Poetry Unbound

Poetry Unbound

On Being Studios

Short and unhurried, Poetry Unbound is an immersive exploration of a single poem, hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Pádraig Ó Tuama greets you at the doorways of brilliant poems and walks you through — each one has wisdom to offer and questions to ask you. Already a listener? There’s also a book (Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World), a Substack newsletter with a vibrant conversation in the comments, and occasional gatherings.

Fady Joudah — [...]

Fady Joudah — [...]

Even though Palestinian-American Fady Joudah’s poem is sparingly titled “[...],” an ellipsis surrounded by brackets, this work itself is psychologically dense. Through crisp lines and language, it wrestles with the nature of human ambivalence — about things like fear, desire, disaster, liberty — and it finds certainty only in the shaky universal ground of that ambivalence.Fady Joudah is the author of […]. He has also published five other collections of poems, including Textu, a book-long sequenc

Feb 24, • 12:55

Benjamin Zephaniah — To Michael Menson

Benjamin Zephaniah — To Michael Menson

Benjamin Zephaniah’s urgent, imperative “To Michael Menson” was written when he was a poet in residence at a human rights barrister in England. His poem resonates with his repeated calls for justice for a murdered Black musician — not a justice that is gullible, impotent, or hopeless but one that is clear-eyed, collaborative, and mighty.Benjamin Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including City Psalms, Propa Propaganda, and To

Feb 17, • 12:52

Carmen Giménez — Ars Poetica

Carmen Giménez — Ars Poetica

Carmen Giménez’s poem “Ars Poetica” is a stunning waterfall of words, a torrent of dozens of short statements that begin with “I” or “I’m.” As you listen to them, let an answering cascade of questions fill up your mind. What does this series of confessions reveal to you about poetry? The poet? And yourself?Carmen Giménez is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Milk and Filth, a finalist for the NBCC Award in Poetry, and Be Recorder (Graywolf Press, 2019), a finalist for the 2019

Feb 10, • 15:16

Rick Barot — The Singing

Rick Barot — The Singing

Rick Barot’s poem “The Singing” takes place in the humdrum, relatable setting of the waiting room at a car dealership. But the unexpected occurs when one woman’s soft humming builds into strange, full-throated singing. Curiosity, wonder, anger, and dread spill over, forcing you to face the same dilemma as the narrator: What can you do when reality defies your control?Rick Barot was born in the Philippines, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and attended Wesleyan University and The Iowa Write

Feb 3, • 17:43

Diannely Antigua — Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me

Diannely Antigua — Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me

“You would’ve made a lousy nun.” The narrator of Diannely Antigua’s “Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me” overhears these words, and they jolt her into contrasting her life experience with the limited archetypes offered by her church — good daughter, good sister, holy woman, whore. Which of these has she been? Where does her devotion lie? And what virtue can she claim?Diannely Antigua is a Dominican-American poet and educator who was born and raised in Massachusetts. Her debut colle

Jan 27, • 16:21

Don McKay — Neanderthal Dig

Don McKay — Neanderthal Dig

Don McKay’s poem “Neanderthal Dig” begins with the discovery of an ancient, child-sized skeleton placed on the wing of a swan and then takes flight, showing us how love and death are riddled with paradoxes — mixing the earthbound and the sacred, the personal and the universal, the time-stamped and the never ending.Don McKay is the multi-award-winning author of multiple books of poetry, including Lurch, Paradoxides, Strike/Slip (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize), and Camber: Selected Poems (fin

Jan 20, • 14:52

Ernesto Cardenal — Give Ear to My Words (Psalm 5)

Ernesto Cardenal — Give Ear to My Words (Psalm 5)

When dictatorial leaders use talk of peace as a smokescreen to conceal their plans for war and  destruction, what are the people to do? Believe in a vision of peace and freedom that is muscular, sturdy, and protective — and pray that it holds, as Ernesto Cardenal does in his poem “Give Ear to My Words (Psalm 5),” translated by Jonathan Cohen.Ernesto Cardenal (1925–2020) was a Catholic priest and poet who was born in Nicaragua. From 1979 to 1988, he served as the Minister of Culture there. Carden

Jan 13, • 17:26

Diego Báez — Inheritance

Diego Báez — Inheritance

Many people say their experience of time changes after they have children, a phenomenon that Diego Báez captures in “Inheritance.” In this poem, a past, present, and future starring the same child shift ceaselessly in a parent’s mind, like photos flipped through in an album, dots placed on a timeline, moments that one wishes they could build monuments for.Diego Báez, is a writer and educator in Chicago, where he teaches at the City Colleges of Chicago. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from R

Dec 20, 2024 • 20:04

Danielle Chapman — Trespassing with Tweens

Danielle Chapman — Trespassing with Tweens

Wonder and strangeness commingle with the commonplace and universal in Danielle Chapman’s “Trespassing with Tweens.” In a not-quite mirroring, a human mother and her children stand and watch together in awe as a great blue heron flaps in and feeds its two offspring. The pleasures found here are profound and multiple – the joys in seeing, in sharing an experience of seeing, in seeing with fresh eyes, and in being seen.Danielle Chapman is a poet, essayist, and lecturer in English at Yale Universit

Dec 16, 2024 • 16:07

Richard Langston — Hill walk

Richard Langston — Hill walk

In Richard Langston’s poem “Hill walk,” he proffers a handful of things that move us over the course of a day — words said or read, notes played, the sight of halting steps taken by a sibling. We marvel at the sound of an unfamiliar bird call, but there’s a startling mystery to the human heart and what it responds to (or doesn’t) and one that we don’t always mark.Richard Langston is a veteran broadcast journalist and director. He comes from Dunedin, New Zealand, and was a driving force in the ci

Dec 13, 2024 • 12:18

Robert Hayden  — Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden — Those Winter Sundays

What sacrifices were made by your parents when you were a child? How did you think about them as they were happening? And how do you think about them now? In his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden holds space for a weighted childhood memory and the regret, love, and pain it evokes.Robert Hayden (1913-1980) was the first Black American poet to be appointed the Consultant of Poetry to the Library of Congress (now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate); he held this role from 1976 to 1978. Hayden

Dec 9, 2024 • 12:18

Taylor Johnson — Pennsylvania Ave. SE

Taylor Johnson — Pennsylvania Ave. SE

When you look at people who are younger than you — particularly teenagers — does your mind ever take you back to yourself at their age? Taylor Johnson’s poem “Pennsylvania Ave. SE” performs this feat of time travel, going from a glimpse of two boys on bicycles to a haunting sense memory of what was once so yearned for: to be seen, to be wanted, to be free.Taylor Johnson is proud of being from Washington, D.C. He has received fellowships and scholarships from CALLALOO, Cave Canem, Lambda Literary

Dec 6, 2024 • 13:21

Kinsale Drake — Put on that KTNN

Kinsale Drake — Put on that KTNN

In Kinsale Drake’s poem “Put on that KTNN,” she writes about driving to a hometown as a familiar station crackles to life on the car radio. From this corner of America, she creates her own country music — of Navajo voices alongside Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, of drumbeats and guitar licks, of things wrought by nature and things made by humans, all of them rooted in the desert sand.Kinsale Drake (Diné) is a poet, playwright, and performer based out of the Southwest U.S. She is a winner of the 2

Dec 2, 2024 • 14:56

Poetry Unbound — Season 9 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 9 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, December 2. Featured poets in this season include Robert Hayden, Kinsale Drake, Danielle Chapman, Diannely Antigua, and many more. New episodes every week through March 3.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

Nov 25, 2024 • 1:17

Closing: Poems as Teachers (ft. Kai Cheng Thom) | Ep 7

Closing: Poems as Teachers (ft. Kai Cheng Thom) | Ep 7

In this concluding episode of "Poems as Teachers," our special miniseries on conflict and the human condition, host Pádraig Ó Tuama says the poems discussed in this offering are a different kind of teacher: “not as teachers that give us rules to follow — more so teachers that share something of their own intuition.” And for a final reflection, he offers Kai Cheng Thom’s “trauma is not sacred,” which speaks directly, fiercely, and lovingly to the pain, scars, and violence that we humans carry and

May 17, 2024 • 12:42

Yehuda Amichai — Poems as Teachers | Ep 6

Yehuda Amichai — Poems as Teachers | Ep 6

Being right may feel good, but what human price do we pay for this feeling of rightness? Yehuda Amichai’s poem “The Place Where We Are Right,” translated by Stephen Mitchell, asks us to answer this question, consider how doubt and love might expand and enrich our perspective, and reflect upon the buried and not-so-buried ruins of past conflicts, arguments, and wounds that still call for our attention.Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet and novelist born in Würzburg, Germany, and he lived from 192

May 17, 2024 • 14:04

Jericho Brown — Poems as Teachers | Ep 5

Jericho Brown — Poems as Teachers | Ep 5

In “Hebrews 13” by Jericho Brown, a narrator says: “my lover and my brother both knocked at my door.” The heat is turned on, scalding coffee is offered and hastily swallowed, and silence is the soundtrack. What an exquisitely awkward triangle it is, and what a human, beautiful, and loving shape that can be.Jericho Brown is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where he also directs the university’s creative writing program. His books of poetry

May 16, 2024 • 13:10

Mosab Abu Toha — Poems as Teachers | Ep 4

Mosab Abu Toha — Poems as Teachers | Ep 4

In Mosab Abu Toha’s “Ibrahim Abu Lughod and brother in Yaffa,” two barefoot siblings on a beach sketch out a map of their former home in the sand and argue about what went where. Their longing for return to a place of hospitality, family, memory, friends, and even strangers is alive and tender to the touch.Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, scholar, and librarian who was born in Gaza and has spent his life there. He is the founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s first English-language libr

May 15, 2024 • 16:29

Constantine P. Cavafy — Poems as Teachers | Ep 3

Constantine P. Cavafy — Poems as Teachers | Ep 3

We ask questions to find out the facts, but what if you can’t trust the answers, the questions, or the person who's asking the questions? In Constantine P. Cavafy’s “Waiting for the Barbarians,” translated by Evan Jones, leaders exercise a sinister kind of violence — they’ve taken over people’s imaginations with showy displays of wealth and privilege, time-wasting ceremony, and fear coursing beneath it all.Constantine P. Cavafy was a Greek-language poet born in Alexandria, Egypt, and he lived fr

May 14, 2024 • 17:23

Joy Harjo — Poems as Teachers | Ep 2

Joy Harjo — Poems as Teachers | Ep 2

As appealing as it may sound, is it really possible to live in a world completely free of conflict? No. And since differences and disagreements are inevitable and natural, Joy Harjo gives ground rules in “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings.” Her call to us echoes across time and space — a call to listen, to humility, to justice, and to recognizing the land, the living, the dead, the not-yet-living.Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and the 23rd Poet Lau­re­ate of the Unit­ed Sta

May 13, 2024 • 17:43

Introducing: Poems as Teachers (ft. Wisława Szymborska) | Ep 1

Introducing: Poems as Teachers (ft. Wisława Szymborska) | Ep 1

Host Pádraig Ó Tuama gives an overview of this Poetry Unbound mini season that's devoted to poems with wisdom to offer about conflict and humanity. He also brings us Wisława Szymborska’s “A Word on Statistics,” translated by Joanna Trzeciak, which covers statistics of the most human kind — like the number of people in a group of 100 who think they know better, who can admire without envy, or who could do terrible things. Listen, and ask yourself: Which categories do I belong to? Which do I belie

May 12, 2024 • 10:25

Thomas Lux — Refrigerator, 1957

Thomas Lux — Refrigerator, 1957

If your home were a museum — and they all are, in a way — what would the contents of your refrigerator say about you and those you live with? In his poem “Refrigerator, 1957,” Thomas Lux opens the door to his childhood appliance and oh, does a three-quarters full jar of maraschino cherries speak volumes. Thomas Lux was an American poet and professor. He was the author of several collections of poetry, including To the Left of Time (Ecco, 2016), Child Made of Sand (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), God Pa

Feb 23, 2024 • 14:09

Rita Wong — flush

Rita Wong — flush

The word “flush” is a verb, as in an activity that we do umpteen times a day. It’s also an adjective that conveys abundance. Fittingly, Rita Wong’s poem “flush” offers a praise song to water’s expansive and unceasing presence in our lives — from our toilets to our teacups, from inside our bodies to outside our buildings, and from our soil to our skies. Rita Wong is the author of several poetry collections, including monkeypuzzle (Press Gang, 1998), forage (Nightwood Editions, 2007), and undercur

