Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast · Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall

Tossing off with Tommy

·45 min·2 clips

James says he uses Tony Hoagland’s “dickhead” as a monologue for straight boy theater students.

A move starts the trouble. Tommy, a longtime listener and huge poetry reader, brings James and Aaron a practical problem: the collection cannot all come along. The setup is mean in the right way. They compliment his taste, then make him defend the shelves like poetry judgment day has arrived in miniature. Some books are obvious keepers. Kettle Bottom gets love for its Appalachian voices, while Jack Gilbert's collected poems is treated as important, even with a sharp little jab. The Prophet does not make it. They frame it as a book for freshmen in high school to act deep over, not something Tommy needs to carry into the move. Carolyn Forche fares better. The Country Between Us is called exquisite, a Lamont winner, and worth keeping if he has not read it. The jokes keep cutting sideways. Margaret Atwood, Larry Levis, Daisy Fried, and Carrie Fountain pass through with quick recognition and bits of personal context. The Waste Land gets dumped too. Their case is less anti-Eliot than anti-hauling a book that can be found online when insomnia or duty calls. The bit works because it stays affectionate. Tommy is not mocked for owning too much poetry; he gets teased through taste and triage. Every title becomes a small referendum on use, memory, status, pleasure, and whether a beloved object still deserves box space. Then LaToya Jackson somehow remains. The callback turns the shelf surgery into the show's usual mix of literary seriousness, camp noise, and friendship that refuses polish.

As heard by us

Tommy's move frames a lively shelf-sorting talk that turns sharp, funny, and pointedly opinionated.

The episode centers on Tommy's move and the practical problem of thinning a poetry collection. From there, James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith move between affection and teasing as they sort through what stays and what can go.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Packing up poetry and sorting keepers by ear.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast