Funny poems are tough to pull off. I’m not talking here about poems with humor in them; almost every good poem has at least one funny thing smuggled inside it. No, I mean poems with punch lines, poems ...

There are 15 or 20 better poets in America than Tony Hoagland, but few deliver more pure pleasure. His erudite comic poems are backloaded with heartache and longing, and they function, emotionally, ...