Feb 19, 2024 • 15:59

Maria Dahvana Headley — Beowulf

Maria Dahvana Headley — Beowulf

Bro — this is definitely not the “Beowulf” that you read back in school. Maria Dahvana Headley’s gutsy, swaggering translation brings the Old English epic poem roaring into this century, showing you why this tale of fraught family ties, power plays and posturing, and mighty, imperfect people is as relevant as ever.  Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times-bestselling author of eight books, most recently Beowulf: A New Translation (MCD X FSG Originals, 2020). Her novel The Mere Wife (MCD X FS

Feb 16, 2024 • 15:55

Michael Klein — Swale

Michael Klein — Swale

A horse race from the 1980s may not seem like the obvious inspiration for a poem that celebrates so many of the things that make our lives worth living — good company (human and animal), good books, good food, and honest work — and that is just part of the surprise, delight, and surging joy of Michael Klein’s “Swale.” Michael Klein is a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for poetry and is the author of five books of poetry and two memoirs. His work has appeared in many places, includin

Feb 12, 2024 • 14:02

Ray Young Bear — Our Bird Aegis

Ray Young Bear — Our Bird Aegis

What holds our bodies together? Yes, there are the biological components, such as the cells, fluids, fibers, but what about the bone-deep stuff, the histories, myths, aches, resolves? In “Our Bird Aegis,” poet Ray Young Bear evokes an adolescent eagle to show how this blend of the visceral, the inherited, and the self-made abides in each of us, no matter our form, wherever we go. Ray Young Bear is a Meskwaki poet and fiction writer. He is the author of several books of poetry including, The Invi

Feb 9, 2024 • 13:45

Suji Kwock Kim — Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border

Suji Kwock Kim — Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border

While disputes over contested lands result in damage that can be seen and documented, they also create countless unseen ruptures in the hearts, minds and souls of the humans caught in the chaos. By giving voice to yearning, Suji Kwock Kim’s poem “Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border” shows how bearing witness and asking the impossible are acts of profound courage, creativity, and defiance. Suji Kwock Kim is a poet and playwright. Her debut poetry collection, Notes fr

Feb 5, 2024 • 15:36

Amber McBride — ROLL CALL: NEW TAROT NAMES FOR BLACK GIRLS

Amber McBride — ROLL CALL: NEW TAROT NAMES FOR BLACK GIRLS

In “ROLL CALL: NEW TAROT NAMES FOR BLACK GIRLS,” Amber McBride treats us to a playful litany of language that twists and leaps and never stumbles. Flavored with old-time Christianity, old-time hoodoo, and a modern alchemy all her own, it talks back to prejudice, reclaims the words meant to take people down, and forges new identities that shimmer with strength and strangeness. Amber McBride is an English professor at the University of Virginia. She is the author of several books, including the fo

Feb 2, 2024 • 16:35

Carl Dennis — Breath

Carl Dennis — Breath

A fragile and wondrous technology that we all possess, the human breath powers any number of things in our lives — speeches, feats of music, athleticism, and more. Carl Dennis’s powerful and meditative poem “Breath” calls on us to take a moment, give our breath our full attention, and celebrate it. Carl Dennis is the author of 13 works of poetry, including Earthborn (Penguin Books/Penguin Random House, 2022), as well as a collection of essays called Poetry as Persuasion (University of Georgia Pr

Jan 29, 2024 • 15:23

Elisa Gonzalez — To My Twenty-Four-Year-Old Self

Elisa Gonzalez — To My Twenty-Four-Year-Old Self

Our lives are filled with distances, the physical spans that we travel but also the stranger, vaster expanses between our past and our present or between feeling anchored and connected and feeling terribly alone. A poem can capture all of those in a way that a map can’t, as Elisa Gonzalez superbly demonstrates in “To My Twenty-Four-Year-Old Self.”Elisa Gonzalez is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Her work appears in the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Paris Review, and elsewhere. A gra

Jan 26, 2024 • 14:49

Ofelia Zepeda — Deer Dance Exhibition

Ofelia Zepeda — Deer Dance Exhibition

Most of us do our eavesdropping shyly and secretively, but Ofelia Zepeda’s poem “Deer Dance Exhibition” welcomes us to listen in on an exchange between people as they watch a ceremonial dance. Along the way, we get the sense that what we’re witnessing is more than a conversation — it’s the sounds and sensations of life itself. Ofelia Zepeda is a poet, Regents Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship for her work in American Indian languag

Jan 22, 2024 • 15:27

Sandra Cisneros — When in Doubt

Sandra Cisneros — When in Doubt

Even in the most uneventful of human lives, uncertainty and doubts will inevitably intrude. When faced with those, what can you do to steady yourself? One suggestion: Turn to the poem “When in Doubt” by Sandra Cisneros, where she generously shares some of the wisdom that she’s gleaned over the years. Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Cisneros’s most recent collection is Woman Without Shame (Knopf Publishing Group 2022). Her numerous awards

Jan 19, 2024 • 14:52

Kandace Siobhan Walker — Three Mangoes, £1

Kandace Siobhan Walker — Three Mangoes, £1

To be alive is to be in conversation with the dead. The ghosts of loved ones are always swirling around us, and sometimes we’re lucky enough to catch a glimpse. In the poem “Three Mangoes, £1,” Kandace Siobhan Walker describes a surprising encounter with her late grandmother at a busy market, and an encounter with a stranger.Kandace Siobhan Walker is a writer and artist of Jamaican-Canadian, Saltwater Geechee, and Welsh heritage. Her poems have appeared in Magma, The White Review, Poetry Wales,

Jan 15, 2024 • 15:50

Francisco Aragón — Asleep You Become a Continent

Francisco Aragón — Asleep You Become a Continent

It is an intimate thing, to watch a lover while they sleep. In Francisco Aragón’s translation of Francisco X. Alarcón’s homoerotic poem, “Asleep You Become a Continent,” a man views his sleeping lover’s body like it’s a landscape: legs underneath sheets become mountains and valleys. The waking lover describes this view like an explorer might an unknown country; wondering what he will find.Francisco X. Alarcón was an award-winning Chicano poet and educator. He authored fourteen volumes of poetry,

Jan 12, 2024 • 13:04

Conor Kerr — Winter Songs

Conor Kerr — Winter Songs

Conor Kerr’s “Winter Songs” depicts a future scene: coyotes roaming through a rewilded city, digging up the bones of Indigenous ancestors who then regenerate and reclaim what was taken. Power is dismantled, something original is restored.Conor Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer living in Edmonton. A member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, he is descended from the Lac Ste. Anne Métis and the Papaschase Cree Nation. His Ukrainian family are settlers in Treaty 4 and 6 territories in Saskatchewan. He i

Jan 8, 2024 • 14:59

Valencia Robin — The Coup

Valencia Robin — The Coup

Valencia Robin’s poem portrays a tense relationship between mother and daughter; perhaps each resembling the other too much. In desperation — and shock — the daughter says the worst thing she can think of to her mother. What follows is like the fall of a dictator, a coup, an end, an opening.Valencia Robin is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes poetry, painting, collage, and sculpture. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, her debut poetry collection, Ridicul

Jan 5, 2024 • 14:16

Eugenia Leigh — How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home

Eugenia Leigh — How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home

In a poem about how a small moment can help you make a wise decision, Eugenia Leigh finds the strength to go back home after storming out. No self-pity in the poem, just humor and brilliance. She had every reason to leave, and finds every reason to return. Eugenia Leigh is a Korean American poet and the author of two collections of poetry, Bianca (Four Way Books, 2023) and Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (2014), winner of the Late Night Library's 2015 Debut-litzer Prize in Poetry, as well as a fina

Jan 1, 2024 • 15:51

Poetry Unbound — Season 8 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 8 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, January 1. Featured poets in this season include Amber McBride, Eugenia Leigh, Francisco Aragón, Ray Young Bear, and many more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through February 23.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

Dec 18, 2023 • 1:07

Clint Smith with Krista Tippett — What We Know in the "Marrow of Our Bones"

Clint Smith with Krista Tippett — What We Know in the "Marrow of Our Bones"

Friends, Pádraig here — we are awakening your Poetry Unbound feed to share this brilliant episode from the newest season of On Being, which is well underway. Conversations on love and loss, comedy and ecology, social creativity, poetry, and more all await you in the On Being feed — subscribe now and don’t miss out.And — Poetry Unbound Season 8 is in production and will be arriving this winter.  And now...This phrase recurs throughout Clint Smith's writing: "in the marrow of our bones." It is an

Nov 13, 2023 • 1:05:43

BONUS: Truth-seeking and the Symphony of Language with Henri Cole

BONUS: Truth-seeking and the Symphony of Language with Henri Cole

A central duality appears in the work of Henri Cole: the revelation of emotional truths in concert with a “symphony of language” — often accompanied by arresting similes. We are excited to offer this conversation between Pádraig and Henri, recorded during the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, New Jersey. Together, they discuss the role of animals in Henri’s work, the pleasure of aesthetics in poetry, and writing as a form of revenge against forgetting.Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan an

Sep 1, 2023 • 1:04:44

BONUS: Making Space for the Erotic with Aimee Nezhukumatathil

BONUS: Making Space for the Erotic with Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poems are filled with butchery and blood as she carves space for desire, motherhood, and an encyclopedic knowledge of plants to coexist in life and on the page. We are excited to offer this conversation between Pádraig and Aimee, recorded during the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, New Jersey. Together, they explore the beauty of solitude, eroticism in poetry, and a letter writing practice for taking inventory of a life.Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of a book o

Aug 30, 2023 • 1:00:50

BONUS: Poetry That Pays Attention with Patricia Smith

BONUS: Poetry That Pays Attention with Patricia Smith

Through her poetry, Patricia Smith generously, skillfully puts language around what can be seen both in the present and deliberately looking back at oneself. We are excited to offer this conversation between Pádraig and Patricia, recorded during the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, New Jersey. Together, they explore how memory, persona, and a practice of curiosity inform Patricia’s work, and the ways writing a poem is like writing a piece of music.Patricia Smith is the author of nine books

Aug 28, 2023 • 1:08:16

Maya C. Popa — They Are Building a Hospital

Maya C. Popa — They Are Building a Hospital

So much of what was once deemed impossible was found — during Covid — to be possible. Here, a poet watches a tent, a huge temporary hospital, be raised up on the green of Central Park, a place she’d previously walked her dog.Maya C. Popa is the author of Wound Is the Origin of Wonder (W. W. Norton, 2022) and American Faith (Sarabande, 2019), which was a recipient of the North American Book Prize and a runner-up in the Kathryn A. Morton Prize judged by Ocean Vuong. She is also the author of two c

Jul 28, 2023 • 15:52

Jenny Mitchell — A Man in Love with Plants

Jenny Mitchell — A Man in Love with Plants

How to remember a beloved who died tragically, violently? Remember the violence? Sometimes, yes. But also this: remember his love of flowers.Jenny Mitchell is the author of the poetry collections Her Lost Language (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2019) and Map of a Plantation (2021). Her latest collection, Resurrection of a Black Man (2022), is a Poetry Kit Book of the Month. Mitchell is a winner of the Poetry Book Awards and joint winner of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize. She is also a recipient of

Jul 24, 2023 • 13:06

Vidyan Ravinthiran — Artist

Vidyan Ravinthiran — Artist

What self-consciousnesses do artists carry? It can be difficult to know how to hold onto confidence in your work, especially when small jibes from others remain long after apologies have been offered. Art compels and calls, and also complicates.Vidyan Ravinthiran was born in Leeds to Sri Lankan Tamils. His first book of poems, Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize, and the Michael Murphy Memor

Jul 21, 2023 • 13:22

Mark Turcotte — Dear New Blood

Mark Turcotte — Dear New Blood

A poet reads to a room full of youths who seem to have some residual resentment to the poet. The poet doesn’t mind — he understands, and calls on the listeners to share in the power of focused anger, to make it a motivation for their creativity.Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) is the author of The Feathered Heart (Michigan State University Press, 1998) and Exploding Chippewas (Triquarterly Books, 2002). He lives in Chicago, where he teaches at DePaul University.Find the transcript for this

Jul 17, 2023 • 15:37

Wo Chan — the smiley barista remembers my name

Wo Chan — the smiley barista remembers my name

What do sandwiches, laundry, therapy, childhood homes, and forgiveness have to do with each other? Wo Chan weaves a poem that charts the many things a single day can hold.Wo Chan is a poet and drag artist who performs as The Illustrious Pearl. They are a winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize and the author of Togetherness (Nightboat Books, 2022). Wo has received fellowships from MacDowell, New York Foundation of the Arts, Kundiman, The Asian American Writers Workshop, Poets House, and Lambda Lite

