Podcasts · Arts · Society & Culture
Poetry Unbound
On Being Studios
231 episodes
Short and unhurried, Poetry Unbound is an immersive exploration of a single poem, hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama.
More about the show
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.
Episodes page 3 of 5
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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;…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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),…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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),…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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;…
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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…
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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…
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