Poetry Unbound
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Delve into an immersive exploration of a single poem. Poetry Unbound is short and unhurried; contemplative and energizing — with a podcast, a book, a vibrant conversation on Substack, and occasional gatherings.
Pádraig Ó Tuama greets you at the doorways of brilliant poems, and invites you to meet them with stories of your world. The poems are eager to meet you, too.
Available episodes
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Sep 1, 2023
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 and raised in Virginia. He has published many collections of poetry and received numerous awards for his work, including the Jackson Poetry Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, the Ambassador Book Award, the Lenore Marshall Award, and the Medal in Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent books are a memoir, _Orphic Paris_ (New York Review Books, 2018), _Blizzard_ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), and _Gravity and Center: Selected Sonnets, 1994-2022_ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023). From 2010 to 2014, he was poetry editor of _The New Republic_. He teaches at Claremont McKenna College and lives in Boston.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Aug 30, 2023
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 of nature essays, _World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments_ (Milkweed Editions, 2020), which was named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in non-fiction, and four award-winning poetry collections, most recently, _Oceanic_ (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). Awards for her writing include fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Council, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for poetry, National Endowment of the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her writing has appeared in _NYTimes Magazine_, _ESPN_, and _Best American Poetry_. She is professor of English and creative writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Aug 28, 2023
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 of poetry, including _Unshuttered_ (Triquarterly Books, 2023);_ __Incendiary Art__ _(Triquarterly Books, 2017), winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the 2018 NAACP Image Award, and finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize;_ __Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah__ _(Coffee House Press, 2012), winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and _Blood Dazzler__ _(Coffee House Press, 2008), a National Book Award finalist. Her work has appeared in _Poetry_,_ The Paris Review_,_ The Baffler_,_ The Washington Post_,_ The New York Times_,_ Tin House_,_ _and in _Best American Poetry_,_ Best American Essays_, and _Best American Mystery Stories_. Smith is a Distinguished Professor for the City University of New York, a visiting professor in creative writing at Princeton University, and a faculty member in the Vermont College of Fine Arts postgraduate residency program.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Jul 28, 2023
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 chapbooks, both from the Diagram Chapbook series: _You Always Wished the Animals Would Leave_ (New Michigan Press, 2018) and _The Bees Have Been Canceled_ (New Michigan Press, 2017). She is the Poetry Reviews Editor at Publishers Weekly and teaches poetry at New York University. She is Director of Creative Writing at the Nightingale-Bamford school, where she oversees visiting writers, workshops, and readings. She holds degrees from Oxford University, NYU, and Barnard College, and is currently pursuing her PhD on the role of wonder in poetry at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Maya C. Popa’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 24, 2023
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 the inaugural Ironbridge Prize, the Bedford Prize, and the Gloucester Poetry Society Open Competition.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Jenny Mitchell’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 21, 2023
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 Memorial Prize. His second, _The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here_ (Bloodaxe Books, 2019), won a Northern Writers Award and a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize, and the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. He is the author of _Elizabeth Bishop's Prosaic__ _(Bucknell, 2015); a collection of essays, _Worlds Woven Together__ _(Columbia University Press, 2022); a critical study, _Spontaneity and Form in Modern Prose_ (OUP, 2020); and _Asian/Other_, a fusion of poetry criticism and memoir forthcoming from Icon in the U.K. and Norton in the U.S. Ravinthiran is an associate professor of English at Harvard University.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Vidyan Ravinthiran’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 17, 2023
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 show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Mark Turcotte’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 14, 2023
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 Literary. Their poems appear in _POETRY_, _WUSSY_, _Mass Review_, _No Tokens_, _The Margins_, and elsewhere. As a member of the Brooklyn-based drag/burlesque collective Switch N’ Play, Wo has performed at venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art, National Sawdust, New York Live Arts, and the Architectural Digest Expo. Find them at @theillustriouspearl.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Wo Chan’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 10, 2023
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.