Jul 14, 2023 • 12:27

Amanda Gunn — Ordinary Sugar

Amanda Gunn — Ordinary Sugar

A note from the Poetry Unbound team:We’ve updated the audio for our episode “Amanda Gunn — Ordinary Sugar.” This updated version includes an additional stanza initially omitted from the recording and additional reflection from Pádraig.How can russet potatoes be made to taste of sugar and caramel? By dedication, love, and craft. Amanda Gunn places her poetry in conversation with the farming and culinary skills of her forebears: women who cultivated land, survival, strength, and family bonds.Amand

Jul 10, 2023 • 14:22

J. Estanislao Lopez — Alternate Ending: The Escape of Jephthah’s Daughter

J. Estanislao Lopez — Alternate Ending: The Escape of Jephthah’s Daughter

Old stories — of mythology or religion — have sometimes been depicted as having one narrative and one interpretation. Here, J. Estanislao Lopez takes on the voice of a character whose story ended in violence, inviting listeners to claim their agency as this character claims hers.J. Estanislao Lopez is the author of We Borrowed Gentleness (Alice James Books, 2022). His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Rumpus, and Poetry Magazine, as well as the anthology The BreakBeat Poet

Jul 7, 2023 • 13:26

BONUS: A Conversation with Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

BONUS: A Conversation with Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

We are delighted to offer this extended conversation between host Pádraig Ó Tuama and the poet Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe. Together, they take a deep dive into the story and language of her poem "Blue," featured in Season 7 of Poetry Unbound, as well as Sasha's beginnings in poetry.Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe is the author of Rose Quartz. She is from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribes. Native to the Pacific Northwest, she draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in th

Jul 3, 2023 • 38:19

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe — Blue

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe — Blue

In a poem that explores a story of a name, a story of a color, a story of a sound, a story of an identity, a the story of a person — we hear of ancestors, childhood innocences, exclusions, memories, sensualities, and the way that the dead are not always dead.Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe is the author of Rose Quartz. She is from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribes. Native to the Pacific Northwest, she draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in the city. She is the auth

Jul 3, 2023 • 17:22

Charif Shanahan — Present Moment

Charif Shanahan — Present Moment

On one particular day, a poem places events alongside each other, the ordinariness of each event casting the other events into light and shade.Charif Shanahan is the author of two collections of poetry: Trace Evidence: Poems (Tin House, 2023) and Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry/SIU Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award. His work has been supported by a National Endowment

Jun 30, 2023 • 15:10

Brenda Cárdenas — This Is Why

Brenda Cárdenas — This Is Why

Why do we do the things we do when we’re young? Brenda Cárdenas recalls nights sneaking out of the house as a teenager, looking for highs, looking for company. “Why would you do that?” is the adult question throughout the poem. “Why wouldn’t I?” is a reply.Brenda Cárdenas is the author of the poetry collection Trace (Red Hen Press, 2023). Cárdena’s works include Boomerang (Bilingual Press, 2009), the chapbook Bread of the Earth/The Last Colors (Decentralized Publications, 2011), co-authored with

Jun 26, 2023 • 15:30

Nithy Kasa — Blouse

Nithy Kasa — Blouse

An item of clothing — the blouse of a grandmother — is praised for its artistry, is remembered for how it sits on the body. And then, having been lost, is remade, refined, and reimagined on a new body that recalls the bodies of women of previous generations.Nithy Kasa is a Dublin-based poet of Congolese origin. Published in poetry magazines such as Poetry Ireland Review and anthologies like Dedalus Press’s Writing Home: The New Irish Poets, her work can also be found in the archive of the Univer

Jun 23, 2023 • 11:55

Selina Nwulu — Replay

Selina Nwulu — Replay

What might have been? A poet recalls flirtations and electric connections that could have led to a different life.Selina Nwulu is a writer of Nigerian heritage who is based in London. Her poetry and essays have been widely featured in a variety of journals, short films, and anthologies, including the critically-acclaimed anthology New Daughters of Africa. Her first chapbook collection, The Secrets I Let Slip, was published in 2015 by Burning Eye Books and is a Poetry Book Society recommendation.

Jun 19, 2023 • 13:15

John Lee Clark — Self Portrait

John Lee Clark — Self Portrait

If you had to make a self portrait of your daily morning routine through language and sensation, what would you include? John Lee Clark offers memories of a birthday through experiences the body holds.John Lee Clark is a DeafBlind poet, essayist, historian, translator, and an actor in the Protactile movement. He is the author of the poetry collection How to Communicate (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022) and the essay collection Where I Stand (Handtype Press, 2014). Clark is a 2021-2023 Bush Leadersh

Jun 16, 2023 • 13:29

Kay Ulanday Barrett — Pantoum for recital when my mom said, don’t let them see you cry

Kay Ulanday Barrett — Pantoum for recital when my mom said, don’t let them see you cry

A memory from childhood is viewed through the lens of the Malaysian poetic form of pantoum. New things emerge when lines break and reform with new associations.Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, essayist, cultural strategist, and A+ napper. They are the winner of the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, a 2022 recipient of a Tin House Next Book residency, and a recipient of a 2020 James Baldwin Fellowship Award at MacDowell. Their second book, More Than Organs (Sibling

Jun 12, 2023 • 13:29

dg nanouk okpik — In a Lock of Hair

dg nanouk okpik — In a Lock of Hair

If you could put a lock of your hair under a microscope, what would it contain? DNA certainly, but here in dg nanouk okpik’s poem, the hair also contains memory, smell, location, disease, dreams, and medicine.dg nanouk okpik is Iñupiat-Inuit from Alaska. Her first book, Corpse Whale (University of Arizona Press, 2012), won the American Book Award and May Sarton Award. okpik was long-listed for the PEN American Award for Blood Snow (Wave Books, 2022). She is a Lannan Fellow with the Institute of

Jun 9, 2023 • 13:45

On Poetry and Patronage: An Invitation to Love Us

On Poetry and Patronage: An Invitation to Love Us

Pádraig reflects on the transformative force of poetry, and Krista joins with an invitation to pay tribute to the ongoing work of Poetry Unbound.Make a gift and learn more at onbeing.org/LoveUs.

Jun 7, 2023 • 1:33

Benjamin Gucciardi — The Rungs

Benjamin Gucciardi — The Rungs

A social worker holds a group for teenagers at a school. They only half pay attention to him. Then something happens, and they pay attention to each other.Benjamin Gucciardi was born and raised in San Francisco, California. His first book, West Portal (University of Utah Press, 2021), was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry and was named a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. He is also the author of the chapbooks Timeles

Jun 5, 2023 • 15:02

Rowan Ricardo Phillips — Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same

Rowan Ricardo Phillips — Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same

Have you ever had a private moment — perhaps in the middle of the night — in a large city? When it just seems like it’s you and the great dreaming metropolis? Rowan Ricardo Phillips brings us into a memory he can’t forget, complete with a Wu-Tang Clan soundtrack.Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, academic, journalist, and translator. His poetry collections include The Ground (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), Heaven (2015), Living Weapon

Jun 2, 2023 • 12:58

Alexander Posey — The Dew and the Bird

Alexander Posey — The Dew and the Bird

In a poem of strict rhymes and old forms, Alexander Posey (1873-1908), a poet of the Creek Nation, poses challenges to pomposity.Alexander Posey was a poet, editor, and satirist born in 1873 in the Creek Nation. Posey was the publisher of the first Indian-published daily newspaper, the Eufaula Indian Journal.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Alexander Posey’s poem, and invite you to connect with Poetry Unbound throughout this season.

May 29, 2023 • 11:30

José Olivarez — No Time to Wait

José Olivarez — No Time to Wait

In a church there are liturgies and prayers and statues. But in José Olivarez’s poem, there are more urgent things taking place, things that have “no time to wait.”José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants.  He is the author of Promises of Gold, a collection of poems. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by The Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York

May 26, 2023 • 11:25

Safia Elhillo — Ode to My Homegirls

Safia Elhillo — Ode to My Homegirls

Friendships deserve praise songs, and here’s a praise song — an ode — to friends that have crossed continents for each other, and would go further if needed.Sudanese by way of D.C., Safia Elhillo is the author of Girls That Never Die, The January Children, and Home Is Not a Country, and is co-editor of the anthology Halal If You Hear Me. Winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, the Arab American Book Award, and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, she is also the rec

May 22, 2023 • 12:09

Poetry Unbound — Season 7 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 7 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, May 22. Featured poets in this season include Selina Nwulu, Wo Chan, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Mark Turcotte, and many more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through July 28.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

May 15, 2023 • 1:55

Ada Limón with Krista Tippett — “To Be Made Whole”

Ada Limón with Krista Tippett — “To Be Made Whole”

Friends, we are awakening your Poetry Unbound feed for a moment to share this episode from the big, beautiful new season of On Being. And Pádraig’s here with a quick hello and a glimpse of what more On Being conversations await you in coming months. You won’t want to miss — subscribe now in the On Being feed and catch each episode as it drops, every Thursday. And now…An electric conversation with Ada Limón's wisdom and her poetry — a refreshing, full-body experience of how this way with words an

Feb 20, 2023 • 1:12:36

BONUS: A conversation with Lorna Goodison – and the humans behind Poetry Unbound

BONUS: A conversation with Lorna Goodison – and the humans behind Poetry Unbound

As part of a celebratory launch party for the new Poetry Unbound book, Pádraig welcomed Lorna Goodison, former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, into a joyful Zoom room of poetry lovers and listeners of the show, old and new. We draw Season 6 to a close with their conversation on themes explored in Lorna’s poem “Reporting Back to Queen Isabella” (one of the 50 featured in the book): poetry as a “made thing”; poetry as a form of travel.And: Pádraig chats with our wonderful producer and composer Gautam Sr

Dec 22, 2022 • 28:06

Danusha Laméris — Bonfire Opera

Danusha Laméris — Bonfire Opera

A younger woman looks at an older woman, admiring her beauty, skill, and freedom. Older now, she thinks of how hard-won such freedom is. Also: singing opera while taking off your clothes. That too.Danusha Laméris is a poet, teacher, and essayist. She is the author of The Moons of August (Autumn House, 2014), which was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press poetry prize, and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Her second book, Bonfire Opera (University of P

Dec 16, 2022 • 14:34

Rumi — You wake the dead to life

Rumi — You wake the dead to life

Who brings you to praise? Rumi’s great poem of praise to the “you” is to his great friend Shams, and through that friendship, to God.Rumi was a 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet. He left behind a vast body of lyric poetry, metaphysical writings, lectures, and letters, which have influenced Persian, Urdu, and Turkish literature across the centuries.Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator of Persian descent born in New York City. She has sung and translated the poetry of

Dec 12, 2022 • 15:11

Naomi Shihab Nye — I Feel Sorry for Jesus

Naomi Shihab Nye — I Feel Sorry for Jesus

What’s it like to be owned by the world, to have populations claiming you, to have millions speaking on your behalf? Naomi Shihab Nye takes a close look — from a distance — at Jesus, and herself.Naomi Shihab Nye is a professor of creative writing at Texas State University. From 2019-2021, Nye was the Young People's Poet Laureate through the Poetry Foundation. She is the author of You & Yours (BOA Editions 2005). Her more recent books include The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions 2019), Voices in the

Dec 9, 2022 • 15:27

Victoria Adukwei Bulley — not quiet as in quiet but

Victoria Adukwei Bulley — not quiet as in quiet but

Quiet. Shhh. Softly. Don’t make a fuss. Don’t upset the authorities. Victoria Adukwei Bulley unquiets the quiet.Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer, and artist. She is the author of Quiet (Faber Books 2022; Knopf 2023), which was shortlisted for the 2022 T.S. Eliot Prize. Bulley is currently a doctoral student at the Royal Holloway, University of London.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Victoria Adukwei Bulley’s poem, and invite you to connect with Poe

Dec 5, 2022 • 14:46

Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley — small talk or in my hand     galaxies

Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley — small talk or in my hand galaxies

On the day you wake to a broken window in your car, what do you do? And what happens when the woman repairing that window offers a glimpse of something new?Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley belongs to the Onondaga Nation of Indigenous Americans in New York. He is the author of Dēmos (Milkweed 2021), Colonize Me (Saturnalia 2019), and Not Your Mama’s Melting Pot (University of Nebraska Press 2018). Naka-Hasebe Kingsley is an assistant professor of English at Kalamazoo College. Find the transcript for

Dec 2, 2022 • 18:10

Dan Vera — Norse Saga

Dan Vera — Norse Saga

When you move to a new place, everything seems different. Hell’s not hot anymore; it’s freezing. A poem of strangeness and wonder. Dan Vera is a writer, editor, watercolorist, and literary historian. Vera is the author of two books of poetry: Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press 2013) and The Space Between Our Danger and Delight (Beothuk Books 2008). His honors include the Oscar Wilde Award for Poetry (2017) and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize (2012). Find the transcript for this show at on

Nov 28, 2022 • 12:30

Solmaz Sharif — Self-Care

Solmaz Sharif — Self-Care

Who decides what’s self care and what isn’t? Who benefits? Who pays? Upon whom does the burden of self care rest? Solmaz Sharif excavates.Solmaz Sharif is the author of Customs (Graywolf Press 2022) and Look (Graywolf Press 2016), and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley, where she studied and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, and New York University. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, the New Y

Nov 25, 2022 • 14:13

Dunya Mikhail — Eva Whose Shadow Is a Swan

Dunya Mikhail — Eva Whose Shadow Is a Swan

Some friendships are built on small encounters and last a lifetime. Two women — from across culture, location, and age — spend a lifetime in communication. Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi-American poet and writer. She is the author of Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2009), The Iraqi Nights (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2014), The Beekeeper (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2018), In Her Feminine Sign (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2019), and

Nov 21, 2022 • 14:58

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura — What’s Kept Alive

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura — What’s Kept Alive

At the hingepoint of change, a poet walks through the garden his late father planted. Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is a writer and visual artist. He is the author of two poetry collections: Ubasute (Slapering Hol Press 2021), which won the 2020 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition, and the full-length collection Common Grace (Beacon Press 2022). His honors include a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry, a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award in Literature, and nominations for the P

Nov 18, 2022 • 13:34

Kevin Goodan — We give…

Kevin Goodan — We give…

Firefighting pushes the body to breaking point; Kevin Goodan’s poem locates the “ash-dark art” of firefighting not just in the wilderness where the team worked, but in the muscles of the firefighters. Kevin Goodan was born in Montana and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation where his stepfather and brothers are tribal members. Goodan earned his BA from the University of Montana and worked as a firefighter for ten years with the U.S. Forest Service before receiving his MFA from University of

Nov 14, 2022 • 14:24

David Whyte — Leaving the Island

David Whyte — Leaving the Island

Sometimes leaving feels like you’re splitting yourself in two, but you leave anyway. What compels us? What holds us together even as we look back? David Whyte’s poem combines pain and promise as someone is both departing and venturing at the same time. David Whyte is the author of many books of poetry and prose. He grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United

Nov 11, 2022 • 15:29

Andrés N. Ordorica — Mis raíces

Andrés N. Ordorica — Mis raíces

What is the landscape that has most influenced you? When do you go there? In person? Andrés N. Ordorica goes in dreams. Andrés N. Ordorica is a queer Latinx writer based in Edinburgh. His writing attempts to map the journey of his diasporic experience and unpack what it means to be from ni de aquí, ni de allá. His writing has been published widely and he regularly features at festivals around the UK. He is the recipient of a Second Life grant through the Edwin Morgan Trust. In 2021, his fiction

Nov 7, 2022 • 14:28

Laura Villareal — My Worries Have Worries

Laura Villareal — My Worries Have Worries

If you were to use a metaphor for your worries, what metaphor would you turn to? Here, the worries have worry babies of their own. And they look back at the poet. What do they see? Laura Villareal is the author of Girl’s Guide to Leaving (University of Wisconsin Press 2022), The Cartography of Sleep (Nostrovia! Press 2018), and Poems to Carry in Your Pocket (L'Éphémère Review 2018). Villareal interviews writers for the series “Writers Talking about Anything But Writing” at F(r)iction.Find the tr

Nov 4, 2022 • 12:55

Stephanie Burt — Prayer for Werewolves

Stephanie Burt — Prayer for Werewolves

The search for authentic love is a powerful hunger in humans and, as Stephanie Burt shares, in werewolves. Stephanie Burt is a poet, literary critic, and professor with nine published books, including two critical books on poetry and three poetry collections. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include We Are Mermaids; Advice from the Lights; The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them;

Oct 31, 2022 • 13:06

Fiona Benson — Mama Cockroach, I Love You

Fiona Benson — Mama Cockroach, I Love You

Do you experience disgust at the sight of certain insects? Which ones? Fiona Benson teaches us how to see. Fiona Benson is the author of several poetry collections including Bright Travellers (Jonathan Cape 2014), Vertigo & Ghost (Jonathan Cape 2019), and Ephemeron (Jonathan Cape 2022). She is the winner of the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Bright Travellers and the Forward Prize for Vertigo & Ghost. In 2019, Fiona collaborated with sound artists Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for an 18-

Oct 28, 2022 • 15:51

Saddiq Dzukogi — Learning about Constellations

Saddiq Dzukogi — Learning about Constellations

A man whose baby daughter has died turns to stars, mythology, and imagination for solace. There, he encounters what might help, a little. Saddiq Dzukogi is a poet and professor of English at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), and winner of the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Dzukogi is completing a PhD in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to off

Oct 24, 2022 • 14:43

Adam Zagajewski — Transformation

Adam Zagajewski — Transformation

What do you do when what sustains you no longer sustains you? A poet tries everything he can to reconnect with his art. Adam Zagajewski was a Polish poet and novelist born at the end of World War II. English translations of his books of poetry include Mysticism for Beginners (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1999), Without End (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2003), Eternal Enemies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2009), and Asymmetry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019). Zagajewski was the recipient of a Guggenheim F

Oct 21, 2022 • 12:33

Carolina Ebeid — Reading Celan in a Subway Station

Carolina Ebeid — Reading Celan in a Subway Station

The sounds of a city can be overwhelming — but in the imagination of this poem, they are made into something new. Carolina Ebeid is a multimedia poet. Her first book, You Ask Me to Talk About the Interior, was published by Noemi Press as part of the Akrilica Series, and selected as one of ten best debuts of 2016 by Poets & Writers. Her work has been supported by the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University, Bread Loaf, CantoMundo, as well as a residency fellowship from the Lannan Foundat

Oct 17, 2022 • 14:42

Molly Twomey — The Drop Off

Molly Twomey — The Drop Off

Asking for help is a thing of bravery. A poet describes her journey towards that help. Molly Twomey is a poet and editor from Lismore, County Waterford in Ireland. Twomey graduated in 2019 with a Masters in Creative Writing from University College Cork. Her work has been featured in Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, The Irish Times, Mslexia, and The Stinging Fly, among other publications. Twomey is the host of the monthly poetry discussion “Just to Say,” sponsored by Jacar Press. He

Oct 14, 2022 • 14:54

Hinemoana Baker — if i had to sing

Hinemoana Baker — if i had to sing

In the aftermath of disaster, how do you sing a song to mark what’s gone, and praise what’s growing? Hinemoana Baker is a writer and musician living in Berlin, Germany. Baker descends from the Ngāi Tahu tribe in the South Island of New Zealand and from Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, and Te Āti Awa in the North Island. Baker is the author of several books of poetry including mātuhi | needle (Victoria University Press and Percival Press 2004), kōiwi kōiwi | bone bone (Victoria University Press 2010), a

Oct 10, 2022 • 14:25

Jennifer Huang — Departure

Jennifer Huang — Departure

What’s a moment when you grew up? When you realized the help you get might not be the help you want? Jennifer Huang is the author of Return Flight, which was awarded the 2021 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry from Milkweed Editions. Their poems have appeared in POETRY, The Rumpus, and Narrative Magazine, among other places. They have received recognition from the Academy of American Poets, Brooklyn Poets, and the North American Taiwan Studies Association. In 2020, Jennifer earned their MFA in Poetr

Oct 7, 2022 • 14:55

Gabeba Baderoon – The pen

Gabeba Baderoon – The pen

After her father’s death, a poet considers her relationship with loss. Gabeba Baderoon is an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and African Studies at Penn State University and is the co-founder of the African Feminist Initiative at the university. She is the author of several collections of poetry, including The Dream in the Next Body (Kwela Books 2005), A hundred silences (Kwela Books 2006), and most recently, The History of Intimacy (Kwela Books 2018). Find

Oct 3, 2022 • 12:13

Michael Kleber-Diggs — Gloria Mundi

Michael Kleber-Diggs — Gloria Mundi

Is there life after death? This poem says yes: where one life is part of a cycle of life that continues. Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, literary critic, and arts educator. His debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions 2021), won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, the 2022 Balcones Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. Since 2016, Michael has been an instructor with the Minnesota Prison Writing W

Sep 30, 2022 • 13:55

David Wagoner — Lost

David Wagoner — Lost

A person is lost, and in panic. A calm voice says strangely comforting things. David Wagoner is the author of 24 poetry collections and 10 novels. He is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes (1977 and 1983) and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1991). Wagoner’s final collection of poetry, After the Point of No Return, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2012.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer David Wagoner’s poem, and invite you to connect with Poetry Unbound t

Sep 26, 2022 • 12:49

Poetry Unbound — Season 6 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 6 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, September 26. Featured poets in this season include Rumi, Fiona Benson, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, and many more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through December 16.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

Sep 19, 2022 • 2:03

Yu Xiuhua — Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You

Yu Xiuhua — Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You

How far would you go for great love? And what distances would you cross? Yu Xiuhua is a poet from Hengdian, in Hubei, China. She became well known in 2014 with her online poem “Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You.” In 2015, her debut book sold fifteen thousand copies in one day. The New York Times named her one of the eleven most courageous women around the world in 2017.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Yu Xiuhua’s poem, and invite you to sign up here

Jun 3, 2022 • 14:33

Andy Jackson — The change room

Andy Jackson — The change room

When all eyes seem to lock on you, how do you cope with self-consciousness? How do you look back? Andy Jackson is a poet preoccupied with difference and embodiment. His first published book of poems, Among the Regulars, was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. Andy’s most recent poetry collection is Human Looking (Giramondo, 2021), shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry. As he notes on his website, "these autobiographical and biographical poems speak with

May 30, 2022 • 13:02

Tiana Clark — My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work

Tiana Clark — My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work

Life can feel exhausting sometimes: how do you find rest? Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Equilibrium (Bull City Press, 2016), selected by Afaa Michael Weaver for the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Tiana Clark’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest

May 27, 2022 • 16:59

Joshua Bennett — Owed to Your Father’s Gold Chain

Joshua Bennett — Owed to Your Father’s Gold Chain

Sometimes when your world changes, it seems like everything turns towards you, fresh, new, and curious. Joshua Bennett is the author of The Sobbing School—which was a National Poetry Series selection and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He is also the author of Being Property Once Myself, Owed, The Study of Human Life, and Spoken Word: A Cultural History, which is forthcoming from Knopf. He has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the Nation

May 23, 2022 • 14:27

Abigail Chabitnoy — If You’re Going to Look Like a Wolf They Have to Love You More Than They Fear You.

Abigail Chabitnoy — If You’re Going to Look Like a Wolf They Have to Love You More Than They Fear You.

How would you tell your own creation myth? Who — or what — would be in it? Abigail Chabitnoy is the author of How to Dress a Fish (Wesleyan 2019), winner of the 2020 Colorado Book Award for Poetry and shortlisted in the international category of the 2020 Griffin Prize for Poetry. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Witter Bynner Funded Native Poet Residency at Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, CO, and is a mentor for the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA in Creative Writing. She is a Koni

May 20, 2022 • 11:01

M. Soledad Caballero — Someday I Will Visit Hawk Mountain

M. Soledad Caballero — Someday I Will Visit Hawk Mountain

In the face of wonder, we can sometimes lose ourselves. M. Soledad Caballero is Professor of English and chair of the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Allegheny College. Her first collection, titled I Was a Bell, won the 2019 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award. Her scholarly work focuses on British Romanticism, travel writing, post-colonial literatures, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, and interdisciplinarity. She splits her time between Pittsburgh and Meadville, Pennsylvania.Find

May 16, 2022 • 15:26

Rafiq Kathwari — Mother Writes to President Eisenhower

Rafiq Kathwari — Mother Writes to President Eisenhower

Would you write a letter to a world leader? Do you think they’d listen? What would you say? Rafiq Kathwari is the first Kashmiri recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award. He obtained an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University and an MA in Political and Social Science from the New School University. Rafiq divides his time between New York City, Dublin, and Kashmir.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Rafiq Kathwari’s poem, and invite you to sign up here fo

May 13, 2022 • 15:08

Caroline Bird — Little Children

Caroline Bird — Little Children

Children’s demands can be high, and their standards can be exacting. It’s a good thing they’re loveable. Caroline Bird grew up in Leeds, the daughter of noted theater director and producer Jude Kelly. Bird’s first collection of poems, Looking Through Letterboxes (2002), was published when she was just 15. Her other collections of poetry include Trouble Came to the Turnip (2006); Watering Can (2009); The Hat-Stand Union (2013); In These Days of Prohibition (2017), which was shortlisted for both t

May 9, 2022 • 15:23

Marilyn Nelson — The Truceless Wars

Marilyn Nelson — The Truceless Wars

What do we achieve in our fighting? How can we turn to hope and our deepest nature? Marilyn Nelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of a school teacher and a U. S. serviceman, a member of the last graduating class of Tuskegee Airmen. She is the author or translator of more than 20 books and chapbooks for adults and children. A professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut, Marilyn was Poet Laureate of Connecticut, 2001– 2006, and founding director of Soul Mountain Retrea

May 6, 2022 • 14:22

Richard Blanco — Looking for The Gulf Motel

Richard Blanco — Looking for The Gulf Motel

Is something lost once it’s gone? How do we blend sadness with sweet memory? Richard Blanco practiced civil engineering for more than 20 years. He is now an associate professor of creative writing at his alma mater, Florida International University. His books of nonfiction and poetry include Looking for the Gulf Motel and, most recently, How to Love a Country.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Richard Blanco’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the late

May 2, 2022 • 17:53

Yusef Komunyakaa — Praising Dark Places

Yusef Komunyakaa — Praising Dark Places

Is the light a comfort and the night disturbing? Yusef Komunyakaa explores the life and brilliance of what’s in shadow and darkness.Yusef Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The son of a carpenter, Komunyakaa has said that he was first alerted to the power of language through his grandparents, who were church people: “the sound of the Old Testament informed the cadences of their speech,” Komunyakaa has stated. “It was my first introduction to poetry.” He has taught at numerous institutio

Apr 29, 2022 • 12:18

Hannah Emerson — Keep Yourself at the Beginning of the Beginning

Hannah Emerson — Keep Yourself at the Beginning of the Beginning

A poem inviting us to discover our brilliance and our nothingness. Both true. Both vital. Hannah Emerson is the author of The Kissing of Kissing. She is also the author of a chapbook, You Are Helping This Great Universe Explode. Emerson is a nonspeaking autistic writer whose work has appeared in BOMB Magazine, the Poetry Society of America, Literary Hub, and the Brooklyn Rail. She lives in Lafayette, New York.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Hannah Emerson’

Apr 25, 2022 • 14:13

Kyle Carrero Lopez — Ode to the Crop Top

Kyle Carrero Lopez — Ode to the Crop Top

A song of praise to the crop-top from a crop-top-wearing man who encounters comments in public and sings and swings. Kyle Carrero Lopez was born to Cuban parents in northern New Jersey. He is the author of the chapbook MUSCLE MEMORY, winner of the 2020 [PANK] Books Contest. He is also a founding member of LEGACY, a Brooklyn-based production collective by and for Black queer artists.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer Kyle Carrero Lopez’s poem, and invite you t

Apr 22, 2022 • 11:47

Divya Victor — First Petition

Divya Victor — First Petition

A seven-year poem: from the start of the process to bring a mother to live in the US to the time she walks through the gate. Divya Victor is the author of Curb (Nightboat Books, winner of PEN America Open Book Award and the Kinglsey Tufts Poetry Award); Kith (Fence Books/ Book*hug); Scheingleichheit: Drei Essays (Merve Verlag); Natural Subjects (Trembling Pillow), Unsub (Insert Blanc), Things To Do With Your Mouth (Les Figues). She is currently an Associate Professor of English at Michigan State

Apr 18, 2022 • 14:56

Denise Low — Walking with My Delaware Grandfather

Denise Low — Walking with My Delaware Grandfather

We carry memory in our body: memories of our own selves, but memories of our forebears, too — talking with them as we walk, learning from them as they inquire. Denise Low is the former Kansas Poet Laureate, and an award-winning author of 30 books of prose and poetry. She blogs, reviews, and co-publishes Mammoth Publications, which specializes in Indigenous American authors. Recent poetry books are A Casino Bestiary and Mélange Block, poetry based on geologic structures and mixed-blood experience

Apr 15, 2022 • 11:49

Rita Dove — Eurydice, Turning

Rita Dove — Eurydice, Turning

How do you speak with your mother when she’s forgotten who you are? By turning to myth, it seems, and by holding gentleness with bewilderment, love with patience. Rita Dove lets us overhear a phone call, and in this listening, we hear lifetimes unfold.Rita Dove was U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993–1995 and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004–2006. In 1987 she received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book Thomas and Beulah. She is currently Commonwealth Professor of English at

Apr 11, 2022 • 14:58

Poetry Unbound — Season 5 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 5 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, April 11. Featured poets in this season include Rita Dove, Joshua Bennett, Tiana Clark, Yu Xiuhua, and many more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through June 3.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

Apr 4, 2022 • 1:56

BONUS: An Invitation from Pádraig and Krista

BONUS: An Invitation from Pádraig and Krista

While preparing for the next season of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama sat down with Krista Tippett for a conversation about the power of poetry to find us at the exact moment we need it. Pádraig and Krista also invite listeners to share their experience of Poetry Unbound through our survey.You can also sign up for the latest updates from Poetry Unbound.

Mar 28, 2022 • 16:29

Danez Smith — i’m going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense

Danez Smith — i’m going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense

In a poem brimming with love and nostalgia for winter, a poet leaves California to return to their Minnesotan homeplace, a place where winter makes sense, where sadness makes sense, where the isolation that’s at the heart of humanity can be met with a landscape that can contain it. Here, solitude is looked at with wisdom and necessity. A season can deepen the human experience. Joy finds new expressions.Danez Smith is a Black, queer, HIV-positive writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. The

Dec 17, 2021 • 14:12

Craig Santos Perez — Rings of Fire

Craig Santos Perez — Rings of Fire

What if the planet were as loved as a child? Taking the story of his daughter’s fever when she was one, Craig Santos Perez reflects on everything he did — and would have done — for his daughter’s health. Her temperature rose and his love and response did, too. The temperature of the world rises, and he wonders who loves the earth enough to respond, and who doesn’t.Craig Santos Peres is an indigenous Chamoru (Chamorro) from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam). He is a poet, scholar, editor, publi

Dec 13, 2021 • 14:35

Alberto Ríos — December Morning in the Desert

Alberto Ríos — December Morning in the Desert

Standing at the edge of a desert, surveying the stars on a December morning, the speaker in this poem observes the everything of everything. He is so small; the universe is so loud and so silent. Thinking about the enormity of all this, he thinks of the smallness of the hearts of birds, wasps, moths, bats, and dragonflies — all flying things around him, suspended in space, like the earth is suspended in space. His own heart, too, echoes the universe’s noise.Alberto Ríos is Arizona’s inaugural po

Dec 10, 2021 • 15:57

Yehoshua November — 2AM, and the Rabbinical Students Stand in their Bathrobes

Yehoshua November — 2AM, and the Rabbinical Students Stand in their Bathrobes

Yeshiva students stand around in the middle of the night while firemen find the cause of the alarm. It’s a student — distressed by distressing news at home. The teachers cancel classes for the morning after. A poem can describe one thing, but point to another, and beyond the drama of this 2 a.m. scene is a question about whether the presence of God can dwell among those plagued by sadness, or whether God only dwells there.Yehoshua November is the author of two books of poetry, God's Optimism (wi

Dec 6, 2021 • 15:27

Aria Aber — The Only Cab Service of Farmington, Maine

Aria Aber — The Only Cab Service of Farmington, Maine

In a taxi, a poet speaks to the driver. It’s the only taxi in town. He mentions travel, mentions Afghanistan, that he was there with the forces. She’s from Afghanistan and the conversation continues — awkward; complicated; him trying to say good things, but failing; her feeling like she should rescue him, but deciding not to. War is upended by the point of view of a person in whose country the war was fought. Underneath the action of the poem is a question about whether conversation is possible,

Dec 3, 2021 • 18:25

Donika Kelly — In the Chapel of St. Mary’s

Donika Kelly — In the Chapel of St. Mary’s

Why do empty places sometimes lend themselves to reflection or contemplation? In this poem, a poet — describing herself as a nonbeliever — goes into a chapel to sit. In the corner there are some girls talking, there are stained glass windows, and the poet is at once at home in herself and far from the woman she loves. The high emptiness of the church seems to give a resting place for the emptiness she’s feeling. While there’s no resolution, the larger empty space offers a holding place for the p

Nov 29, 2021 • 14:57

Linda Hogan — Song for the Turtles of the Gulf

Linda Hogan — Song for the Turtles of the Gulf

In a poem called a “Song,” Linda Hogan crafts a song for turtles and other creatures killed through oil spills in the gulf. At once a praise song for the beauty of the sea, the earth, and its animals, this song also functions as a lament: for the history erased by industrial practices; for the lack of respect and love for living breathing other-than-human lives; for plastic and the plastic containers used to hold the body of a dead sea turtle. The poem veers towards a prayer, too, begging forgiv

Nov 26, 2021 • 15:48

Lory Bedikian — On the Way to Oshagan

Lory Bedikian — On the Way to Oshagan

The exile’s return to the motherland is the theme around which Lory Bedikian’s poem “On the Way to Oshagan” circles. She, a proud Armenian, stops by a roadside stall on a trip to her home country; and is immediately understood as an Amerigatzi, even though she’s speaking Armenian, not English. The poem could end with this awkward exchange, but instead pushes through, and a connection occurs between the returned-departed and the never-departed: there’s a gift, an invitation, and a bridge across e

Nov 22, 2021 • 17:36

Nico Amador — Flower Wars

Nico Amador — Flower Wars

Telling some of the story of the Flower Wars of the Aztec era, Nico Amador’s poem pits wars against creation. In a poem that begins by recalling creation myths from multiple cultures, he then poses questions about why: Why would people sacrifice their own people to keep a god happy? Why would any god benefit from people’s deaths? Evoking how the Flower Wars contributed to the Aztec downfall, this poem also wonders about wars today: Who benefits from a war? Who decides who should die? Why?Nico Am

Nov 19, 2021 • 12:24

Darrel Alejandro Holnes — Amending Wall

Darrel Alejandro Holnes — Amending Wall

In a poem that directly addresses Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,” Darrel Alejandro Holnes asks questions: who gets to build walls, or guard borders?. Do good fences really make good neighbors? Taking a poem that’s been part of an American imagination both of poetry and of citizenship, Darrel offers a critique that places contemporary migrant experiences at the center, challenging contemporary ideas of territory, conquest, and expansion.Darrel Alejandro Holnes is the author of Stepmotherland & Mig

Nov 15, 2021 • 17:08

Elizabeth Bishop — Sestina

Elizabeth Bishop — Sestina

This sestina poem considers a scene from Elizabeth Bishop’s own childhood through the sounds of six repeating words: house, grandmother, child, stove, almanac, tears. These six words repeat — in different order — as the final words of the poem’s lines, creating a kind of contemplation on how those repeated words informed her childhood: a childhood marked by loss, displacement, and a kind grandmother. “Time to plant tears” the poem states, in one of its most famous lines, as if the scene recalled

Nov 12, 2021 • 15:33

Major Jackson — Blunts

Major Jackson — Blunts

Some friends gather and smoke at a doorway in a city. There’s Malik, and Johnny Cash, and Lefty, and Jësus. And the poet, Major Jackson. They’ve known each other their whole lives, and they wonder who they’ll turn out to be. In a moment of disclosure, Major tells his friends he wants to be a poet, astonishing them, and himself too it seems. In friendship and ribbing, in desire and teasing, this poem wonders who a person is, and what it means to hope.Major Jackson is the author of five books of p

Nov 8, 2021 • 16:05

Andrés Cerpa — Seasonal without Spring: Autumn

Andrés Cerpa — Seasonal without Spring: Autumn

Andrés Cerpa recollects how his father’s early dementia was an increasing influence on his early years. As he grew, his father diminished. The burden of this was heavy on him — he stayed awake listening for information, and fell asleep at school. Older now, he looks at his younger self with tenderness and sadness. This poem gives attention to the experience of the growing presence of absence, and the ways that affects memory, family, and perspective.Andrés Cerpa is the author of Bicycle in a Ran

Nov 5, 2021 • 16:38

Kaveh Akbar — How Prayer Works

Kaveh Akbar — How Prayer Works

A narrative prose poem about two brothers — one on a visit home from college — who are turning to face east in their small shared room. With seven years between them, one is a young man and the other, the poet, is nearing his teens. Their prayer is interrupted by a sudden surprising noise, and the sound of this makes them fall over each other in laughing. Their bodies, their joy, their uncontrollable delight is the prayer of their own lives.Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet and scholar. He

Nov 1, 2021 • 15:15

Gail McConnell — Worm

Gail McConnell — Worm

In a poem that addresses a worm directly as “you,” Gail McConnell considers how these tube-shaped beings live: ingesting the earth, aerating it, digesting it, making its nourishment accessible for all kinds of growth. The worm burrows, knows dead things, and knows underground ways. Tiny and segmented though a worm is, nonetheless it senses that “all there is // can be gone through.” The poem’s close attention to the worm’s tactics of survival seems to indicate that much could be learned from its

Oct 29, 2021 • 14:16

Romeo Oriogun — Pink Club

Romeo Oriogun — Pink Club

A club is a place for dancing, for abandon, for music, and for meeting strangers. Romeo Oriogun recalls a gay club that was for all those things, but also for escape. Living in a place where queer lives were under threat, he offers a praise song for this cathedral of safety and movement. Outside the world is silent, but inside the bar, people carry stories of their own desire, of their families, of their hopes; both for the future and the present.Romeo Oriogun is a Nigerian poet, essayist, and a

Oct 25, 2021 • 16:44

Kathleen Flenniken — Married Love

Kathleen Flenniken — Married Love

In a poem of extraordinary poise, Kathleen Flenniken recounts her parents’ lively parties, their rich social life, their summer trips, and their friendships: friendships that were not always straightforward. The poem closes with an observation of a moment of sexual tension between her mother and another man. Kathleen’s right there, but feels like she’s barely noticed. Everyone goes to bed alone, and we are left with the poet and her awareness of what lay underneath the surface.Kathleen Flenniken

Oct 22, 2021 • 16:40

Imtiaz Dharker — Don’t Miss Out! Book Right Now for the Journey of a Lifetime!

