Poetry Unbound

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What's Poetry Unbound about?

Your new ritual: Immerse in a single poem, guided by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Short and unhurried; contemplative and energizing. Anchor your week by listening to the everyday poetry of your life, with new episodes on Monday and Friday.

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Katie Manning — What to Expect

06.18.2021

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 ...

Poetry Unbound episodes:

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 ...
06.04.2021 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 ...
05.31.2021 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 ...
05.28.2021 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, ...
05.24.2021 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 ...
05.21.2021 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 ...
05.17.2021 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 ...
05.14.2021 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, ...
05.10.2021 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 ...
05.07.2021 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 ...
05.03.2021 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 ...
04.30.2021 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 ...
04.26.2021 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 ...
04.19.2021 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. ...
12.18.2020 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 ...
12.14.2020 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 ...
12.11.2020 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 ...
12.07.2020 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. ...
12.04.2020 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. ...
11.30.2020 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, ...
11.27.2020 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 ...
11.23.2020 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 ...
11.20.2020 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 ...
11.16.2020 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 ...
11.13.2020 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 ...
11.10.2020 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 ...
11.06.2020 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 ...
11.02.2020 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 ...
10.30.2020 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. ...
10.26.2020 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 recalls how their ancestors “acknowledged my roots grew in two / places” ...
10.23.2020 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 ...
10.19.2020 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 ...
10.16.2020 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 ...
10.12.2020 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 ...
10.09.2020 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 ...
10.05.2020 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 ...
10.02.2020 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 ...
09.28.2020 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,” ...
09.14.2020 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 ...
04.03.2020 A Poem in Gratitude for Health Care Workers 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 ...
03.23.2020 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? ...
03.20.2020 A Poem for How Friendship Endures 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 ...
03.16.2020 A Poem About When We’re Disbelieved 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 ...
03.13.2020 A Poem About the Beauty of Home 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 ...
03.09.2020 A Poem for Keeping Memory Alive 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 ...
03.06.2020 A Poem for Letting Yourself Be 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 ...

Older episodes

Poetry Unbound

What's Poetry Unbound about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Poetry Unbound episodes:

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

Roshni Goyate — Coconut Oil

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

Esteban Rodríguez — 22 La Bota

Reginald Dwayne Betts — Essay on Reentry

Li-Young Lee — From Blossoms

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo — Battlegrounds

Matthew Olzmann — Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem

Vievee Francis — How Delicious to Say It

Eavan Boland — Eviction

Jónína Kirton — Reconciliation

Lorna Goodison — Reporting Back to Queen Isabella

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

Poetry Unbound — Season 3 Trailer

Christian Wiman — All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs

Carlos Andrés Gómez — Father

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

R.A. Villanueva — Life Drawing

Zaffar Kunial — The Word

Dilruba Ahmed — Phase One

Layli Long Soldier — WHEREAS my eyes land on the shoreline

Chen Chen — I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party

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

Aracelis Girmay — Consider the Hands that Write this Letter

Tayi Tibble — Our Nan Lets Us Smoke Inside

Paul Tran — The Cave

Philip Metres — One Tree

Roger Robinson — A Portable Paradise

Seán Hewitt — Suibhne is wounded, and confesses

Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi — Say My Name

Lucille Clifton — song at midnight

Chris Abani — The New Religion

Molly McCully Brown — Transubstantiation

Natalie Diaz — Of Course She Looked Back

Natasha Trethewey — Miscegenation

James Wright — A Blessing

Gregory Pardlo — Wishing Well

Ada Limón — Wonder Woman

Poetry Unbound — Season 2 Trailer

A Poem in Gratitude for Health Care Workers

Help Shape the Next Season of Poetry Unbound

A Poem for How Friendship Endures

A Poem About When We’re Disbelieved

A Poem About the Beauty of Home

A Poem for Keeping Memory Alive

A Poem for Letting Yourself Be

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