The hosts get familiar with the poetry of three Hof(f)man(n)s--Carlie, Michael, and Richie.

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Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

SHOW NOTES:

Visit Carlie Hoffman on the web here. She is the author of three books, most recently One More Like This World (Four Way, 2025).

We read these poems by Carlie:

Point of View Where Orpheus Makes a Pit Stop at a Fortune Teller in St. Germain

The Year Made Out of a Cut in Your Civilization

Panorama After Foreclosure

After Translating the Women of the Twentieth Century

Read more about Michael Hofmann here. He is a Virgo born in Germany to a novelist and a teacher. The Guardian has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English."

We read these poems by Michael:

Author, Author

Night

White Noise

Sentence

For Adam

Richie Hofmann is the author of 2 books, in addition to the forthcoming The Bronze Arms (Knopf). Visit his website at https://www.richiehofmann.com. Read his poem "Male Beauty," which we quote in the episode, here.

We read the following poems from Richie:

Breed Me

Arms

Young People

Keys to the City

Things that Are Rare

How do poets write about place, and how does place shape a poet? Play along as the queens place these poems!

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/Poets mentioned in this week's show include:

Traci Brimhall, "Shelter in Place." Visit Brimhall's website here. And you can watch her craft talk on revision here (1 hour).

José Olivarez, "Eat the Rich." Watch Olivarez read his poem "Guapo" here. And visit him online: https://joseolivarez.com/

Jayne Cortez, "I Am New York City"

Peter Oresick, "When in 2009 the G20 Summit Convened in Pittsburgh"

James Wright, "Autumn Begins in Martin's Ferry, Ohio"

Adrian Matejka, "16 Bars Poetica." Listen to a fascinating reading and talk Matejka gave at Bread Loaf in 2024 on his newest book, Last on His Feet, a graphic novel about the boxer Jack Jackson. Matejka's website is https://www.adrianmatejka.com/

Megan Pinto, "Tonight it is Snowing in Rome." Megan Pinto is the author of Saints of Little Faith (Four Way Books, 2024). Visit her online at https://www.meganpinto.com/. And watch her give a reading for Massachusetts Review.

Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro"

Denis Johnson's "Now" Watch Johnson read in 2016 at Cornell here (~40 min).

Naomi Shihab Nye, "Jerusalem"

Touchstones part 1 hit so good, we decided to go another round!

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.

Poems mentioned in this episode:

Tomas Transtromer: "The Name" (translated by May Swenson with Leif Sjöberg)

Cornelius Eady: "My Heart" Eady also turned Brutal Imagination into a play, too, and you can read the Variety review here.

Wayne Koestenbaum's "Rhaposdy" from Rhapsodies of a Repeat Offender. Read a review of the book and check out Koestenbaum's website here.

Lucia Perrillo: "Skin" Read more about Perrillo. Or watch her read from Inseminating the Elephant, which won the 2010 Bobbit Prize, at the Library of Congress here.

Visit Dorianne Laux's website here.

James asked folks to name their touchstone poems (with links) and this Facebook post was born..... check out some other incredible poetry touchstones!