Imtiaz Dharker — Don’t Miss Out! Book Right Now for the Journey of a Lifetime!

A love poem with a playful title that sounds like an ad from a travel agent unfolds into a poem about choosing to stay at home. Imtiaz Dharker’s husband died in the years between this poem’s setting and its publishing. The poem, too, moves from long lines across the page into shorter and shorter lines. In sensuality, locality, intimacy, and simplicity, this poem is all about the man she loved, and moves from noise to focus: “You Are / Here” its final lines assert.Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist

Oct 18, 2021 • 11:39

BONUS: A Conversation with No’u Revilla

BONUS: A Conversation with No’u Revilla

While preparing for this week’s episode of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama began an email correspondence with the poet, No‘u Revilla. The exchange was so rich that Pádraig asked No‘u to join him in conversation. Together they talk about poetry, queerness and how Hawaiian language, culture, and history show up in her poetry.No‘u Revilla (she/her) is an ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) queer poet and educator. Born and raised with the Līlīlehua rain of Waiʻehu on the island of Maui, she currently live

Oct 15, 2021 • 33:50

No’u Revilla — Smoke Screen

No’u Revilla — Smoke Screen

The life of a sugar worker is the center of this poem: a worker whose body and person bear the imprint of that industry, with its demands and smoke and exhaustion. The worker in question is the poet’s father, and No’u Revilla brings us into a consideration of how he takes pride in work that depleted him, how he needed to find ways to recover from work that exhausted him, how in his body he carries the story of Hawaii and its indigenous people.No‘u Revilla (she/her) is an ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian)

Oct 15, 2021 • 18:00

Jake Skeets — Daybreak

Jake Skeets — Daybreak

In a slight change to the normal format, host Pádraig Ó Tuama speaks with the poet Jake Skeets who reads his poem “Daybreak,” a poem combining Diné language with English, a poem rich with observation: of land, of growth, of memory, of place. Land is not just a tool to use for food, nor is it a blank space for human projection. In this poem, Jake Skeets reflects on an ethical engagement with land: an engagement that sees land as itself, not just for its uses.Jake Skeets is the author of Eyes Bott

Oct 11, 2021 • 17:53

Tishani Doshi — Species

Tishani Doshi — Species

In a fantastical poem about the future, Tishani Doshi explores the present. She imagines a future where agriculture, forestry, and cultivation are things of the past, distant memories learned by humans existing on other planets, or on intergalactic spaceships. That distant future is reflecting on how it should have learned from the grass, abundant, generous, sustainable. This poem of dystopian magic-realism is more real than magic, offering advice on thriving, while noting the knife-edge of self

Oct 8, 2021 • 15:26

Jason Allen-Paisant — Right now I’m Standing

Jason Allen-Paisant — Right now I’m Standing

In a poem considering trees, Jason Allen-Paisant opens up many associations with trees: in a woodland, there’s a dead tree, from which new forms of life are finding sustenance. He, a Black man in the woods, is aware of people looking suspiciously at him. The poem reflects on how trees were used for building the ships of enslavers, who considered countries and people their property. In light of this, he shares a nature poem about all the things that nature holds.Jason Allen-Paisant is a Jamaican

Oct 4, 2021 • 16:08

Jacob Shores-Argüello — Make Believe

Jacob Shores-Argüello — Make Believe

In a short poem recalling a childhood response to grief, Jacob Shores-Argüello brings us into the fantasy world of a child: leaving an ill adult in a hospital bed, he and his cousin take to the mountains, turn magically into bears, and begin tearing holes in the earth for rest while the world continues below. Are they escaping? Or playing with rage? This extraordinary poem is a thing of wonder and survival.Jacob Shores-Argüello is a Costa Rican American poet and prose writer. He is the author of

Oct 1, 2021 • 16:21

Margaret Atwood — All Bread

Margaret Atwood — All Bread

In a poem of four stanzas, Margaret Atwood traces bread from its growth in bone-nurtured soil, to the warm ovens of baking, to the table, to the mouth of one person, then the hands of someone breaking bread for many. From the cow-dung in the earth to the salt of the hands of the person kneading the bread, this poem is like a meditation on the material reality of what nurtures the body and what nurtures the soul, and is a secular examination of what breaking bread might mean.Margaret Atwood is th

Sep 27, 2021 • 15:22

Poetry Unbound — Season 4 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 4 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, September 27. Featured poets in this season include Margaret Atwood, Kaveh Akbar, Danez Smith, Tishani Doshi, and many more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through December 17.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

Sep 20, 2021 • 1:50

Katie Manning — What to Expect

Katie Manning — What to Expect

This poem stretches the word ‘expect’ into dozens of formulations. Proceeding alphabetically  through the index of the book, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” Katie Manning creates an exhausting list of all the expectations created during pregnancy,about rejecting some pressures and embracing others; surviving some, being knocked over by others. The humor and pace of this poem places insight alongside insidiousness.Katie Manning is the founding editor-in-chief of Whale Road Review and a pr

Jun 18, 2021 • 19:58

Ilya Kaminsky — We Lived Happily during the War

Ilya Kaminsky — We Lived Happily during the War

The opening poem to Ilya Kaminsky’s masterpiece, “Deaf Republic,” is written in the voice of someone who is confessing their complacency during a time of trial. There’s a war going on, but it doesn’t affect the person speaking, so they don’t get involved. Instead they stayed outside and caught the sun. They lived happily during the war, and are now saying (forgive us). This poem leaves us wondering what it would mean to make such a confession, to ask for forgiveness, and whether it’d do any good

Jun 14, 2021 • 16:36

BONUS: A Conversation with Margaret Noodin

BONUS: A Conversation with Margaret Noodin

After Margaret Noodin recited her poem, “Gimaazinibii'amoon” / “A Message to You,” for this week’s Poetry Unbound episode, she spoke with host, Pádraig Ó Tuama, about the story behind that poem as well as the Anishinaabemowin language, translation, and the importance of language preservation.Margaret Noodin is a poet and the author of Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature, Weweni: Poems in Anishinaabemowin and English, and What the Chickadee Knows. She teaches Ame

Jun 11, 2021 • 24:13

Margaret Noodin — Gimaazinibii’amoon (A Message to You)

Margaret Noodin — Gimaazinibii’amoon (A Message to You)

A special bilingual poem in Anishinaabemowin and English by Margaret Noodin, a linguist who writes primarily in Anishinaabemowin. This poem of eight lines is filled with location —  the sweet sea, the curved shoreline — and gathers melancholy into its song. And it is a song — sung in both languages for us by Margaret Noodin herself.Margaret Noodin is a poet and the author of Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature, Weweni: Poems in Anishinaabemowin and English, and

Jun 11, 2021 • 16:02

Martín Espada — After the Goose that Rose Like the God of Geese

Martín Espada — After the Goose that Rose Like the God of Geese

Bereavement brings all kinds of pressures. This poem by Martín Espada starts off with a grief-to-do-list: a phone call, a flight, a blizzard, cremations, shipments of ashes, memorial services. After all of this — in a first stanza that builds in intensity — he needs to be reconnected with something tangible. He goes to feed birds at the park, and among the birds is a goose, like a god of the geese, who shrieks with all the emotion stored in him. This goose is like a priest of grief for Martín Es

Jun 7, 2021 • 16:24

Roshni Goyate — Coconut Oil

Roshni Goyate — Coconut Oil

In many ways this poem can be analyzed by how it ends: by examining the contents of organic shops. Roshni Goyate looks at one such item — coconut oil for hair —  and considers its long line of history in her British-Indian family. As a child, she was shamed by classmates for using coconut oil in her hair, but now it’s double the price in shops. In a cruel irony, her race and culture were both hypervisible to those who taunted her and rendered invisible by those same people who invalidated her pr

Jun 4, 2021 • 16:41

b: william bearhart — When I Was in Las Vegas and Saw a Warhol Painting of Geronimo

b: william bearhart — When I Was in Las Vegas and Saw a Warhol Painting of Geronimo

When looking at Andy Warhol’s painting of Geronimo —  a leader and medicine man of the Bedonkohe band of the Apache tribe —  b: william bearheart wonders who the Geronimo of the painting is looking back at, and who is looking at it. In many ways, this poem reflects on how this piece of art depicting an Indigenous American was painted by a White person for White people. However, the poet finds connections — of pain, occupation and experience — between himself and Geronimo; and the poem challenges

May 31, 2021 • 14:27

Esteban Rodríguez — 22 La Bota

Esteban Rodríguez — 22 La Bota

A poet considers his father, and, particularly, his father’s boots. These boots could be a hammer, a prop, a weapon. But Esteban Rodríguez also remembers how his father — a sleepwalker — would walk outside at night in his underwear, wielding his boots, slapping them against each other in a kind of protective ritual. What spirits was his father protecting them from? What was he asserting about land and place, by standing guard, even in his dreams?Esteban Rodríguez is the author of five poetry col

May 28, 2021 • 16:00

Reginald Dwayne Betts — Essay on Reentry

Reginald Dwayne Betts — Essay on Reentry

This ‘Essay on Reentry’ charts life after prison: and the way that others keep your sentence alive even when you’re wishing to just get on with your own life. It’s about secrets and choice and disclosure. And in the midst of all this, there is also love between a son and his dad, a son like a “straggling angel, / lost from his pack finding a way to fulfill his / duty.”Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of a memoir and three books of poetry. His memoir, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learnin

May 24, 2021 • 17:27

Li-Young Lee — From Blossoms

Li-Young Lee — From Blossoms

A poem about blossoms that is not only about blossoms. Li-Young Lee remembers a glorious day when he and a companion bought peaches; peaches that had come from blossoms. And in the taste of peaches, the brown paper bag they came in, sold by a boy at a bend in a road, the poem tells us — again and again — that sweetness, yearning and generosity is possible, on all kinds of days.Li-Young Lee is the author of five critically acclaimed books of poetry, most recently The Undressing. His earlier books

May 21, 2021 • 15:00

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo — Battlegrounds

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo — Battlegrounds

This poem takes place on battlegrounds. The poet — Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo — is at Gettysburg National Military Park, where she wanders around the cemetery searching for the graves of Mexican soldiers. Instead she finds KKK books on display in the park’s visitors gift shop. So much of this poem is about unearthing, and making offerings of devotion and life: the poet makes offerings to her ancestors, but she also makes offerings of water bottles to migrants at border crossings.Xochitl-Julisa Berme

May 17, 2021 • 15:33

Matthew Olzmann — Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem

Matthew Olzmann — Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem

In this love poem, Matthew Olzmann writes about his wife — the poet Vievee Francis whose poem for Matthew was featured in the previous episode — and the reasons why their marriage might work: her courage, her tenacity, her quirks, her multiplicities. He recounts instances of her generosity and lands on a story of how, when she was down to her “last damn dime,” she  still bought a bottle of Mountain Dew for him, because she knew he loved it. This is a cinematic and musical poem, making exquisite

