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Poetry Unbound podcast

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Poetry Unbound

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  On Being Studios  

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

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

 

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#191

Diego Báez — Inheritance

Many people say their experience of time changes after they have children, a phenomenon that Diego Báez captures in “Inheritance.” In this poem, a past, present, and future starring the same child shift ceaselessly in a parent’s mind, like photos flipped through in an album, dots placed on a timeline, moments that one wishes they could build monuments for. Diego Báez, is a writer and educator in Chicago, where he teaches at the City Colleges of Chicago. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University - Newark. A writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Báez’s work has been published in Freeman's, The Rumpus, The Georgia Review, The Thing Itself Journal, Number Eleven Magazine, and Hobart. His poetry has appeared in Luna Luna, la fovea, Granta, and elsewhere. He serves as a Director of the Board for the National Book Critics Circle and the International David Foster Wallace Society. Báez was an inaugural fellow at CantoMundo in 2010. [Yaguareté White] (https://onbeing.org/programs/diego-baez-inheritance/#media) , published in 2024 by The University of Arizona Press, is his debut poetry collection. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/diego-baez-inheritance/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Diego Báez’s poem and invite you to subscribe to [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com/) newsletter, read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — [Kitchen Hymns] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns/21131749?ean=9781556597107) (new poems from Pádraig) and [44 Poems on Being with Each Other] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/40-poems-on-being-with-each-other-a-poetry-unbound-collection-padraig-o-tuama/21077256?ean=9781324086161) (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books. ... Read more

20 Dec 2024

20 MINS

20:04

20 Dec 2024

#190

Danielle Chapman — Trespassing with Tweens

Wonder and strangeness commingle with the commonplace and universal in Danielle Chapman’s “Trespassing with Tweens.” In a not-quite mirroring, a human mother and her children stand and watch together in awe as a great blue heron flaps in and feeds its two offspring. The pleasures found here are profound and multiple – the joys in seeing, in sharing an experience of seeing, in seeing with fresh eyes, and in being seen. Danielle Chapman is a poet, essayist, and lecturer in English at Yale University. Her most recent collection of poetry, [Boxed Juice] (https://onbeing.org/programs/danielle-chapman-trespassing-with-tweens/#media) , was published in 2024 by Unbounded Edition Press. Her previous collection of poems, [Delinquent Palaces] (https://onbeing.org/programs/danielle-chapman-trespassing-with-tweens/#media) , was published by Northwestern University Press in 2015, and her memoir, [Holler: A Poet Among Patriots] (https://onbeing.org/programs/danielle-chapman-trespassing-with-tweens/#media) , was released by Unbound Edition Press in 2023. For several years, Chapman served as the Director of Literary Arts and Events for the City of Chicago, and she was also an editor at Poetry Magazine. She currently teaches Shakespeare and creative writing and lives in Hamden, Connecticut, with her family. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/danielle-chapman-trespassing-with-tweens/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Danielle Chapman’s poem and invite you to subscribe to [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com/) newsletter, read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — [Kitchen Hymns] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns/21131749?ean=9781556597107) (new poems from Pádraig) and [44 Poems on Being with Each Other] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/40-poems-on-being-with-each-other-a-poetry-unbound-collection-padraig-o-tuama/21077256?ean=9781324086161) (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books. ... Read more

16 Dec 2024

16 MINS

16:07

16 Dec 2024

#189

Richard Langston — Hill walk

In Richard Langston’s poem “Hill walk,” he proffers a handful of things that move us over the course of a day — words said or read, notes played, the sight of halting steps taken by a sibling. We marvel at the sound of an unfamiliar bird call, but there’s a startling mystery to the human heart and what it responds to (or doesn’t) and one that we don’t always mark. Richard Langston is a veteran broadcast journalist and director. He comes from Dunedin, New Zealand, and was a driving force in the city’s music scene in the 1980s. He now lives in Wellington and is a proud member of the three-person South Wellington Poetry Society. His poetry collection, [Five O’Clock Shadows] (https://thecubapress.nz/shop/shadows/?srsltid=AfmBOoqG_1RkpHNRcijZoQNy29nhfCYH9TI26-Y07FUXxmWIIYkdO22a) , was published in 2020 by The Cuba Press. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/richard-langston-hill-walk/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Richard Langston’s poem and invite you to subscribe to [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com/) newsletter, read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — [Kitchen Hymns] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns/21131749?ean=9781556597107) (new poems from Pádraig) and [44 Poems on Being with Each Other] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/40-poems-on-being-with-each-other-a-poetry-unbound-collection-padraig-o-tuama/21077256?ean=9781324086161) (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books. ... Read more

13 Dec 2024

12 MINS

12:18

13 Dec 2024

#188

Robert Hayden — Those Winter Sundays

What sacrifices were made by your parents when you were a child? How did you think about them as they were happening? And how do you think about them now? In his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden holds space for a weighted childhood memory and the regret, love, and pain it evokes. Robert Hayden (1913-1980) was the first Black American poet to be appointed the Consultant of Poetry to the Library of Congress (now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate); he held this role from 1976 to 1978. Hayden was the recipient of numerous awards, including a Hopwood Award, Academy of American Poets Fellowship, Grand Prize for Poetry at the First World Festival of Negro Arts, and Russell Loines Award for distinguished poetic achievement from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/robert-hayden-those-winter-sundays/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Robert Hayden’s poem and invite you to subscribe to [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com/) newsletter, read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — [Kitchen Hymns] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns/21131749?ean=9781556597107) (new poems from Pádraig) and [44 Poems on Being with Each Other] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/40-poems-on-being-with-each-other-a-poetry-unbound-collection-padraig-o-tuama/21077256?ean=9781324086161) (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books.   ... Read more

09 Dec 2024

12 MINS

12:18

09 Dec 2024

#187

Taylor Johnson — Pennsylvania Ave. SE

When you look at people who are younger than you — particularly teenagers — does your mind ever take you back to yourself at their age? Taylor Johnson’s poem “Pennsylvania Ave. SE” performs this feat of time travel, going from a glimpse of two boys on bicycles to a haunting sense memory of what was once so yearned for: to be seen, to be wanted, to be free. Taylor Johnson is proud of being from Washington, D.C. He has received fellowships and scholarships from CALLALOO, Cave Canem, Lambda Literary, VONA, Tin House, Vermont Studio Center, Yaddo, Conversation Literary Festival, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, among others. In 2017, Johnson received the Larry Neal Writers' Award from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His poems appear in The Baffler, Indiana Review, Scalawag, and The Paris Review, among other journals and literary magazines. His first book, [Inheritance] (https://onbeing.org/programs/taylor-johnson-pennsylvania-ave-se/#media) , was published in November 2020 by Alice James Books. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/taylor-johnson-pennsylvania-ave-se/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Taylor Johnson’s poem and invite you to subscribe to [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com/) newsletter, read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — [Kitchen Hymns] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns/21131749?ean=9781556597107) (new poems from Pádraig) and [44 Poems on Being with Each Other] (https://bookshop.org/p/books/40-poems-on-being-with-each-other-a-poetry-unbound-collection-padraig-o-tuama/21077256?ean=9781324086161) (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books. ... Read more

06 Dec 2024

13 MINS

13:21

06 Dec 2024

#186

Kinsale Drake — Put on that KTNN

In Kinsale Drake’s poem “Put on that KTNN,” she writes about driving to a hometown as a familiar station crackles to life on the car radio. From this corner of America, she creates her own country music — of Navajo voices alongside Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, of drumbeats and guitar licks, of things wrought by nature and things made by humans, all of them rooted in the desert sand. Kinsale Drake (Diné) is a poet, playwright, and performer based out of the Southwest U.S. She is a winner of the 2023 National Poetry Series Competition. Her poetry collection, [The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket] (https://onbeing.org/programs/kinsale-drake-put-on-that-ktnn/#media) , was published by The University of Georgia Press in 2024. Drake’s work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Poets.org, Best New Poets, Black Warrior Review, Nylon, MTV, Teen Vogue, Time, and elsewhere. She recently graduated from Yale University, where she received the J. Edgar Meeker Prize, Academy of American Poets College Prize, Young Native Playwrights Award, and the 2022 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. She is the founder of NDN Girls Book Club. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/kinsale-drake-put-on-that-ktnn/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Kinsale Drake’s poem and invite you to read [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com) , read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or [listen back to all our episodes] (http://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/) . ... Read more

02 Dec 2024

14 MINS

14:56

02 Dec 2024

#185

Poetry Unbound — Season 9 Trailer

[Poetry Unbound] (https://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/) with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, December 2. Featured poets in this season include Robert Hayden, Kinsale Drake, Danielle Chapman, Diannely Antigua, and many more. New episodes every week through March 3. Follow us on [Apple Podcasts] (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poetry-unbound/id1492928827) , [Spotify] (https://open.spotify.com/show/5gS9llUxTSORzMZtbDK4xh?si=o18f-0rEQXiptF-4LfhPUw&nd=1&dlsi=92278951e89849ac) , [Pocket Casts] (https://pca.st/4ka272tj) , [Overcast] (https://overcast.fm/login) , or wherever you listen. Find the [transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/poetry-unbound-season-9-trailer/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. ... Read more

25 Nov 2024

01 MINS

01:17

25 Nov 2024

#184

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

In this concluding episode of "Poems as Teachers," our special miniseries on conflict and the human condition, host Pádraig Ó Tuama says the poems discussed in this offering are a different kind of teacher: “not as teachers that give us rules to follow — more so teachers that share something of their own intuition.” And for a final reflection, he offers Kai Cheng Thom’s “trauma is not sacred,” which speaks directly, fiercely, and lovingly to the pain, scars, and violence that we humans carry and inflict upon one another. Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performance artist, and community healer. Kai Cheng is the author of the novel [Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir] (https://onbeing.org/programs/closing-poems-as-teachers-ft-kai-cheng-thom-episode-7/#media) ; the essay collection [I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes at the End of the World] (https://onbeing.org/programs/closing-poems-as-teachers-ft-kai-cheng-thom-episode-7/#media) (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book); the poetry collection [a place called No Homeland] (https://onbeing.org/programs/closing-poems-as-teachers-ft-kai-cheng-thom-episode-7/#media) (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book); and the children's books [From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea] (https://onbeing.org/programs/closing-poems-as-teachers-ft-kai-cheng-thom-episode-7/#media) (illustrated by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li) and [For Laika, the Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars] (https://onbeing.org/programs/closing-poems-as-teachers-ft-kai-cheng-thom-episode-7/#media) (illustrated by Kai Yun Ching). She won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers in 2017. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/closing-poems-as-teachers-ft-kai-cheng-thom-episode-7/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. This is the final episode of "Poems as Teachers," a special seven-part miniseries on conflict and the human condition. We’re pleased to offer [Kai’s poem] (https://onbeing.org/poetry/trauma-is-not-sacred) , and invite you to read [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com) , read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or [listen back to all our episodes] (http://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/) . ... Read more

