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EPISODE · Oct 27, 2025 · 34 MIN

Song

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

The queens revisit and sing the praises of Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "Song." 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:You can read the text of "Song" here. And read more about BPK here. James was wrong: "Song" was published in the Autumn 1993 issue of The Southern Review. Thanks to C.Dale Young for the correction!In ancient Greece, a tragoidia was a poem or play that was written and performed in formal language and that had an unhappy ending. The word combines tragos ("goat") and oide ("song").  A tragedy is literally a “goat song.”The journal West Branch published "This Long Winding Line: A Poetry Retrospective" about Kelly's book Song. The collection includes essays by Amit Majmudar, David Baker, C. Dale Young, Gabrielle Bates, and Shara Lessley, who also edited the portfolio. Watch Hiba Tahir on "Song" (including a prompt)Read this remembrance of BPK by two friends in Plume. And read this remembrance by Ryo Yamaguchi (who was BPK's student) in Michigan Quarterly Review. Gabrielle Bates talks about "Song" on Keep the Channel Open PodcastNickole Brown reads and discusses "Song" here.Read GC Waldrep's essay on another poem from the book Song ("All Wild Animals Were Once Called Deer") here. Emilia Phillips reads and discusses "Song" here. You can hear Brigit Pegeen Kelly read (unfortunately, not "Song") here, at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 2004. 

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Oct 27, 2025

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The queens revisit and sing the praises of Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "Song." 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: You can read the text of "Song" here. And read more about BPK here. James was wrong: "Song" was published in the Autumn 1993 issue of The Southern Review. Thanks to C.Dale Young for the correction! In ...

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Song

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