May 14, 2021 • 16:31

Vievee Francis — How Delicious to Say It

Vievee Francis — How Delicious to Say It

Building up in lists of delicious words — uvular, hibiscus, loquacious, shuttlecock, dollop, chipotles and chocolate — this poem uses sensual language to make a simple point. Vievee Francis moves past these words and all their suggestions by telling us that her favorite word is the name of her husband — the poet Matthew Olzmann — and how she loves it when he says her name. Love, like this poem, can rejoice in many things, and take its own time to unfold its own delight.Vievee Francis is the auth

May 10, 2021 • 15:18

Eavan Boland — Eviction

Eavan Boland — Eviction

This poem offers critique into a moment of Irish history when Ireland, through independence, was rising to the light. But Irish women were facing lives as constricted in independence as under empire. Decades later, Eavan Boland reads a newspaper of her grandmother’s near-eviction and is consumed both by rage and critique of how history concerns itself with the politics of men, not women. This poem is a corrective, turning the gaze on historians, as well as history.Eavan Boland was an Irish poet,

May 7, 2021 • 15:37

Jónína Kirton — Reconciliation

Jónína Kirton — Reconciliation

This poem starts off by describing how split the poet — Jónína Kirton — feels between two identities: having both Métis and Icelandic heritage. The poem imagines a bridge between these two places and cultures, and arrives, in the second stanza, at the image of a “living root bridge.”It is in this image that the poem anchors itself: a bridge that is part of the earth, a bridge that lives, that is not torn, but alive and growing. This metaphor speaks to what is possible in a life, and helps Jónína

May 3, 2021 • 13:43

Lorna Goodison — Reporting Back to Queen Isabella

Lorna Goodison — Reporting Back to Queen Isabella

In Lorna Goodison’s imagined scene, Spain’s Queen Isabella receives the ‘report’ of the discovery of Xamaica from Christopher Columbus, an Italian man who was financed by the Spanish court to ransack foreign lands. Lorna Goodison is the former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, and in this tight, terse poem, she’s the explorer: exploring practices of colonization, finance, power and administration. With pomp and ceremony she describes a scene that was as vacuous as it was dangerous.Lorna Goodison is one

Apr 30, 2021 • 12:47

Hanif Abdurraqib — When We Were 13, Jeff’s Father Left The Needle Down On A Journey Record Before Leaving The House One Morning And Never Coming Back

Hanif Abdurraqib — When We Were 13, Jeff’s Father Left The Needle Down On A Journey Record Before Leaving The House One Morning And Never Coming Back

Music works a kind of poetry in us. This poem is like a mix-tape of Hanif Abdurraqib’s memories, complete with a soundtrack that’s as roaring as it is tender. An adult now, he remembers moments of grief and growth in the adults of his childhood, and how Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” opens up more than just those memories. In a poem that you can almost dance along with, Hanif  wraps other people’s griefs — and his own — into language that uplifts.Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cult

Apr 26, 2021 • 16:39

Poetry Unbound — Season 3 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 3 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, April 26. Featured poets in this season include Hanif Abdurraqib, Vievee Francis, Ilya Kaminsky, Li-Young Lee, and Eavan Boland. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through June 18.Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

Apr 19, 2021 • 2:10

Christian Wiman — All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs

Christian Wiman — All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs

Who are the friends that, despite different paths chosen, have remained steadfast in your life?In this poem Christian Wiman recalls the changing beliefs of his friends; this one has a new diet, this one has a new relationship, this one is slipping away, this one is verdant. While doing so, he holds the love for his “beautiful, credible friends” as the thing to hold on to while the planet turns faster.Christian Wiman is the author of numerous works of poetry and prose, including He Held Radical L

Dec 18, 2020 • 11:20

Carlos Andrés Gómez — Father

Carlos Andrés Gómez — Father

How has becoming a parent — or being a caregiver — changed you? This is a poem of two halves. In the first half, a man questions God — how could a loving Father allow suffering to happen? And in the second half, the man becomes a father himself, filled with fear and love. His questions about fatherhood change; he’s no longer wondering about the beyond, he’s wondering about the right now.Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet from New York City. “Father” appears in his debut full-length

Dec 14, 2020 • 17:16

Ellen Bass — Bone of My Bone and Flesh of My Flesh

Ellen Bass — Bone of My Bone and Flesh of My Flesh

What pet names have you been called? What are the circumstances and stories behind these pet names?In this poem, a woman considers the pet names to give her female partner; “My beloved” isn’t very convenient when you’re dropping off dry cleaning. And what word to use when speaking of how she annoys you? Written in the time before same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S., the humor of this poem highlights how policy can steal language from the everyday.Ellen Bass is chancellor of the Academy o

Dec 11, 2020 • 15:49

R.A. Villanueva — Life Drawing

R.A. Villanueva — Life Drawing

Who do you trust with your body? In this poem, a man writes about his wife’s life-drawing class. She’s been sketching a naked male model for weeks, and the poet worries, comparing himself, trying to figure out how he feels. This poem moves from anxiety to request to consent to reciprocality. His self-consciousness about sharing his body with someone is transformed into trust and vulnerability.R.A. Villanueva is the author of Reliquaria, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. His ho

Dec 7, 2020 • 14:30

Zaffar Kunial — The Word

Zaffar Kunial — The Word

Have you ever projected your own awkwardness onto someone else? How did you do it? And how would you address them now? This poem recalls how, as a young adult, Zaffar Kunial judged his immigrant father’s way of speaking English. A poem that’s filled with adolescence as with awkward parental relationships, it also speaks of his yearning to fit in, to enjoy his own life. Shame features in this poem — the younger poet had been ashamed of his father’s grammar, but now, with time, he seems ashamed to

Dec 4, 2020 • 11:32

Dilruba Ahmed — Phase One

Dilruba Ahmed — Phase One

What do you find hard to forgive in yourself? What might help? In this poem, the poet makes a list of all the things she holds against herself: opening fridge doors, fantasies, wilted seedlings, unkempt plants, lost bags, feeling awkward, treating someone poorly. Dilruba Ahmed repeats the line “I forgive you” over and over, like a litany, in a hope to deepen what it means to be in the world, and be a person of love.Dilruba Ahmed – is the author of the collection Bring Now the Angels and poems fe

Nov 30, 2020 • 15:57

Layli Long Soldier — WHEREAS my eyes land on the shoreline

Layli Long Soldier — WHEREAS my eyes land on the shoreline

When you feel like crying, do you cry? Or do you stifle it? Why? The U.S. Congress 2009 “Joint resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes” stated “Whereas the arrival of Europeans in North America opened a new chapter in the history of Native Peoples.” Layli Long Soldier wrote poems in response to this resolution and its non-consultative process. In this poem, she speaks of the need to let griefs

Nov 27, 2020 • 17:03

Chen Chen — I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party

Chen Chen — I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party

In this poem, a son writes to his parents and invites them to a meal, letting them know that his boyfriend will also be there. He gives instruction to his parents on how they should behave, parenting his parents. In all this family tension, the boyfriend’s question “What’s in that recipe again?” offers calm, and builds lines of connection that had otherwise seemed unlikely.Chen Chen – is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the Natio

Nov 23, 2020 • 18:48

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill — Ceist na Teangan (The Language Issue)

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill — Ceist na Teangan (The Language Issue)

Are there languages that once were spoken in your family that are not anymore? What caused those changes? This poem considers the plight of a language, how it — like the child Moses in the biblical story of the Exodus — is vulnerable, and might be in need of someone like the Pharaoh’s daughter to nurture it. In considering the precarious situation of many lesser-spoken languages, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill casts a story of language preservation through the archetype of women helping women in ancient te

Nov 20, 2020 • 12:43

Aracelis Girmay — Consider the Hands that Write this Letter

Aracelis Girmay — Consider the Hands that Write this Letter

When you’re writing by hand, where is your other hand? What story is the space between your two hands — your dominant hand and non-dominant hand — telling?This poem considers the posture of the body when writing: writing a letter, writing a note, writing a poem. The poet pays attention to hands — when dancing, when speaking from the heart, in prayer. This poem invites the listener to slow down, to listen to the stories the body is telling by how it's held in small moments.   Aracelis Girmay is o

Nov 16, 2020 • 12:39

Tayi Tibble — Our Nan Lets Us Smoke Inside

Tayi Tibble — Our Nan Lets Us Smoke Inside

Who is in your chosen family? This poem considers the lines of loyalty in families and how particular memories, like a grandmother keeping “wishbones from chicken carcasses / in an empty margarine container on top of the fridge,” can be a portal to love. The nan in this poem is a character of generosity and permission, and we imagine her through stories of trips, funerals, and visits.Tayi Tibble – (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui/Ngāti Porou) is a writer and poet who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2017

Nov 13, 2020 • 13:40

Paul Tran — The Cave

Paul Tran — The Cave

What have you had to explore on your own? What, or who, helped? This poem explores the archetype of the cave — a cave that calls, a cave that contains secrets and perhaps even information. “Someone standing at the mouth had / the idea to enter. To go further / than light or language could / go.” The poem manages — at once — to convey the bravery of exploration and the solitude and possibility that can accompany such journeys.Paul Tran – is the recipient of a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenb

Nov 10, 2020 • 11:44

Philip Metres — One Tree

Philip Metres — One Tree

What do you notice about how you behave in times of conflict? Do you tend toward avoidance? Or compromise? Or collaboration? Or competition? Or accommodation?This poem describes a conflict between neighbors: a tree hangs over a fence. The owners love this tree; their neighbors don’t. Somebody responds directly, somebody else avoids, a chainsaw appears. Suddenly this conflict becomes a parable for all conflicts, illustrating how deep they can go and how often they cannot be resolved with a questi

Nov 6, 2020 • 15:38

Roger Robinson — A Portable Paradise

Roger Robinson — A Portable Paradise

How do you hold onto hope? And who helped you find it? This poem is about holding onto paradise in the midst of an environment that seeks to steal or quash it. Roger Robinson praises his grandmother who told him to “carry it always / on my person, concealed.” His deft language helps us understand that paradise is a quality of life; and, even deeper than that, paradise is your life.Roger Robinson is a writer and performer who lives between London and Trinidad. His first full poetry collection, Th

Nov 2, 2020 • 11:51

Seán Hewitt — Suibhne is wounded, and confesses

Seán Hewitt — Suibhne is wounded, and confesses

In times of isolation, what stories have you turned to for comfort?  This poem is an exploration of isolation as seen through the mythical Irish character, Suibhne. Suibhne was cursed and lived a life on the move, a transitory isolation. In the midst of the sadness at all he’s missed, he also sees beauty — and he holds both sadness and appreciation together.Seán Hewitt was born in 1990 and studied English at the University of Cambridge. He is a fiction reviewer for The Irish Times and a Leverhul

Oct 30, 2020 • 13:25

Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi — Say My Name

Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi — Say My Name

What is the story of your name? In this poem, the poet calls on place, ancestors, and history to bear witness to the dignity of their name. They recall how their ancestors “acknowledged my roots grew in two / places” and how their name “is the definition of resilience.” With Black/Indigenous, Pasifika, and West Asian heritage, the poet speaks to those who mispronounce their name: “Say it right or don’t say it at all / for I am Meleika.”Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi is a Black/Indigenous, Pasifika, and W

Oct 26, 2020 • 14:02

Lucille Clifton — song at midnight

Lucille Clifton — song at midnight

In strength and defiance, Lucille Clifton celebrates her Black body and her survival. When have you said or heard words like this? Calling herself “both nonwhite and woman,” Lucille Clifton glories in her shape and fact of her life in these two poems. She invites the reader to witness everything she's lived through, and to celebrate the flourishing life that she has created in spite of everything that has tried to kill her.Lucille Clifton was the author of several books of poetry including Bless

Oct 23, 2020 • 12:57

Chris Abani — The New Religion

Chris Abani — The New Religion

How do you speak of — and to — your body? This is a poem dedicated to the body. “The body is a nation I have never known,” Chris Abani writes. Throughout the 21 lines of this work, he describes lungs, skin, bone, touch, smells, sweat, armpits and hunger. For all the embodiedness of the poem, there is disembodiedness too: the poem continues to question how to truly be in your own body.Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and Eng

Oct 19, 2020 • 12:13

Molly McCully Brown — Transubstantiation

Molly McCully Brown — Transubstantiation

Are there places you've lived or visited that others would disregard? What do you see in them that others might miss?" This poem takes place at night, describing a scene from a town on the edge of a city. The poet feels at home in a “nowhere” town, with cattle pacing in the fields, boarded houses, and rowdy filling stations. This is a place that through the eyes of some would be considered a “shit town,” but to the poet it is home.Molly McCully Brown is the author of The Virginia State Colony Fo

