The Beat: Matt Broaddus

Welcome to The Beat. Today, we’ll hear the poet Matt Broaddus read from his book Deeper the Tropics. The poems he’ll read are “Evil Genius,” “Monkey King Gets Introspective for a Minute,” “Afternoon Meditation / Meditation #5,” and “What to Do if You Are Stuck in an Elevator.”

"Evil Genius"

A flamingo and a peacock walk into a bar. Immediately the Department of sanitation shuts it down. I rush from my observatory window to the old bird bath out back and fill it with gin. Pretty soon a crowd swoops in. Excellent, I think in sinister thought-voice. Today, an aviary. Tomorrow, the world.

So this next poem is called "Monkey King Gets Introspective for a Minute," and it's inspired by a character, Monkey, also known as Sun Wukong, from the Chinese novel Journey to the West, which is a sort of serialized folktale novel with some, you know, mythic elements in it. The voice in that novel is so bombastic, it was just very seductive to me to try to write a poem kind of inspired by that voice, and this is the result of that. So this is called "Monkey King Gets Introspective for a Minute."

Having flown to the Southern Heaven on a whim, having gotten drunk on Lao Tzu's elixir, and having crash landed in the desert, I lie back in the fresh crater of my success and listen to the earth steam. Over the rim and the dust that refuses to settle, I can just make out the celestial horde descending on a solar flare to dish out justice. I remember my old master used to say: Sometimes the peaceful stream, sometimes the marathon beatdown. As demons crawl out of the sand wielding beaucoup pointy objects, I wonder when and where I’ll find my stream. I try to change, but the seventy-two transformations can't change my insides. All I can do is keep scaling the heavens, annoying the Jade Emperor, pilfering plums from immortal gardens.

So this is part of a series of meditations that appear in my book Deeper the Tropics. This one, I guess I will say, is kind of hard to read because there's no punctuation, and so that you get that effect where the lines around the line can kind of be read, almost up/down.

"Afternoon Meditation / Meditation #5"

I am disappearing liquid in this bottle brown as mulch sunlight all around me white people feel things about black bodies broken on the field of play I am disappearing rapidly in this bottle listening to people who don’t see me eat the cheese the mouse eats the cat named Ragnar lives in a hut women in short skirts walk by the well of transformation feeling sunny as the ostrich who forgets he is a man I am the dirt in this tea from the root of the Andes I am the little pool the little deer the little cats drink from

So this poem is the result of a challenge a classmate of mine gave me when I was doing my masters of fine arts in creative writing. My classmate challenged me to write a poem that was longer than a page. This was the result.

"What to Do If You Are Stuck in an Elevator"

You will need a goat. If you do not have a goat, one will not be appointed to you. You may now prepare for death. Presuming you are a mindful, considerate individual, you will be leading a goat around with you for just this moment. You will notice the elevator floor is a seven by seven foot pasture of grass and shrubbery. Give the goat a few days to graze it. Eventually the goats grazing should reveal a red button, which reads "HATCH RELEASE,” hidden behind what little is left of a blackberry bush. Press that button, grab me and the goat, and climb out of the panel that has just opened in the ceiling above you. Once in the elevator shaft, put the goat on your back and scale the rope to the roof. You will need to convince the goat to baa. This should be easily accomplished; there is an agitated goat on your back. Microphones located throughout the passage will detect the sound, and another hatch will open to the roof. Now that you have made it to the roof; use your advanced training in polymer science to build a sophisticated glide suit. It must be able to accommodate the goat. You should make your glide suit an interesting color. I think your suit should be green, but that is just my opinion. (If you are not well-versed in polymer technology or are otherwise unable to construct a glide suit, you may now prepare for death.) Jump off the roof and fly away with the goat on your back. Avoid buildings, birds, other people flying around in their glide suits. Aim for the countryside. How wonderful, no? The air carrying us off to where it will. How is the goat? I imagine the goat is not thrilled with this arrangement. You and the goat should land in the woods or a field. Preferably a field. You have made it out. Sit down and reflect on your life for a moment. You have made it this far. Why not go off and become a mystic? If the goat wants to come along, all the better. Build a house very low to the ground. The goat will become a mystic too! You and the goat will do many mystical things. Levitate, juice carrots without a blender—whatever mystics do. Eventually you will become fluent in goat. You two will develop a rapport. You will ask the goat to help you with the mystical errands. The goat has a foul mouth and will swear majestically in your direction. “What a goat,” you will think, as the two of you call down blizzards to bury all the high places in the world.

You just heard Matt Broaddus read four poems from his book Deeper the Tropics, published in twenty twenty-four by BUNNY PRESS/Fonograf Editions and distributed through NYU Press. Broaddus was kind enough to record these poems for us at his home in Colorado. Matt Broaddus is the author of two chapbooks, Space Station and Two Bolts, and also two full-length books of poetry, Deeper the Tropics and Temporal Anomalies. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Annulet, Denver Quarterly, and The Paris Review. Broaddus has received a scholarship from Community of Writers; a residency from Millay Arts; and fellowships from Cave Canem, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and New York University. He serves as an Advisory Poetry Editor for The Paris Review. You can find Matt Broaddus' book Deeper the Tropics in our online catalog. Also, look for links in the show notes. Please join us next time for The Beat.