Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
July 24, 2011

“Broetry is poetry for dudes,” Brian McGackin writes in the introduction to his new collection of poems. “It’s poetry for people who don’t like poetry.”

The slim volume draws inspiration from non-broets, McGackin tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered. Even the cover poem mirrors the famous William Carlos Williams work “This is Just to Say;” which Williams wrote as a sort-of refrigerator note to his spouse, apologizing for eating plums left in their icebox.

“A lot of poets have broetic qualities,” he says. “Robert Frost liked baseball; he wrote about sports. His poetry was always very accessible. Even Shakespeare — Shakespeare was just writing about chicks.”

Broetry is divided into five loosely autobiographical sections: High School to Hangovers; Sophomoronic; Girls, Girls, Graduation; Extreme Poverty Is the New Poverty; and Twenty-Five to Life.

Each section contains a variety of sonnets, haikus, and rhyming and free-verse poems, including, “O Captain! My Captain America,” “Ode to Taylor Swift,” “On the Origin of Reese’s” and “Why Do Buses Smell?”

“If you think you don’t like poetry, you just haven’t found a poem that’s right for you,” McGackin says. “Broetry is poetry that’s right for you. Broetry is a literary chili cheeseburger.” [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]