Oct 16, 2020 • 12:30

Natalie Diaz — Of Course She Looked Back

Natalie Diaz — Of Course She Looked Back

Is there a character (from history, politics, or literature) whose story you want to tell from a new perspective? This poem is told from the point of view of “Lot’s wife,” a biblical character who was turned into salt because she looked back to see the burning of Sodom, her home city. The poet shows us what Lot’s wife sees: towers swaying, guitars popping, dogs weeping and roosters howling. By mixing the modern with the everlasting, Lot’s wife is humanized and justified.Natalie Diaz is Mojave an

Oct 12, 2020 • 15:20

Natasha Trethewey — Miscegenation

Natasha Trethewey — Miscegenation

Were you born during a time when laws were different? What impact did those laws have on you? In this poem, Natasha Trethewey recalls the story of how her parents crossed state lines to wed because Mississippi forbade interracial marriage at the time. It is written in the form of a ghazal, with birth and belonging, names and death coming together.Natasha Trethewey served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2012-2014. She is the author of a memoir, Memorial Drive, and five collections of poetry including

Oct 9, 2020 • 10:33

James Wright — A Blessing

James Wright — A Blessing

Is there a moment of beauty you can recall that’s like a blessing for you?This poem takes place at twilight in a field just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, where the poet and a friend encounter two ponies who come “gladly out of the willows / To welcome my friend and me.”  James Wright was a fellow of the Academy of American Poets and taught at he University of Minnesota, Macalester College, and New York City's Hunter College. He also served in the U.S. Army, and was stationed in Japan

Oct 5, 2020 • 12:13

Gregory Pardlo — Wishing Well

Gregory Pardlo — Wishing Well

What’s a chance encounter in a city that’s never left you? In this poem the speaker is asked a question by a stranger while standing near the water outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. “Pardon me Old School he / says you know is this a wishing well?” He initially brushes off the stranger, but something happens: a shared coin, a well, a wish that is answered as it is made.Gregory Pardlo won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Digest. He is poetry editor of th

Oct 2, 2020 • 15:37

Ada Limón — Wonder Woman

Ada Limón — Wonder Woman

What stories or myths bring you strength?This poem tells the story of a person living with invisible chronic pain who finds unexpected fortitude from a girl dressed as a superhero. Their encounter, “at the swell of the muddy Mississippi,” doesn’t have a fantasy ending, but instead finds strength and glory in bodies and myth.Ada Limón is the author of five books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and was named one of the best poetry book

Sep 28, 2020 • 16:07

Poetry Unbound — Season 2 Trailer

Poetry Unbound — Season 2 Trailer

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, Sept. 28. Featured poets in this season include Lucille Clifton, James Wright, Natasha Trethewey, Christian Wiman, Layli Long Soldier and more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through the fall. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen.

Sep 14, 2020 • 1:30

Leanne O'Sullivan — Leaving Early

Leanne O'Sullivan — Leaving Early

In Leanne O’Sullivan’s poem “Leaving Early,” the poet writes to her ill husband, entrusting him into the care of a nurse named Fionnuala. As the novel coronavirus sweeps the globe, many of us can’t physically be there for loved ones who are sick. Instead, it is the health care workers — and all involved in the health care system — who are tirelessly present, caring for others in spite of exhaustion and the risk it brings to their own wellbeing.We offer this episode of Poetry Unbound in profound

Apr 3, 2020 • 11:49

Help Shape the Next Season of Poetry Unbound

Help Shape the Next Season of Poetry Unbound

Poetry Unbound will be back with new episodes this fall. We’re so grateful to those who welcomed the podcast into their lives, and we’d love to hear more about your listening experience. What did you love? What can we improve? And what poetry, poets, or topics would you like to hear host Pádraig Ó Tuama talk about? Take the short survey at onbeing.org/pusurvey.

Mar 23, 2020 • 1:21

Emily Dickinson — 1383

Emily Dickinson — 1383

Emily Dickinson’s poem “1383” honors the friendships that endure across time, circumstance, and even misunderstanding. Akin to fire, the connections in these friendships may be strong enough to burn or hurt us, but Dickinson acknowledges that their light continues to draw us in regardless.After listening, we invite you to reflect on this question: Think about a friendship that has remained steady for you across the years, even as both of you have changed. Why do you think your relationship has e

Mar 20, 2020 • 6:37

Raymond Antrobus — Miami Airport

Raymond Antrobus — Miami Airport

Raymond Antrobus’s poem “Miami Airport” bears witness to the disempowerment that comes when you’re not believed. The voice of the poet is absent, and all we hear is an interrogator seeking to disrupt and displace. This space of suspicion creates anxiety, transporting us to the places and times when someone has questioned the truth of our story.A question to reflect on after you listen: When have you felt disempowered by questions about yourself? Did you find your voice again? How?About the Poet:

Mar 16, 2020 • 10:03

Patrick Kavanagh — The One

Patrick Kavanagh — The One

Patrick Kavanagh’s poem “The One” is about seeing beauty in the ordinary places of home. One of Ireland’s most famous poets, Kavanagh grew up in rural County Monaghan and moved to Dublin as a young man. This poem revisits the boglands of his home, which he once hated but came to love. A question to reflect on after you listen: Think about where you’re from. How has your understanding of it changed over time?About the Poet:Patrick Kavanagh was a prominent Irish poet and writer who died in 1967. H

Mar 13, 2020 • 8:28

Ali Cobby Eckermann — Kulila

Ali Cobby Eckermann — Kulila

Ali Cobby Eckermann’s poem “Kulila” insists on remembering as a moral act. Through the poem, the Aboriginal poet mourns the loss of Indigenous cultures in Australia and how they have been damaged and changed by colonization. Cobby Eckermann calls her readers to a place of listening and lament as a way to keep alive the memory of who we are and who we could’ve been.A question to reflect on after you listen: What in your culture or community needs to be lamented, honored, and told?About the Poet:A

Mar 9, 2020 • 9:18

Kei Miller — Book of Genesis

Kei Miller — Book of Genesis

Kei Miller’s poem “Book of Genesis” asks us to imagine a God who makes things spring into life specifically for us. Just as the poet of Genesis proclaims, “Let there be,” Miller wonders what freedom and flourishing we’d find in imagining a “Let” pronounced not for the person others say we should be, but for the person we are.A question to reflect on after you listen: How can you begin to let yourself flourish today, just as you are?About the Poet:Kei Miller is a professor of English and creative

Mar 6, 2020 • 5:42

Lemn Sissay — Some Things I Like

Lemn Sissay — Some Things I Like

Lemn Sissay’s poem “Some Things I Like” celebrates what we might consider discardable — like cold tea, ash trays, and even people. Raising a joyous toast to the forgotten and the forgettable, Sissay recognizes the power we give to what we pay attention to and invites us to look anew at all that has been undervalued. A question to reflect on after you listen: What is something you like that others may not value in the same way?About the Poet:Lemn Sissay is a poet, playwright, and broadcaster. He

Mar 2, 2020 • 9:51

Joy Harjo — Praise the Rain

Joy Harjo — Praise the Rain

Joy Harjo’s poem “Praise the Rain” makes space to appreciate all the nuances of our lives. Echoing Rumi’s poem “The Guest House,” she asks us to be present to this moment — the crazy or the sad, the beginning or the end — to greet it all with the powerful word: “Praise.”A question to reflect on after you listen: What can you praise today?About the Poet:Joy Harjo is the 23rd poet laureate of the United States and a writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She has written nine books of poetry, sever

Feb 28, 2020 • 7:18

Ross Gay — Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt

Ross Gay — Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt

Ross Gay’s poem “Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt” uses an everyday task to examine what is made and unmade in small moments. He imagines his fingers opening and closing things, like buttons, the eyes of a dead person, relationships. In doing so, the poem asks us to simply pay attention, today, to what we’re doing with our hands — to understand them as intimate pathways into the stories of our bodies and the stories of our lives.A question to reflect on after you listen: What have you d

Feb 24, 2020 • 8:55

Allison Funk — The Prodigal’s Mother Speaks to God

Allison Funk — The Prodigal’s Mother Speaks to God

Allison Funk’s poem “The Prodigal’s Mother Speaks to God” tells the age-old story of The Prodigal Son through a new voice: the unnamed woman of the parable. This woman is truthful, wise, and loving. She knows the dedications and limitations of love. She seeks to see clearly, even though it’s hard to see clearly. A question to reflect on after you listen: When has love been complicated for you?About the Poet:Allison Funk is a distinguished professor of English at Southern Illinois University Edwa

Feb 21, 2020 • 8:08

Jane Mead — Substance Abuse Trial

Jane Mead — Substance Abuse Trial

Jane Mead’s “Substance Abuse Trial” is set in a courtroom where a daughter hears her father’s name mispronounced at his trial. As she watches this, she wishes that the court could see the fullness of her father and his story — to bear witness to him as a human being, defined by much more than his addiction.A question to reflect on after you listen: When was a time when you were judged based on a mistake you made, rather than the fullness of who you are?About the Poet:Jane Mead authored five poet

Feb 17, 2020 • 9:09

Ocean Vuong — Seventh Circle of Earth

Ocean Vuong — Seventh Circle of Earth

Ocean Vuong’s poem “Seventh Circle of Earth” is an homage to the love and intimacy shared by Michael Humphrey and Clayton Capshaw, a gay couple who were murdered in their home in Dallas, Texas. In the midst of recognizing the violence and threat LGBTQI communities face, the poem holds space for tenderness — and honors their love.A question to reflect on after you listen: What examples have you seen of love and power enacted, even in the face of threat?About the poet:Ocean Vuong is an assistant p

Feb 14, 2020 • 11:31

Tracy K. Smith — Song

Tracy K. Smith — Song

Tracy K. Smith’s poem “Song” is filled with observations of a loved person: their habits, the things they do when they think nobody is watching. Love is shown and celebrated in observing the small practices of another.  A question to reflect on after you listen: What’s something small and quiet you’ve noticed about a loved one?About the poet:Tracy K. Smith is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University and the former poet laureate of the United States. Her poetry collections include

Feb 10, 2020 • 8:33

Marie Howe — My Mother’s Body

Marie Howe — My Mother’s Body

Marie Howe’s poem “My Mother’s Body” is wise about age. In the poem, Marie’s mother is young enough to be Marie’s own daughter, and in this imagination there is wonder, understanding, and even forgiveness. A question to reflect on after you listen: Are there things that you have found easier to understand — or even forgive — as you’ve gotten older?About the poet:Marie Howe is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She’s published four collections of poetry: What the Living Do, The Good T

Feb 7, 2020 • 8:17

Faisal Mohyuddin — Prayer

Faisal Mohyuddin — Prayer

Faisal Mohyuddin’s poem “Prayer” describes a practice of devotion. It’s a spacious and hospitable poem, filled with references to ritual and the body, and an invitation to share in the warm light of a household lamp. A question to reflect on after you listen: What rituals do you use to anchor yourself?About the poet:Faisal Mohyuddin is a writer, artist, and educator. He is the author of The Displaced Children of Displaced Children, winner of the 2017 Sexton Prize in Poetry and a 2018 Summer Reco

Feb 3, 2020 • 8:34

Aimee Nezhukumatathil — On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance

Aimee Nezhukumatathil — On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poem “On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance” offers a way to ground yourself during vulnerable moments. The poet gathers strength from being loved, which helps her in times of displacement.A question to reflect on after you listen: What stories do you hold on to when you're feeling displaced?About the poet:Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a professor of English and creative writing in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi. She also serves as the poetry editor fo

Jan 31, 2020 • 8:19

Brad Aaron Modlin — What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade

Brad Aaron Modlin — What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade

Brad Aaron Modlin’s poem “What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade” speaks of learning to grow up by yourself. The poet wonders what life lessons would look like if they could be taught by a teacher; a good teacher, a teacher like Mrs. Nelson.A question to reflect on after you listen: What life lessons did you have to learn by yourself?About the poet: Brad Aaron Modlin is the Reynolds Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He holds a PhD fro

Jan 27, 2020 • 8:22

Welcome to Poetry Unbound

Welcome to Poetry Unbound

Poetry Unbound features an immersive exploration of a single poem, guided by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Short and unhurried; contemplative and energizing. Proudly produced by On Being Studios. Anchor your week with new episodes on Monday and Friday, beginning January 27. This season features poetry from a diverse cast of poets: current and former poets laureate Joy Harjo and Tracy K. Smith; T.S. Eliot Prize winner Ocean Vuong; classic poets like Emily Dickinson and Patrick Kavanagh; spoken-word artists li

Dec 23, 2019 • 1:21

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