Poetry Unbound

By On Being Studios

What's Poetry Unbound about?

Your poetry ritual: An immersive reading of a single poem, guided by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Unhurried, contemplative and energizing. New episodes on Monday and Friday, about 15 minutes each. Two seasons per year, with occasional special offerings. Anchor your life with poetry.

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Poetry Unbound — Season 6 T...

09.19.2022

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. ...

Poetry Unbound episodes:

09.19.2022 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. ...
06.03.2022 Yu Xiuhua — Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You How far would you go for great love? And what distances would you cross?
05.30.2022 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?
05.27.2022 Tiana Clark — My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work Life can feel exhausting sometimes: how do you find rest?
05.23.2022 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.
05.20.2022 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?
05.16.2022 M. Soledad Caballero — Someday I Will Visit Hawk Mountain In the face of wonder, we can sometimes lose ourselves.
05.13.2022 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?
05.09.2022 Caroline Bird — Little Children Children’s demands can be high, and their standards can be exacting. It’s a good thing they’re loveable.
05.06.2022 Marilyn Nelson — The Truceless Wars What do we achieve in our fighting? How can we turn to hope and our deepest nature?
05.02.2022 Richard Blanco — Looking for The Gulf Motel Is something lost once it’s gone? How do we blend sadness with sweet memory?
04.29.2022 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.
04.25.2022 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.
04.22.2022 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.
04.18.2022 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.
04.15.2022 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.
04.11.2022 Rita Dove — Eurydice, Turning How do you speak with your mother when she’s forgotten who you are?
04.04.2022 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. ...
03.28.2022 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 ...
12.17.2021 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 ...
12.13.2021 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 ...
12.10.2021 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 ...
12.06.2021 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 ...
12.03.2021 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 ...
11.29.2021 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 ...
11.26.2021 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 ...
11.22.2021 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 ...
11.19.2021 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 ...
11.15.2021 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 ...
11.12.2021 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 ...
11.08.2021 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 ...
11.05.2021 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 ...
11.01.2021 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, ...
10.29.2021 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, ...
10.25.2021 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 ...
10.22.2021 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 ...
10.18.2021 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. ...
10.15.2021 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 ...
10.15.2021 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 ...
10.11.2021 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 ...
10.08.2021 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 ...
10.04.2021 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 ...
10.01.2021 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 ...
09.27.2021 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. ...
09.20.2021 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. ...
06.18.2021 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 ...
06.14.2021 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 ...
06.11.2021 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 ...
06.11.2021 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 ...
06.07.2021 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 ...

Older episodes

Poetry Unbound

What's Poetry Unbound about?

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Poetry Unbound episodes:

Poetry Unbound — Season 6 Trailer

Yu Xiuhua — Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You

Andy Jackson — The change room

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

Joshua Bennett — Owed to Your Father’s Gold Chain

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

M. Soledad Caballero — Someday I Will Visit Hawk Mountain

Rafiq Kathwari — Mother Writes to President Eisenhower

Caroline Bird — Little Children

Marilyn Nelson — The Truceless Wars

Richard Blanco — Looking for The Gulf Motel

Yusef Komunyakaa — Praising Dark Places

Hannah Emerson — Keep Yourself at the Beginning of the Beginning

Kyle Carrero Lopez — Ode to the Crop Top

Divya Victor — First Petition

Denise Low — Walking with My Delaware Grandfather

Rita Dove — Eurydice, Turning

Poetry Unbound — Season 5 Trailer

BONUS: An Invitation from Pádraig and Krista

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

Craig Santos Perez — Rings of Fire

Alberto Ríos — December Morning in the Desert

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

Aria Aber — The Only Cab Service of Farmington, Maine

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

Linda Hogan — Song for the Turtles of the Gulf

Lory Bedikian — On the Way to Oshagan

Nico Amador — Flower Wars

Darrel Alejandro Holnes — Amending Wall

Elizabeth Bishop — Sestina

Major Jackson — Blunts

Andrés Cerpa — Seasonal without Spring: Autumn

Kaveh Akbar — How Prayer Works

Gail McConnell — Worm

Romeo Oriogun — Pink Club

Kathleen Flenniken — Married Love

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

BONUS: A Conversation with No’u Revilla

No’u Revilla — Smoke Screen

Jake Skeets — Daybreak

Tishani Doshi — Species

Jason Allen-Paisant — Right now I’m Standing

Jacob Shores-Argüello — Make Believe

Margaret Atwood — All Bread

Poetry Unbound — Season 4 Trailer

Katie Manning — What to Expect

Ilya Kaminsky — We Lived Happily during the War

BONUS: A Conversation with Margaret Noodin

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

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

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