Amanda Gunn grew up just at the edge of the woods in southern Connecticut with two older brothers. She is the author of Things I Didn’t Do with This Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). Gunn is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, as well as a PhD candidate in English at Harvard, where she studies poetry, ephemerality, and Black pleasure. Her recent work appears in Poetry, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal, and Narrative Magazine. Photo credit: Moon Duchin
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Amanda Gunn’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 7, 2023
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 Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext_. Lopez received his MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer J. Estanislao Lopez’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 3, 2023
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 the city. She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir _Red Paint_, and holds a double MFA in creative nonfiction and poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work has appeared in _The Rumpus, Yellow Medicine Review, Hunger Mountain_, and elsewhere. She lives in Tacoma, Washington.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
Listen to our episode featuring Sasha’s poem “Blue,” and stay connected with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jul 3, 2023
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 author of the critically acclaimed memoir _Red Paint_, and holds a double MFA in creative nonfiction and poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work has appeared in _The Rumpus, Yellow Medicine Review, Hunger Mountain_, and elsewhere. She lives in Tacoma, Washington.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season. Find the companion bonus e…
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Jun 30, 2023
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 for the Arts Literature Fellowship; a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University; and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant to Morocco. Originally from the Bronx, he is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Northwestern University, where he teaches poetry in the undergraduate and Litowitz MFA+MA graduate creative writing programs.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Charif Shanahan’s poem, and invite you to connect with _P…
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Jun 26, 2023
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 her husband Roberto Harrison, and _From the Tongues of Brick and Stone__ _(Momotombo Press, 2005). She also co-edited _Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance_ (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2017) and _Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest_ (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 2001). She has served as faculty for the CantoMundo writers’ retreat and as Milwaukee Poet Laureate. She currently teaches creative writing and Latinx literature at Universi…
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Jun 23, 2023
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 University of Galway and University College Dublin special collections. Her debut collection of poetry, _Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho_ (Doire Press, 2022), was listed among the top poetry books of 2022 by _The Irish Times_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Nithy Kasa’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jun 19, 2023
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. She has toured her poetry extensively, both internationally and throughout the U.K. in a number of cultural institutions. She has also been featured in _Vogue_, _ES_ _Magazine_, _i-D_, and _Blavity_, among others. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Greek, and Polish, and exhibited in Warsaw, New York, Dublin, and Glasgow. She was the Young Poet Laureate for London in 2015-16, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. She was also a finalist fo…
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Jun 16, 2023
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 Leadership Fellow, a core member of Protactile Language Interpreting National Education Center, and a research consultant with the Reciprocity Lab at the University of Chicago.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer John Lee Clark’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jun 12, 2023
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 Rivalry Press, 2020), received a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book Award and is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Their contributions are found in _The New York Times_, Academy of American Poets, _Poetry Magazine_, Literary Hub, them, _The Advocate_, Al Jazeera, NYLON, _Vogue_, The Rumpus, _The Lily_, _The Maine Review_, _The Massachusetts Review_, and elsewhere. For more information, visit kaybarrett.net or find them on social media at @brownroundboi.
Find the transcript for this show at onbe…
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Jun 9, 2023
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 American Indian Arts. okpik resides in Santa Fe, NM.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer dg nanouk okpik’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Jun 7, 2023
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.
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Jun 5, 2023
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 _Timeless Tips for Simple Sabotage_ (Quarterly West, 2021), chosen by Elena Passarello as the winner of the 2020 _Quarterly West_ Chapbook Contest, and _I Ask My Sister’s Ghost__ _(DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press, 2020). In addition to writing, he works with newcomer youth in Oakland, California through Soccer Without Borders, an organization he founded in 2006.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Benjamin Gucciardi’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poe…
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Jun 2, 2023
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_ (2020), and the forthcoming _Silver__ _(2024). He is also the author of _When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness_ (a new, forthcoming edition from Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and the nonfiction book _The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey_ (Picador, 2019). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenhei…
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May 29, 2023
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.
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May 26, 2023
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 Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology,_ __The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT_. He is the co-host of the poetry podcast, _The Poetry Gods_. In 2018, he was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association and named a Debut Poet of 2018 by Poets & Writers. In 2019, he was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. His…
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May 22, 2023
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 recipient of a Cave Canem Fellowship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from The Poetry Foundation. Her work has appeared in _Poetry_ magazine_, The Atlantic_, and the Academy of American Poets’ _Poem-a-Day_ series, among others.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Safia Elhillo’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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May 15, 2023
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.
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Feb 20, 2023
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 and sound and silence teaches us about being human at all times, but especially now. With an unexpected and exuberant mix of gravity and laughter — laughter of delight, and of blessed relief — this conversation holds not only what we have traversed these last years, but how we live forward.
It unfolded at the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, in collaboration with Northrop at the University of Minnesota and Ada Limón's publisher, Milkweed Editions.
Ada Limón is th…
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Dec 22, 2022
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 Srikishan on the role of music in the show, with a warm hello from all the humans behind _Poetry Unbound_. Watch the full, unedited event here.
Lorna Goodison is one of the Caribbean's most distinguished contemporary poets. Her work appears in _the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces_ and her many honors include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, Americas Region. She is the author of numerous books of poetry, including _Supplying Salt and Light_, _Controlling the Silver_, _Travelin…
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Dec 16, 2022
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 Pittsburgh Press, 2020), was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and winner of the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. The 2020 recipient of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, she is a Poet Laureate emeritus of Santa Cruz County, California.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Danusha Laméris’ poem, and thank you for joining us for Season 6 of _Poetry Unbound_. We'll be back with Season 7 later in 2023.
Order your copy of _Poetry…
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Dec 12, 2022
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 various Persian poets for well over a decade. She is the translator of _GOLD_ (New York Review of Books / NYRB Classics 2022), translations of poems by Rumi, the 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet. Gafori has taught classes at Dartmouth University, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Taos Poetry Festival, and the Omega Institute.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Rumi’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout thi…
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Dec 9, 2022
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 Air: Poems for Listeners_ (Greenwillow Books 2022), _Cast Away_ (HarperCollins 2020), and _Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems_ (Greenwillow Books 2020). She received the 2019 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
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Dec 5, 2022
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 Poetry Unbound throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Dec 2, 2022
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 this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Nov 28, 2022
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 onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Dan Vera’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Nov 25, 2022
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 York Times_, and others. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at Arizona State University where she is inaugurating a Poetry for the People program.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Solmaz Sharif’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Nov 21, 2022
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 _The Bird Tattoo_ (forthcoming from Pegasus Books 2022). She is a laureate of the UNESCO Sharja Prize for Arab Culture and has received fellowships from United States Artists, Guggenheim, and Kresge. Her honors also include the Arab American Book Award, and the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. She currently works as a special lecturer of Arabic at Oakland University in Michigan.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Dunya Mikhail…
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Nov 18, 2022
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 _Pushcart Prize_, _Best of the Net_, and _Best New Poets_ anthologies.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Aaron Caycedo-Kimura’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Nov 14, 2022
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 Massachusetts-Amherst in 2004. He has taught at the University of Connecticut and has served as Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University. He is author of _Spot Weather Forecast__ _(Alice James Books 2021), _Anaphora_ (Alice James Books 2018), _Let the Voices_ (Red Hen Press 2016), and _Upper Level Disturbances_ (Center for Literary Publishing 2012).
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Kevin Goodan’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unb…
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Nov 11, 2022
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 States. He holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has worked as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands. His books include _The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America_, _Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words_, and _The Bell and the Blackbird_. His latest collections are _David Whyte: Essentials_ and _Still Possible_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer David Whyte’s p…
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Nov 7, 2022
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 manuscript was shortlisted for both the Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour and the Mo Siewcharran Prize. He is the author of the poetry collection, _At Least This I Know_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Andrés N. Ordorica’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substac…
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Nov 4, 2022
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 transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Laura Villareal’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 31, 2022
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;_ and _The Art of the Sonnet_. Her writing has appeared in the _New York Times Book Review_, the _London Review of Books_, the _Times Literary Supplement_, _The Believer_, and the _Boston Review_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Stephanie Burt’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space…
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Oct 28, 2022
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-month, singing exploration of the wonders of the insect world as part of the University of Exeter’s Urgency Arts Commissions. The series of workshops culminated in a public anthology of poetry sound pieces called “In the Company of Insects.”
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Fiona Benson’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Y…
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Oct 24, 2022
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 offer Saddiq Dzukogi’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 21, 2022
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 Fellowship (1982), the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (2004), and the Heinrich Mann Prize (2015).
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Adam Zagajewski’s poem translated by Clare Cavanagh, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 17, 2022
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 Foundation. Ebeid currently edits poetry at _The Rumpus_ and the multimedia zine _Visible Binary_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Carolina Ebeid’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 14, 2022
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._ _Her first collection of poetry,_ Raised Among Vultures_,_ _was published in 2022 by The Gallery Press.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Molly Twomey’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 10, 2022
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), and _funkhaus_ (Victoria University Press 2020). She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Potsdam with the research training group RTG Minor Cosmopolitanisms.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Hinemoana Baker’s poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 7, 2022
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 Poetry at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers' Program. Born in Maryland to Taiwanese immigrants, they have since called many places home.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Jennifer Huang's poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Oct 3, 2022
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 the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Gabeba Baderoon's poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Sep 30, 2022
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 Workshop. He also teaches Creative Writing in Augsburg University’s low-res MFA program and at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Michael Kleber-Diggs's poem, and invite you to connect with _Poetry Unbound_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Sep 26, 2022
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_ throughout this season.
Pre-order the forthcoming book _Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World _and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.
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Sep 19, 2022
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.
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Jun 3, 2022
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 for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 30, 2022
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 the voices of the disabled and disfigured, in myth, art, history and the present moment."
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Andy Jackson’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 27, 2022
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 from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 23, 2022
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 National Endowment for the Arts, and the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He is a Professor of English at Dartmouth College.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Joshua Bennett’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 20, 2022
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 Koniag descendant and member of the Tangirnaq Native Village in Kodiak. Her upcoming collection, _In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful_, will be out in Fall 2022.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Abigail Chabitnoy’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 16, 2022
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 the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer M. Soledad Caballero’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 13, 2022
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 for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 9, 2022
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 the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award; and _The Air Year_ (2020).
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Caroline Bird’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 6, 2022
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 Retreat, a writers’ colony, 2004-2010.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Marilyn Nelson’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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May 2, 2022
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 latest from Poetry Unbound.
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Apr 29, 2022
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 institutions including University of New Orleans, Indiana University, and Princeton University. He is a senior faculty member in the NYU Creative Writing Program.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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Apr 25, 2022
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’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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Apr 22, 2022
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 to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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Apr 18, 2022
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 University.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Divya Victor’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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Apr 15, 2022
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 experiences.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Denise Low’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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Apr 11, 2022
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 the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
We’re pleased to offer Rita Dove’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the latest from _Poetry Unbound_.
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Apr 4, 2022
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.
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Mar 28, 2022
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_.
