man. On an unrelated note, I'm glad someone is still giving "Alternative Ulster" some props. I have the 45 version and it's got a great flip side called "78 RPM." Great record. Keep up the good work!
tom, glad to read your commentary. I love trivia and your basketball comments delighted me. ty also on adoring my slf with me. it's a lost art, I'm afraid. "78 rpm" is one of the songs I tend to sing when I get a little tipsy and it's just the one chorus over and over. be glad you miss that. :p ah 45's... I remember those. I still have a few albums, including... ahem... the partridge family, however I no longer have anything to play them on. :(
my books arrived : ) yay!!!
I played hoops with the guy too-for years. Tony G. Doesn't need to hit the open man. Like his poetry he's a dead on shot.
he says that too :p
Pulsating, plain speak poetry. Well crafted and darkly humorous. Tony's an original voice! First came across Tony's work in New York Quarterly. Good eye Iounn!
Mr. Flanagan, the first person to comment called it "simple lines blessed by undercurrents of hard truth". that description is accurate for what I find so compelling about Mr. Gloeggler's work from the first poem I read and which I found in each successive poem as I explored more.
Tony's G's works have the rare quality of being good both written and spoken - the latter genre gives the poetry a totally different dimension particularly when the poet is reciting. Tony is unassuming and genuine, attributes that are clearly apparent if you know him well, and if you hear him. The only problem is that he's a Yankees fan which is in explicable and ruins everything.
lol! thank you for stopping in and commenting~
I will check out his poetry, I just read Rumi, Shakespeare poetry stuff, thanks for posting about him looks interesting.
the one poem doesn't do him justice... do have a look at the links if you have an interest and form your own opinion. I bought two of his books and I'd like to chase down the third one. I like the contrast between the overt directness and the underlying emotions. extraodinary.
A typical gloeggler poem: strong, steamy; like a punch, if a punch could also be tender. The type of poem that you send people to who never read poetry, and you tell them, "See, this is what a real poem can do."
thank you for taking the time to read and comment :)
Another voice thanking you for presenting Tony Gloeggler's writing. Though more difficult to find than his more recent collections, his chapbook ONE ON ONE is loaded with potent images of tough love and the rhythmic transformations of urban ugly into habitable terrain. I go back to the 'hood with Tone, and a lot of intervening asphalt court time. So I have to take exception at the comments by Tom from LIC & the backhanded defense from Mike D. I recall Tone consistently hitting the open man, and my own criticism of his game wouldn't include his failure to box out, but rather his methods. His lines diagram cleaner on the page than they do on the court. Less well known is the fact that the bands Buffalo Springfield and Poco would've likely failed to gain much traction in Flushing, with their newfangled expressions of quality country-rock, had it not been for Tone's open bedroom window on Reeves Avenue and his persistence getting us Flushinginians to open our ears. Tony was a one-man Flushing Remonstrance and Richie Furay, Jimmy Messina, Steve Stills & Neil Young should share part of their royalty checks with him...
I've tried to get that one and haven't so far. Hopefully Mr. Gloeggler will locate me a way to get a copy.
I had no idea about the Flushing musical connection, first I've heard of it and you will find I delight in anecdotes and detail. Perhaps in part that is why I so love Tony's work.
Thank you so much for stopping in to comment and also for inadvertantly entertaining me a great deal. :)
I can't say that I have ever seen him read, and I also haven't been lucky enough to play basketball with him but I can say that Tony's poems are terrific. The images all ring true and he's the master of the last stanza. His books are like wonderful cds--each poem works with the next one and the sum is even better than the parts, which is rarely true. Here is one of my favorites:
GOODBYE
Today, I picked Jesse up
from music group. He said
my name soon as I stepped
through the door, tried to run
to me. The therapist stood
in his way, forced him to stay
until he made eye contact,
said goodbye to her assistant,
the other kids. She slowly
walked him over to me,
assured me how much better
he was doing while he tugged
on my arm repeating Œhome¹
louder and louder. I thanked her
while we headed out the door,
tried to keep him from jumping
into every puddle, steer him
from bumping into people
as we turned down subway stairs.
Jesse took a window seat,
got on his knees and traced
the outline of his face as we rode.
I finger counted the six stops
to Hamilton Parkway, promised
that his mom would be waiting
for him. When the train rose
out of the ground, climbed up
into the cloudless sky, he ran
to the front door. I stood behind
him, played with his hair as all
of Red Hook spread beneath us.