17 May 2024

12 MINS

12:42

17 May 2024

#183

Yehuda Amichai — Poems as Teachers | Ep 6

Being right may feel good, but what human price do we pay for this feeling of rightness? Yehuda Amichai’s poem “The Place Where We Are Right,” translated by Stephen Mitchell, asks us to answer this question, consider how doubt and love might expand and enrich our perspective, and reflect upon the buried and not-so-buried ruins of past conflicts, arguments, and wounds that still call for our attention. Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet and novelist born in Würzburg, Germany, and he lived from 1924 to 2000. His poetry is collected in numerous works, including [Open Closed Open] (https://onbeing.org/programs/yehuda-amichai-poems-as-teachers-episode-6/#media) , [The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai] (https://onbeing.org/programs/yehuda-amichai-poems-as-teachers-episode-6/#media) , and [The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai] (https://onbeing.org/programs/yehuda-amichai-poems-as-teachers-episode-6/#media) . Stephen Mitchell is an author, poet, and translator. His works of translation include The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Gilgamesh, and Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda. Mitchell translated [The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai] (https://onbeing.org/programs/yehuda-amichai-poems-as-teachers-episode-6/#media) with Chana Bloch. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/yehuda-amichai-poems-as-teachers-episode-6/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. This is the sixth episode of "Poems as Teachers," a special seven-part miniseries on conflict and the human condition. We’re pleased to offer [Yehuda’s poem] (https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-place-where-we-are-right) , and invite you to read [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com) , read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or [listen back to all our episodes] (http://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/) . ... Read more

17 May 2024

14 MINS

14:04

17 May 2024

#182

Jericho Brown — Poems as Teachers | Ep 5

In “Hebrews 13” by Jericho Brown, a narrator says: “my lover and my brother both knocked at my door.” The heat is turned on, scalding coffee is offered and hastily swallowed, and silence is the soundtrack. What an exquisitely awkward triangle it is, and what a human, beautiful, and loving shape that can be. Jericho Brown is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where he also directs the university’s creative writing program. His books of poetry are [The New Testament] (https://onbeing.org/programs/jericho-brown-poems-as-teachers-episode-5/#media) , [Please] (https://onbeing.org/programs/jericho-brown-poems-as-teachers-episode-5/#media) , and [The Tradition] (https://onbeing.org/programs/jericho-brown-poems-as-teachers-episode-5/#media) , for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/jericho-brown-poems-as-teachers-episode-5/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. This is the fifth episode of "Poems as Teachers," a special seven-part miniseries on conflict and the human condition. We’re pleased to offer Jericho Brown’s poem, and invite you to read [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com) , read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or [listen back to all our episodes] (http://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/) . ... Read more

16 May 2024

13 MINS

13:10

16 May 2024

#181

Mosab Abu Toha — Poems as Teachers | Ep 4

In Mosab Abu Toha’s “Ibrahim Abu Lughod and brother in Yaffa,” two barefoot siblings on a beach sketch out a map of their former home in the sand and argue about what went where. Their longing for return to a place of hospitality, family, memory, friends, and even strangers is alive and tender to the touch. Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, scholar, and librarian who was born in Gaza and has spent his life there. He is the founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s first English-language library. [Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear] (https://onbeing.org/programs/mosab-abu-toha-poems-as-teachers-episode-4/#media) is his debut book of poems: it won an American Book Award and a 2022 Palestine Book Award, and was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry as well as the 2022 Walcott Poetry Prize. His writings from Gaza have appeared in The Nation and Literary Hub, and his poems have been published in Poetry, The Nation, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Poetry Daily, and the New York Review of Books, among others. [Find the transcript] (https://onbeing.org/programs/mosab-abu-toha-poems-as-teachers-episode-4/#transcript) for this show at onbeing.org. This is the fourth episode of "Poems as Teachers," a special seven-part miniseries on conflict and the human condition. We’re pleased to offer [Mosab Abu Toha’s poem] (https://onbeing.org/poetry/ibrahim-abu-lughod-and-brother-in-yaffa) , and invite you to read [Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack] (https://poetryunbound.substack.com) , read [the Poetry Unbound book] (https://linktr.ee/poetryunbound) , or [listen back to all our episodes] (http://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/) . ... Read more

15 May 2024

16 MINS

16:29

15 May 2024