Don't Play for Safety

Explicit content warning

02/14/22 • 28 min

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

The queens revisit Lucille Clifton's poem "won’t you celebrate with me." Then the queens are NOT. HAVING. IT. with misogyny in an Anthony Hecht poem.
Consider supporting and shopping at Loyalty Bookstores, a black-owned DC-area independent bookstore.
You can listen to Lucille Clifton read "won't you celebrate with me" here (the text of the poem is available with the audio; ~1 min).

Read more here about The Clifton House. Writers and artists interested in participating and developing Clifton House programs may contact Sidney Clifton at [email protected]

Watch Lucille Clifton read "Sorrows" and "What Haunts Him" at the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival (~2.5 min)

The title of the new selected poems is How to Carry Water, Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (American Poets Continuum Series, 180).

Starshine and Clay is Kamilah Aisha Moon's 2nd book from 4Way, published in 2017.

Tracy K. Smith has a great essay on Clifton that appeared in The Paris Review and you can read that here. Smith's edition/selection of a Clifton-centered tarot deck is available here.

The beginning of Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" is "I caught a tremendous fish," not "terrible fish," as James says. You can hear Bishop read that famous and much-anthologized poem here.

There are absolutely scholars who defend the Hecht poem as lampooning Matthew Arnold's / Victorian notions of gender and romance, but these queens remain unconvinced.

Read more here about The Clifton House. Writers and artists interested in participating and developing Clifton House programs may contact Sidney Clifton at [email protected]

Watch Lucille Clifton read "Sorrows" and "What Haunts Him" at the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival (~2.5 min)

The title of the new selected poems is How to Carry Water, Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (American Poets Continuum Series, 180).

Starshine and Clay is Kamilah Aisha Moon's 2nd book from 4Way, published in 2017.

Tracy K. Smith has a great essay on Clifton that appeared in The Paris Review and you can read that here. Smith's edition/selection of a Clifton-centered tarot deck is available here.

The beginning of Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" is "I caught a tremendous fish," not "terrible fish," as James says. You can hear Bishop read that famous and much-anthologized poem here.

There are absolutely scholars who defend the Hecht poem as lampooning Matthew Arnold's / Victorian notions of gender and romance, but these queens remain unconvinced.

Previous Episode

Poetry Gay Bar

You don't have to be good. You just have to be here.
Please remember to shop indie and support poetry! We recommend Loyalty Bookstores, a great Black-owned bookstore if you are in need. Poets we talk about this episode include:
See Prof. Harryette Mullen read some of her tanka diary poems from Urban Tumbleweed here (~15 minute video).

You can see the fabulous Laura Kasischke read her poem "A is for Almost" here. (~2 min)

Miguel Murphy was interviewed on Breaking Form back in February. Check out Miguel reading with Sandra Lim and Randall Mann here. (~58 min)

C. Dale Young reads at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in this 5-minute clip here.

Lucie Brock-Broido reads her poem “You Have Harnessed Yourself Ridiculously to This World” here. The poem is from Stay, Illusion , which was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award.

You can see Randall Mann read his poem "Stalking Points" here. (~2 min)

Frank O'Hara's book is Lunch Poems. You can see cutie patootie Frank read "Having a Coke with You" here. (~2 min.)

Tim Liu presents 4 poems here (~10 min)

Elizabeth Bishop, A Cold Spring. You can read "Crusoe in England" here.

Paul Monette, Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog. The text of one of those elegies, "No Goodbyes," can be found here.

Watch Mary Oliver read "Wild Geese" here.

Aaron references a cover of Robyn's hit "Dancing On My Own" by Kings of Leon. You can watch that here. Also, if you haven't seen one of the most iconic performances on Ru Paul's Drag Race -- when Raven and Jujubee's lip synced for their lives against each other to this song -- it's worth finding (here's a clip that's good for now).
Say Yes to the Dress returned in 2019 to help us through the pandemic.

Elizabeth Bishop poems we mention the titles of can be found in her Complete Poems. You can read various Bishop poems as well as other writers' critical essays on her work on the Modern American Poetry website here.

Next Episode

Fleabaggots

Take The Fleabag Quiz! Can you top James (yes) or Aaron? Plus 901 sex tips for the fleabaggot on the move.
You can read an interview conducted by Tina Fey with Phoebe Waller-Bridge here.

You can watch a clip of Fleabag's stage show here. (~2 min.)

While it appears the stage version of Fleabag is not still available on Amazon Prime in the U.S., here's "Six things to know about the original play."
Watch "73 Questions with Phoebe Waller-Bridge" (Vogue's Q&A series), where she answers questions about the origins of Fleabag, the difference between American and British humor, and her summary of Killing Eve ("murder, murder, HAIR").