I glanced at the other riders,
curious whether they could tell
something was wrong with Jesse
and wondered what he was thinking,
if his brain could hold anything
other than shapes and colors
flying past, the feel of glass
against his fingertips, the thought
that his mommy would be waiting
three, now two, stations away.
I imagined what he would do
if we stayed on longer, rode out
to Coney Island. Would he stop
crying and fighting long enough
to see or hear, smell, the ocean?
Would he run across the sand
like the summer before, strip
down to his shorts? Jump
and play in the waves until
the last light left the sky?
The closets are empty
and piles of packed boxes
line the walls of his house,
but I¹m not sure Jesse knows
that this means he¹s moving
back to Vermont in the morning.
I don¹t know if he can grasp
the concept of missing someone
or understand how hard
it is for me to keep from crying.
He has no idea that I met him
three years ago. I went
with Helen to pick him up
from school one afternoon.
The Sunday after, finished
with my bowl of oatmeal,
I was watching her lift
her teacup to her lips
when I realized I wanted
to spend my life with her
and it scared me to death.
I don¹t know what Jesse
remembers about Vermont,
about moving to Brooklyn;
if he knows when things started
to fall apart or why me and his mom
couldn¹t find a way to stay together;
if he remembers that I moved
down the block, kept visiting him
while everyone I know told me
to let go and move on,
that I didn¹t owe him a thing,
and no one seemed to accept
or understand I love Jesse,
that the way he will never fit
in the world reminds me of me
and I wish he was my son,
my eight year old boy.
My, my, mine.
that is remarkable. thank you for stopping in and sharing that one with us. I appreciate the way Mr. Gloeggler continues to share that connection with us and the way he so effectively allows the reader to slip into that connection with him.
I find it very easy, perhaps too easy, to slip into Tony's moments and reading his work is not a casual experience however it is a rewarding one. I think I learn more about myself every time I read a piece of his poetry.
Thx again for stopping in to comment.
just got another poem by Tony this morning!, heartbreaking, this man should be famous!! I only know him from a music forum and we mail once in a while, but i do like his poems and i like to spread the word about his writing here in the netherlands. Maybe this year our local library will do a special about urban poetry and I try to get him on the list. And to you lòunn thanks for supporting him!!
Salud from the Lowlands; Richard ( first overseas gloeggler fan)
I'm so happy to see Tony's international fans check in. I hope you do have some luck getting him for reading at your library. I imagine it would be a grand experience. Richard, thanks for stopping in and commenting.
Salud back (I think!) :)
Tony is a gut writer. He grabs you then punches you in the gut. The New Yorker needs to put him on their, "Must Read" list. I share his works and loose my copies of his stuff! He's also the biggest Brian Wilson, Yankees fan in the world. Need I say more?
Lonesomedave
I'd have to agree with that. (the New Yorker, not the Yankees) I don't know ?baseball? but I sure know what makes a good poet and he's the real deal. I had to ask my son if the Yankees are baseball or basketball. :P
Thx for reading and commenting. :)
Here is another poem by Tony--and it's my favorite 9/11 poem. Enjoy.
ONE YEAR LATER
My brother was on his way
to a dental appointment
when the second plane hit
four stories below the office
where he worked. He's never
again mentioned the guy
who took football bets, how
he liked to watch his secretary
walk, the friends he ate lunch with.
He's never talked about all
the funerals. Maybe, shamed
by his luck, he keeps quiet,
afraid someone might guess
how good he feels, breathing.
genuine gloeggler, yes.
he puts the faces and hearts back onto and into his subjects rather than just peering from the outside at some mass tragedy, and takes into account our own humanity on every level.
thank you, elisalee.
lovely poetry , Happy Valentines :D
lovely poetry , Happy Valentines :D
thank you, you too :)
I love Mr. Gloeggler's books and if you have the chance you might wish to read more of his work on sites listed or even buy. I bought. He is quite the poet. Also, a very nice person.
UPDATE poetry reading date for june 09 - tony gloeggler (see above)
UPDATE: new book! details above!
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Michael A. Flanagan says:
3 years ago
Tony Gloeggler is one of the best poets working the game today. Buy One Wish Left and fall into a world of simple lines blessed by undercurrents of hard truth, the ache & beauty of life as it is really lived--- You will not be disappointed.