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.
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,
...