Tony Tost is poet I knew about back in the poetry blogging days. I probably haven't met him in person, though I think I saw him at the Austin AWP back in 06. I remember doing a review of Invisible Bride, an excellent book of prose poems? Anyway, he did some writing for the tv show Longmire, so I have been following him a bit through that. Now I am watching his show Damnation, which is can get streaming in Spain (not in US). Tost produces what he calls "Noir Westerns." This show takes place in the 1930s, but has a Western feel to it. It is based on conflicts between Leftist union agitators, etc... and hired corporate goons in the depression era. It is very good, and I like hearing the poetry allusions. (Wallace Stevens!).
He had a tweet recently about wasting six years getting his English PhD when he could have been watching movies.
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He has also written a book about Johnny Cash. Tony is a sort of Whitmanesque figure for me. He stands for a vision of America at its best. He once did a podcast series about music called "Tony Tost's America". That, and the phrase "big-hearted Tostian empathy", has stuck with me. I get the feeling that Tony truly loves his art, and its subject, his characters, America. He is trying to find the good in it. In a tweet, he once said he wants to live in the same "moral world" as Rio Bravo.
Also, it was his work that got me into contemporary poetry -- and poetry blogging -- in fact blogging altogether. For a while, I used a line from Invisible Bride as my catch phrase: "Like a cloud, I was meant to serve a large population."
Oh, I should watch this. Longmire was a smart show.
He throws in character names like Creeley, Tennyson, Berryman...
I haven't read the Johnny Cash book. I could see myself reading it, though.
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