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Dec 17, 2021
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. They are the author of Homie and Don’t Call Us Dead, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Dec 13, 2021
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, publisher, essayist, critic, book reviewer, artist, environmentalist, and political activist. Craig is the author of two spoken word poetry albums, _Undercurrent_ and _Crosscurrent_, and five books of poetry: from _unincorporated territory [hacha]_, from _unincorporated territory [saina]_, from _unincorporated territory [guma’]_, from _unincorporated territory [lukao]_, and, most recently, _Habitat Threshold_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Dec 10, 2021
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 poet laureate and a recent chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, as well as the author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently, _Not Go Away Is My Name_. Published in the _New Yorker_, _Paris Review_, _Ploughshares_, and other journals, he has also written three short story collections and a memoir, _Capirotada_, about growing up on the Mexican border. Ríos is also the host of the PBS programs Art in the 48 and Books & Co. University Professor of Letters, Regents’ Profess…
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Dec 6, 2021
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_ (winner of the MSR Book Award and a finalist for the _L.A. Times_ Book Prize) and _Two Worlds Exist_ (a finalist for National Jewish Book Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize).
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Dec 3, 2021
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, and an appreciation for silence.
Aria Aber is based in Oakland, CA. Her poems are forthcoming or have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Poetry Review and elsewhere. She is the author of Hard Damage, which won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and a Whiting Award. She is currently a Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 29, 2021
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 poet.
Donika Kelly is the author of _The Renunciations_ and _Bestiary_, the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A Cave Canem graduate fellow and member of the collective Poets at the End of the World, Donika has also received a Lannan Residency Fellowship, and a summer workshop fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center. Her poems have been published in _The New Yorker_, _The Atlantic_ online, _The Paris Revi…
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Nov 26, 2021
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 forgiveness for being “thrown off true.”
Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw novelist, essayist, and environmentalist. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and an MA in English and creative writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her books of poetry include _Dark. Sweet._, _The Book of Medicines_, _Seeing Through the Sun_, and many more.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 22, 2021
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 exile.
Lory Bedikian received her BA from UCLA with an emphasis in Creative Writing and Poetry. She earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon, where she received the Dan Kimble First Year Teaching Award for Poetry. Bedikian's _The Book of Lamenting_ won the 2010 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. She currently teaches poetry workshops in Los Angeles.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 19, 2021
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 Amador has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. His chapbook, _Flower Wars_, was selected as the winner of the Anzaldúa Poetry Prize and was published by Newfound Press in 2017. He is a grant recipient of the Vermont Arts Council, an alumni of the Lambda Literary Foundation's Writers Retreat and an MFA candidate at Bennington College.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 15, 2021
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_ & _Migrant Psalms_. Holnes is an Afro-Panamanian American writer, performer, and educator. His writing has been published in English, Spanish, and French in literary journals, anthologies, and other books worldwide and online. He also writes for the stage. Most of his writing centers on love, family, race, immigration, and joy. He works as a college professor in New York City, NY.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 12, 2021
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 has information about the future.
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and writer. She served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, was the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, and won the National Book Award in 1970.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 8, 2021
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 poetry, including _The Absurd Man_ (2020), _Roll Deep_ (2015), _Holding Company_ (2010), _Hoops_ (2006) and _Leaving Saturn_ (2002), which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. Major Jackson lives in Nashville, Tennessee where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He serves as the Poetry Editor of _The Harvard Review_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 5, 2021
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 Ransacked City: An Elegy_, and _The Vault_ from Alice James Books. A recipient of fellowships from McDowell and Canto Mundo, his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, The Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, _Puerto Rico en mi Corazón_, _The Breakbeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNext_, The Nation, and elsewhere. He holds degrees from the University of Delaware and Rutgers University Newark.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 1, 2021
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 is the author of _Pilgrim Bell_, _Calling a Wolf a Wolf_, and the chapbook, _Portrait of the Alcoholic_. His poems appear in _The New Yorker_, _The New York Times_, _Paris Review_, _Best American Poetry_, and elsewhere. In 2020, Kaveh was named Poetry Editor of _The Nation_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 29, 2021
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 underground ways.
Gail McConnell publishes literary criticism and poetry and is curious about the living and the dead. Her writing interests include violence, creatureliness, queerness and the possibilities and politics of language and form. She is the author of _The Sun is Open_, _Northern Irish Poetry and Theology_, and two pamphlets of poetry: _Fothermather_ and _Fourteen_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 25, 2021
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 author of _Sacrament of Bodies_ (University of Nebraska) and three chapbooks. He is the winner of the 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in _Poetry_, _Harvard Review_, _American Poetry Review_, _Poetry London_, _The Poetry Review_, _Narrative Magazine_, _The Common_, and others. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his poems have been translated into several languages.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 22, 2021
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 is the author of three poetry collections, most recently _Post Romantic_, selected by Linda Bierds for the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series and published by University of Washington Press in Fall 2020. Kathleen’s awards include a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust. She served as Washington State Poet Laureate from 2012 – 2014.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 18, 2021
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 and video film-maker. She was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014. Her poems are on the British GCSE and A Level English syllabus, and she reads with other poets at Poetry Live! events all over the country to more than 25,000 students a year. She has been Poet in Residence at Cambridge University Library, worked on a series of poems based on the Archives of St Paul’s Cathedral as well as projects across art forms in Leeds, Newcastle and Hull. She has had eleven solo…
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Oct 15, 2021
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) queer poet and educator. Born and raised with the Līlīlehua rain of Waiʻehu on the island of Maui, she currently lives and loves with the Līlīlehua rain of Pālolo in the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī on Oʻahu. She has performed and facilitated workshops throughout the pae ʻāina of Hawaiʻi as well as in Papua New Guinea, Canada, and the United Nations. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa and is proud to have taught poetry at Puʻuhul…
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Oct 15, 2021
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 lives and loves with the Līlīlehua rain of Pālolo in the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī on Oʻahu. She has performed and facilitated workshops throughout the pae ʻāina of Hawaiʻi as well as in Papua New Guinea, Canada, and the United Nations. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa and is proud to have taught poetry at Puʻuhuluhulu University in the summer 2019 as she stood with her lāhui to protect Maunakea. A winner of the 2021 Natio…
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Oct 11, 2021
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 Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers_, winner of the National Poetry Series. He is the recipient of a 92Y Discovery Prize, a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship, an American Book Award, and a Whiting Award. He is from the Navajo Nation and teaches at Diné College.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 8, 2021
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-destruction so familiar to human behavior.
Tishani Doshi was born in the city formerly known as Madras in 1975. She has published seven books of poetry and fiction. Her essays, poems and short stories have been widely anthologized. She is Visiting Associate Professor of Practice, Literature and Creative Writing at New York University, Abu Dhabi.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 4, 2021
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 poet whose first poetry collection, _Thinking with Trees_, was published by Carcanet Press in 2021. His work has also appeared in _PN Review_, the _Poetry Review_ and _Callaloo_. He teaches in the School of English at the University of Leeds.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 1, 2021
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 poetry books _In The Absence of Clocks_ and _Paraíso_, which was selected for the inaugural CantoMundo Poetry Prize judged by Aracelis Girmay. He is a 2018/019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and a Lannan Literary Fellow for Poetry. His poetry appears in _The New Yorker_, _Poetry Magazine_, and _The Academy of American Poets_, among others. His fiction appears in _The Oxford American_, among others.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Sep 27, 2021
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 the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. Her latest novel, The Testaments, is a co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. It is the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning TV series. She lives in Toronto.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Sep 20, 2021
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.
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Jun 18, 2021
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 professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She is the author of _Tasty Other_, which won the 2016 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, and her fifth chapbook, _28,065 Nights_, is available from River Glass Books. Her poems have appeared in _American Journal of Nursing_, _december_, _The Lascaux Review_, _Kahini Quarterly_, and many others. Find her online at www.katiemanningpoet.com.
Listen to _Poetry Unbound Plus_ here.
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Jun 14, 2021
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.
Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977, and arrived in the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. He is the author of _Deaf Republic_ and _Dancing In Odessa_, and has co-edited and co-translated many other books, including _Ecco Anthology of International Poetry_ and _Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva_. He holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Institute of Technology and lives in Atlanta.…
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Jun 11, 2021
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 _What the Chickadee Knows_. She teaches American Indian Literature, Celtic Literature, Indigenous Language Revitalization and Anishinaabemowin language at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Margaret is the editor of ojibwe.net and the Papers of the Algonquian Conference.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Jun 11, 2021
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 American Indian Literature, Celtic Literature, Indigenous Language Revitalization and Anishinaabemowin language at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Margaret is the editor of ojibwe.net and the Papers of the Algonquian Conference.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Jun 7, 2021
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 Espada, voicing the sounds of all that he’s feeling.
Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His new book of poems from Norton is called _Floaters_. Other books of poems include _Vivas to Those Who Have Failed_, _The Trouble Ball_, and _Alabanza_. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
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Jun 4, 2021
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 presence and citizenship.
Roshni Goyate is one quarter of the 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE poetry collective. Together they have published a book of poetry, a zine of essays, and most recently, a collection of solo works, published by Rough Trade Books, in which Roshni's pamphlet, _Shadow Work_, appears. Roshni is a Londoner, proud daughter of Indian immigrants and co-founder of The Other Box, an inclusion and equity company.
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May 31, 2021
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 the centrality of the White european gaze.
b: william bearhart is a direct descendent of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. A graduate of the Lo-Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, bearhart’s work appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including _When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through_ (W. W. Norton, 2020). His work can be found in _Bloom_, _North American Review_, _Plume_, _Prairie Schooner_, and _Tupelo Quarterly_, am…
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May 28, 2021
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 collections, most recently, _The Valley_. His debut essay collection _Before the Earth Devours Us_ will be published by Split/Lip Press in late 2021. He is the Interviews Editor for the _EcoTheo_ Review, an Assistant Poetry Editor for _AGNI_, and a regular reviews contributor for _Heavy Feather Review_. He lives in Austin, Texas.
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May 24, 2021
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 Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison_, was awarded the 2010 NAACP Image Award for non-fiction. His books of poetry are _Shahid Reads His Own Palm_, _Bastards of the Reagan Era_, and _Felon_. He is a graduate of Prince George’s Community College, the University of Maryland, the MFA Program at Warren Wilson College, and is currently a PhD student at Yale Law School.
