

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast
Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall
James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith talk about their favorite poems and poets, interview amazing writers, laugh a lot, gossip, and get real about life and art.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 19, 2026 • 40min
Hap
Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTES:Read "Hap" by Thomas Hardy. And watch a here's a video enactment/reading of "Hap" by Thomas Hardy. And watch a reading/enactment of the poem here. Read a terrific essay about Hardy's poem published by the Thomas Hardy Society here. Thomas Hardy wrote 947 poems, and you can read them all online here. For more about Taylor Swift's newest album's variations, read this piece in Vareity.Tom Brady does not have a brother who plays football. Gayle King interviewed Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams at the Golden Globes. See the viral-video exchange here. Here's a reddit thread on being rejected on Christmas Eve.

Jan 12, 2026 • 7min
I Am a Receptical (A Poetry Salon)
Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Amy Lowell and Jubi Arriola-HeadleyCheck out Jubi Arriola-Headley's website here, and an obituary here. Learn more about Amy Lowell here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amy-lowell

Jan 5, 2026 • 9min
François Sagat (A Poetry Salon)
Happy New Year! Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Giada Scodellaro and Natalie Louise Tombasco.Check out Giada Scodellaro's website here: https://giadascodellaro.com/Check out Natalie Louise Tombasco's website: https://natalielouisetombasco.com/

Dec 29, 2025 • 7min
Vitamin D (A Poetry Salon)
Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Kelli Russell Agodon and Afaa Michael Weaver.Learn more about Afaa Michael Weaver here: https://www.theshipmanagency.com/afaa-michael-weaverCheck out Kelli Russell Agodon's website: https://www.agodon.com/index.html

Dec 22, 2025 • 5min
Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (A Poetry Salon)
Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Jonterri Gadson & Patrica TraxlerCheck out Jonterri Gadson's website: https://www.jonterrigadson.com/You can read more about Patricia Traxler on this Wikipedia page.

Dec 15, 2025 • 7min
Knight Him (A Poetry Salon)
Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Mary Helen Callier & Virginia Chase SuttonCheck out Mary Helen Callier's website: https://maryhelencallier.com/Check out Virginia Chase Sutton's website: https://www.virginiachasesutton.com/

Dec 8, 2025 • 10min
That Moon Will Kill Me (A Poetry Salon)
Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by David Hernandez and Dorian Elizabeth Knapp. Check out Dorian Elizabeth Knapp's website: https://dorianelizabethknapp.com/Check out David Hernandez's website: http://www.davidahernandez.com/

Dec 1, 2025 • 41min
All Tops
Nerd tops, dom tops, soft tops: the queens go gaga over a discussion of their top poems by favorite poets. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Poems and poets discussed in this episode include:Sharon Olds: "The Race"; "Topography"; "First" Louise Glück: "Widows"; "Celestial Music"; "The Mirror" (text); "The Mirror" (audio only); "Parable of the Dove"Jorie Graham: "Masaccio's Expulsion"; "At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Dead"; "Salmon" Mark Doty: "Visitation"; "Lament-Heaven" Vijay Seshadri: "The Disappearances" & an essay about the poem here. Linda Gregg: "Summer in a Small Town"; "Sigismundo"; "Let Birds"; "We Manage Most When We Manage Small"Etheridge Knight: "Feeling Fucked Up" C. Dale Young: "Torn"; check out this review of the book by Dilruba Ahmed in Kenyon Review here.

Nov 24, 2025 • 30min
OnlyForms
Let's get trioleted, girls! The queens delve into some fun poetic forms.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Watch TLC's music video for "No Scrubs" Discover more about Jehanne Dubrow's The Arranged Marriage, about which Claudia Rankine writes,"The poet here is positioned to observe, to picture, and to record in order to communicate coherence in the face of incoherence."Aaron reads: Sonia Sanchez "Haiku and Tanka for Harriet Tubman." Learn more about Tubman here. Read Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal, "Tonight". Shahid died in 2001. Here's more about the triolet. For a few examples of the form, here's Gabriel Fried's "Parenting Triolet" and Rachel Hadas's "Fortress" Read more about the Golden Shovel here, and read Terrance Hayes's "Golden Shovel." Read more about the Duplex, or watch Jericho Brown explain it here. Read Jericho Brown's "Duplex" or watch him read the poem here.

Nov 17, 2025 • 1h 19min
Fear Less (with Special Guest Tracy K. Smith)
Tracy K. Smith joins for the Breaking Form Interview to discuss her new book of prose about poetry, Fear Less.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:See Tracy K. Smith read from Life on Mars at the Kelly Writers' House .Here's a reminiscence of Lucie Brock-Broido by her student, Stephanie Burt. Read more Brock-Broido-isms on writing & wonderment here.Read Diane Seuss's "My Education," first published in Massachusetts Review and which appeared later in her 2024 book Modern Poetry.Joy Harjo's poem "She Had Some Horses" was published in the book of the same name by Thunder's Mouth Press in 1983 and reissued in 1997. The link is to the original poem Tracy reads on the show.Read reviews of Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times here, here, and here.Visit Tracy's website here. Two more poets who appear in Fear Less are Victoria Adukwei Bulley (Read her "The Ultra-Black Fish" & follow her on Instagram) and Francisco Marquez (read his "Provincetown")


