Jericho Brown returns to finish the conversation about Reginald Shepherd, (in)formalism, and inspiration.

If you'd like to support Breaking Form:
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Buy our books:
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
Jericho's THE SELECTED SHEPHERD is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.

We talk about Shepherd's "The Gods at 3am" on another episode of Breaking Form in "Mona in the Corner."

Read more about Papa Legba, a figure in voodoo traditions in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Louisiana.

Read Jericho's poem "Again" from his first book, Please.

Jericho mentions his poem "Say Thank You Say I'm Sorry" which appeared in The New York Times early on in the pandemic.

Daniel Black's book title is titled Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America. Read the NPR review by Gabino Iglesias here, and follow him on Instagram @drdanielblack

Some fabulous essays on Shepherd or reviews of his books can be found in the resources listed below:
John Gallagher on Shepherd
Joan Houlihan, In Memoriam of Reginald Shepherd
Brian Henry on Wrong

As always, check out Shepherd's own blog.

If you bring along to Breaking Form Book Club an extra bottle of chardonnay, we'll read some poems from books you may have missed....

If you'd like to support Breaking Form:
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Buy our books:
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

Read more about Zando and Sarah Jessica Parker’s SJP Lit: https://zandoprojects.com/imprints/sjp-lit/

Read the entirety of Marilyn Chin's poem "How I Got that Name"

Read the title poem of Denis Johnson's collection The Incognito Lounge.

You can read more about the poet 'Annah Sobelman here, including a few poems.

Randall Jarrell's poem "Losses" appeared in August 1944 issue of Poetry Magazine. It is the title poem of his 1948 book (Harcourt). You can read Jarrell's NY Times obit here.

If you'd like to support Breaking Form:
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Buy our books:
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

You can purchase The Selected Shepherd edited by Jericho Brown directly from the press at: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822948216/

Check out Jericho Brown's website. Read the title poem from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Tradition here.

Reginald Shepherd's blog can be found online here. The specific posts on the AWP Panel "Gay Male Poetry: Post Identity Politics?" Can be found here:
Part 1
Part 2
Shepherd also wrote a post for Harriet, the blog for the Poetry Foundation, as he was getting ready to deliver the panel. You can read that post here.

Robert Philen's remarks about Reginald Shepherd's memoir were delivered at the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society in 2013. You can read them here.

In the show, Jericho references Frank O'Hara being gay/putting phallic things around his mouth. You can read O'Hara's poem "Homosexuality" here.

Richard Hugo's book of essays The Triggering Town was published in 1979 and reissued in 2010. You can read an essay from the book about "the triggering subject" here.

Read Reginald Shepherd's poem "Syntax."

Watch Shepherd read his poems at Berry College here. (~1 hour.) Poems include "Difficult Music," "White Sargasso Sea," "Slaves," "The Friend," "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair," "Unused," "Tantalus in May," "Maritime," and "The Gods at 3am" (at the 30:55 min mark).