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May 21, 2021
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 of poetry include _Book of My Nights_; _Behind My Eyes_; _Rose_, winner of the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award from New York University; and _The City in Which I Love You_, the 1990 Lamont Poetry Selection.
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May 17, 2021
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 Bermejo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and the author of _Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge_. She considers herself an experiential witness poet for today’s America, and in 2017, she was the Gettysburg National Military Park’s “Poet in the Park,” in partnership with National Parks Arts Foundation and the Poetry Foundation. Her poem, "Battlegrounds," featured in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, was written during this time. A former Steinbeck Fellow, Xoc…
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May 14, 2021
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 use of a particular object: a bottle of soda, holding fizz in it, and symbolizing more love than it could contain.
Matthew Olzmann was born in Detroit, Michigan. He received a BA from the University of Michigan–Dearborn and an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of _Contradictions in the Design_ and _Mezzanines_, winner of the 2011 Kundiman Poetry Prize. Olzmann has received fellowships from the Kresge Arts Foundation and Kundiman, among others. He teaches at Warren Wil…
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May 10, 2021
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 author of _Blue-Tail Fly_, _Horse in the Dark_, and _Forest Primeval_, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry. She is an associate professor at Dartmouth College and an associate editor for Callaloo.
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May 7, 2021
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, author, and professor at Stanford University, where she taught from 1996. Her work deals with the Irish national identity, and the role of women in Irish history. Her books of poetry include _The Historians: Poems_, _Against Love Poetry: Poems_, _New Collected Poems_, and many more.
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May 3, 2021
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 Kirton thrive in the tension she thought would tear her.
Jónína Kirton is a Red River Métis/Icelandic poet and a graduate of the Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio where she is currently their BIPOC Auntie supporting and mentoring BIPOC students. In 2016, she received the City of Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category. Her books of poetry include _page as bone ~ ink as blood_ and _An Honest Woman_, which was a finalist…
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Apr 30, 2021
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 of the Caribbean's most distinguished contemporary poets. Her work appears in _the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces_ and her many honors include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, Americas Region. She is the author of numerous books of poetry, including _Supplying Salt and Light_, _Controlling the Silver_, _Traveling Mercies_, and many more. Her work, translated into many languages, is widely published and anthologized.
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Apr 26, 2021
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 cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in _Muzzle_, _Vinyl_, _PEN American_, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in _The FADER_, _Pitchfork_, _The New Yorker_, and _The New York Times_. His books include _A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance_, _The Crown Ain’t Worth Much_, _They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us_, and _A Fortune for your Disaster_.
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Apr 19, 2021
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.
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Dec 18, 2020
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 Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art_ and a new book of poems, _Survival Is a Style: Poems_. He is a professor at Yale Divinity School.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Dec 14, 2020
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 poetry collection _Fractures_, which was selected by Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the 2020 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Gómez has won the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry and the _Atlanta Review_ International Poetry Prize. His work has been published in _New England Review_, _Beloit Poetry Journal_, _The Yale Review_, and elsewhere.
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Dec 11, 2020
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 of American Poets and teaches at Pacific University. Her poems regularly appear in _The New Yorker_, _American Poetry Review_, and many other journals. In 1973, she co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, _No More Masks!_ and in 1988 co-wrote _The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse_. Her most recent book is _Indigo_.
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Dec 7, 2020
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 honors include commendations from the Forward Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn.
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Dec 4, 2020
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 have been that son.
Zaffar Kunial was born in Birmingham to an English mother and a Kashmiri father. He has served poet-in-residence for the Wordsworth Trust and Ledbury Poetry Festival, and has spoken at various literature festivals and on BBC Radio. His poem “The Word” won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. _Us_ is his first collection.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 30, 2020
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 featured in _New York Times Magazine_, _The Slowdown_, and _The Best American Poetry 2019_. Her debut book of poetry, _Dhaka Dust_, won the Bakeless Prize. Ahmed is part of the MFA faculty at Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers and Chatham University’s MFA Program, and teaches regularly with Hugo House and The Writing Lab.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 27, 2020
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 and laments be heard and acknowledged.
Layli Long Soldier – is the recipient of the 2015 Lannan Fellowship for Poetry and a 2015 National Artist Fellowship from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Her first book of poetry, _WHEREAS_, won the Whiting Award and was named a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Nov 23, 2020
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 National Book Award for Poetry and won the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. He teaches at Brandeis University as the Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 20, 2020
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 texts.
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill – is one of the most prominent poets writing in the Irish language today. Her poetry collections include _Pharaoh’s Daughter_, _The Astrakhan Cloak_, and_ __Cead Isteach/Entry Permitted_. Her work has been translated into English by a number of well-known Irish poets, including Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian, and Paul Muldoon.
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Nov 16, 2020
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 originally from Southern California and now lives in New York. She is the author of the poetry collections _Teeth_, _Kingdom Animalia__, _and _The Black Maria__. _Her essay "From Woe to Wonder" can be read in the Arts & Culture section of _The Paris Review _(June, 2020)_. _Girmay recently edited _How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton _and she is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 13, 2020
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 she completed a Masters in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington, where she was the recipient of the Adam Foundation Prize. _Poūkahangatus_ is her first book.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 10, 2020
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 Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and a Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Their work has appeared in _The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Good Morning America, NYLON_, and elsewhere, including the RZA-directed movie _Love Beats Rhymes_ alongside Azealia Banks, Common, and Jill Scott.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 6, 2020
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 question about what to do.
Philip Metres – is the author of _Shrapnel Maps_, _Sand Opera_, and _The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance_. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim and Lannan Foundations, and received three Arab American Book Awards, the Adrienne Rich Award, and the Hunt Prize. He is a professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Nov 2, 2020
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, _The Butterfly Hotel_, was shortlisted for The OCM Bocas Poetry Prize, and his latest book is _A Portable Paradise_. He is a co-founder of both Spoke Lab and the international writing collective Malika’s Kitchen.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 30, 2020
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 Leverhulme Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His awards include the Northern Writers' Award, the Resurgence Prize, and an Eric Gregory Award. His debut book of poetry is _Tongues of Fire_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 26, 2020
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 West Asian writer. Her work has been published internationally, including in Radio NZ, Nerdy PoC, _Djed Press_, _The Big Issue_, _Overland _literary journal and _Endless Yarning_. Meleika is a 2019 Next Chapter recipient from the Wheeler Centre.
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Oct 23, 2020
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 _Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000_, which won the National Book Award, _The Book of Light_, and _Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980_. She served as poet laureate for the state of Maryland from 1979-1985 and was a distinguished professor of humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She died in 2010.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 19, 2020
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 English mother, he has lived in the United States since 2001. He is Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University. His poetry collections include _Sanctificum_ and _Hands Washing Water_.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 16, 2020
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 For Epileptics and Feebleminded_, which was named a _The_ _New York Times_ Critics’ Top Book of 2017, and the forthcoming essay collection, _Places I’ve Taken My Body_. She teaches at Kenyon College, where she is the Kenyon Review Fellow in Poetry.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 12, 2020
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 and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. She was a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and has written two books of poetry, _When My Brother Was an Aztec_, and _Postcolonial Love Poem_. She teaches at the Arizona State University Creative Writing MFA program.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 9, 2020
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 _Monument_ and _Native Guard_, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 5, 2020
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 during World War II. His book _Collected Poems_ received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He died on March 25, 1980.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Oct 2, 2020
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 the _Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) _and Director of the MFA program at Rutgers University-Camden. His most recent book is _Air Traffic_, a memoir in essays.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org
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Sep 28, 2020
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 books of the year by _The Washington Post_. She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency MFA program.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Sep 14, 2020
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.
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Apr 3, 2020
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 gratitude toward all who are working in health care right now.
About the Poet:
“Leaving Early” comes from Leanne O’Sullivan’s book _A Quarter of an Hour_. Thank you to the publisher, Bloodaxe Books, who gave us permission to use Leanne’s poem. Read it on our website at onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.org.
The original music in this episode was composed by Gautam Srikishan.
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Mar 23, 2020
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.
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Mar 20, 2020
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 endured?
About the Poet:
Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Mass. She wrote around 1,800 poems in her life, and her first collection of poetry was published posthumously in 1890.
“1383” comes from _The Poems of Emily Dickinson_, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. Thank you to Harvard University Press, who published the book and gave us permission to use Emily’s poem. Read it on our website at onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.org.…
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Mar 16, 2020
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:
Raymond Antrobus is a freelance poet and teacher. He is one of the world’s first recipients of a MA in Spoken Word Education from Goldsmiths, University of London and is the recipient of the Geoffrey Dearmer Award by the Poetry Society (judged by Ocean Vuong). He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Complete Works iii, and Jerwood Compton Poetry.
“Miami Airport” comes from Raymond Antrobus’s book _The Perseverance_. Thank you to Penned in the Margins, who published th…
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Mar 13, 2020
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. His books include the memoir, _The Green Fool_, the novel _Tarry Flynn_, and the poetry collections _The Great Hunger_, _The Complete Poems of Patrick Kavanagh_, and _Collected Poems_.
“The One” comes from Patrick Kavanagh’s book _Collected Poems_, edited by Antoinette Quinn. Thank you to the trustees of the late Katherine B. Kavanagh Estate and to the Jonathan Williams Literary Agency, for letting us use Patrick’s poem. Read it on our website at onbeing.org.
Find the tra…
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Mar 9, 2020
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:
Ali Cobby Eckermann is a Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal poet and the author of seven books, including _Ruby Moonlight_, the poetry collections _Inside My Mother_, and a memoir, _Too Afraid to Cry_. She is the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize in Poetry from Yale University.
“Kulila” comes from Ali Cobby Eckermann’s book _Inside My Mother_. Thank you to Giramondo Publishing, who published the book and gave us permission to use Ali’s poem. Read it on our website at onbeing.…
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Mar 6, 2020
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 writing at the University of Exeter. His books of poetry include _The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion_, winner of the Forward poetry prize, _There Is an Anger That Moves_, and _A Light Song of Light_. His novels include _The Last Warner Woman_ and most recently, _Augustown_.
“Book of Genesis” comes from Kei Miller’s book _There Is an Anger That Moves_. Thank you to Carcanet Press Limited, who gave us permission to use Kei’s poem. You can read it on our web…
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Mar 2, 2020
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 contributes regularly to BBC radio and is a BAFTA-nominated, international prize-winning writer. His awards include a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to literature by the Queen of England, the PEN Pinter Prize, and a Points of Light Award from the prime minister of England. His books of poetry include _Listener_, _Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist_, and _Rebel without Applause_. His memoir is _My Name is Why_.
“Some Things I Like” comes from Lemn Sissay…
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Feb 28, 2020
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, several plays and children's books, and a memoir, _Crazy Brave_. She is also a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.
“Praise the Rain” comes from Joy Harjo’s book _Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings_. Thank you to W.W. Norton, who published the book, and to Joy for letting us use her poem. Read it on our website at onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.org.
The orig…
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Feb 24, 2020
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 done with your hands today? What are you opening? What are you closing?
About the Poet:
Ross Gay is a writer and a professor of English at Indiana University Bloomington. His books include the poetry collection _Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude_, winner of the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and a book of essays,_ __The Book of Delights_. He is a board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard and a co-founder of The Tenderness Project.
“Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shir…
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Feb 21, 2020
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 Edwardsville. Her books include _The Knot Garden_, _The Tumbling Box_, and _Wonder Rooms_. Her forthcoming book is _The Visible Woman. _Her honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the George Kent Prize from _Poetry Magazine_, and the Celia B. Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America.
"The Prodigal's Mother Speaks to God" comes from Alison Funk’s book _The Knot Garden_. Thank you to Sheep Meadow Press, who published the book, and gave us permissi…
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Feb 17, 2020
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 poetry collections during her life including _The Lord_ _and_ _the General Din of the World_, _The Usable Field_, and _World of Made and Unmade_. Winner of a Griffin Poetry Prize and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, Jane taught at various institutions throughout her life including Colby College, Washington University, and New England College. She was a long-time poet-in-residence at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. She died on September 8, 2019.
"Substance Abuse Tri…
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Feb 14, 2020
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 professor in the MFA program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts — Amherst. His _New York Times_ bestselling novel is _On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous_, and his poetry collection, _Night Sky with Exit Wounds_, was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize and Whiting Award. In 2019, Vuong was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Grant.
“Seventh Circle of Earth” comes from Ocean Vuong’s book _Night Sky with Exit Wounds_. Thank you to Copper Canyon Press, who published the bo…
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Feb 10, 2020
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 _Life on Mars_, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, _Duende_, and _The Body’s Prize_. Her memoir is _Ordinary Light_, and she also hosts the podcast, _The Slowdown_.
“Song” comes from Tracy K. Smith’s book _Life on Mars_. Thank you to Graywolf Press, who published the book and to The Permissions Company, who let us use Tracy’s poem. Read it on our website at onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.org.
The original music in this episode was composed by G…
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Feb 7, 2020
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 Thief_, _The Kingdom of Ordinary Time_, and _Magdalene_. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Dartmouth College, and New York University.
“My Mother’s Body” comes from Marie Howe’s book _The Kingdom of Ordinary Time_. Thank you to W.W. Norton, who published the book and gave us permission to use Marie’s poem. Read it on onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.org.
The original music in this episode was composed by Gautam Srikishan…
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Feb 3, 2020
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 Recommendation of the Poetry Book Society. He teaches English at Highland Park High School in Illinois, serves as an educator adviser to the global not-for-profit Narrative 4, and lives with his family in Chicago.
“Prayer” comes from Faisal Mohyuddin’s book _The Displaced Children of Displaced Children_. Thank you to Eyewear Publishing, who published the book and gave us permission to use Faisal’s poem. Read it on onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.…
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Jan 31, 2020
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 for _Orion_ magazine. Her books include _Lucky Fish_, _At the Drive-In Volcano_, _Miracle Fruit_, and _Oceanic_. Her upcoming book of illustrated essays is _World of Wonders_. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance” comes from Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s book _Oceanic_. Thank you to Copper Canyon Press, who published the book, and to Aimee for letting us use her poem. Read it o…
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Jan 27, 2020
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 from Ohio University and an MFA from Bowling Green State.
“What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade” comes from Brad Aaron Modlin’s book _Everyone at This Party Has Two Names_. Thank you to Southeast Missouri State University Press, which published the book and gave us permission to use Brad’s poem. Find the full poem at onbeing.org.
Find the transcript for this episode at onbeing.org.
The original music in this episode was composed by Gautam Srikishan.
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Dec 23, 2019
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 like Raymond Antrobus; and more.
About the host: Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet, theologian, conflict mediator — and the host of our new podcast, Poetry Unbound. His books include a prayer book, Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community, a book of poetry, _Sorry for Your Troubles_, and a memoir, _In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World_
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