Advertise on podcast: Poetry Unbound

Rating

4.9

from

3253 reviews

Description

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 invites you to meet them with stories of your world. The poems are eager to meet you, too. For season 8, we have poems about beasts (dung beetles, horses, eagles and ourselves as well); poems with tensions between parents and children; poems about kingdoms and memories of the dead. There is translation, culture, erotica, water, mortality, and morality. 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.

Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from Poetry Unbound podcast

Thomas Lux — Refrigerator, 1957

2024/02/23

If your home were a museum — and they all are, in a way — what would the contents of your refrigerator say about you and those you live with? In his poem “Refrigerator, 1957,” Thomas Lux opens the door to his childhood appliance and oh, does a three-quarters full jar of maraschino cherries speak volumes.

Rita Wong — flush

2024/02/19

The word “flush” is a verb, as in an activity that we do umpteen times a day. It’s also an adjective that conveys abundance. Fittingly, Rita Wong’s poem “flush” offers a praise song to water’s expansive and unceasing presence in our lives — from our toilets to our teacups, from inside our bodies to outside our buildings, and from our soil to our skies.

Maria Dahvana Headley — Beowulf

2024/02/16

Bro — this is definitely not the “Beowulf” that you read back in school. Maria Dahvana Headley’s gutsy, swaggering translation brings the Old English epic poem roaring into this century, showing you why this tale of fraught family ties, power plays and posturing, and mighty, imperfect people is as relevant as ever.

Michael Klein — Swale

2024/02/12

A horse race from the 1980s may not seem like the obvious inspiration for a poem that celebrates so many of the things that make our lives worth living — good company (human and animal), good books, good food, and honest work — and that is just part of the surprise, delight, and surging joy of Michael Klein’s “Swale.”

Ray Young Bear — Our Bird Aegis

2024/02/09

What holds our bodies together? Yes, there are the biological components, such as the cells, fluids, fibers, but what about the bone-deep stuff, the histories, myths, aches, resolves? In “Our Bird Aegis,” poet Ray Young Bear evokes an adolescent eagle to show how this blend of the visceral, the inherited, and the self-made abides in each of us, no matter our form, wherever we go.

Suji Kwock Kim — Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border

2024/02/05

While disputes over contested lands result in damage that can be seen and documented, they also create countless unseen ruptures in the hearts, minds and souls of the humans caught in the chaos. By giving voice to yearning, Suji Kwock Kim’s poem “Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border” shows how bearing witness and asking the impossible are acts of profound courage, creativity, and defiance.

Amber McBride — ROLL CALL: NEW TAROT NAMES FOR BLACK GIRLS

2024/02/02

In “ROLL CALL: NEW TAROT NAMES FOR BLACK GIRLS,” Amber McBride treats us to a playful litany of language that twists and leaps and never stumbles. Flavored with old-time Christianity, old-time hoodoo, and a modern alchemy all her own, it talks back to prejudice, reclaims the words meant to take people down, and forges new identities that shimmer with strength and strangeness.

Carl Dennis — Breath

2024/01/29

A fragile and wondrous technology that we all possess, the human breath powers any number of things in our lives — speeches, feats of music, athleticism, and more. Carl Dennis’s powerful and meditative poem “Breath” calls on us to take a moment, give our breath our full attention, and celebrate it.

Elisa Gonzalez — To My Twenty-Four-Year-Old Self

2024/01/26

Our lives are filled with distances, the physical spans that we travel but also the stranger, vaster expanses between our past and our present or between feeling anchored and connected and feeling terribly alone. A poem can capture all of those in a way that a map can’t, as Elisa Gonzalez superbly demonstrates in “To My Twenty-Four-Year-Old Self.”

Ofelia Zepeda — Deer Dance Exhibition

2024/01/22

Most of us do our eavesdropping shyly and secretively, but Ofelia Zepeda’s poem “Deer Dance Exhibition” welcomes us to listen in on an exchange between people as they watch a ceremonial dance. Along the way, we get the sense that what we’re witnessing is more than a conversation — it’s the sounds and sensations of life itself.

Sandra Cisneros — When in Doubt

2024/01/19

Even in the most uneventful of human lives, uncertainty and doubts will inevitably intrude. When faced with those, what can you do to steady yourself? One suggestion: Turn to the poem “When in Doubt” by Sandra Cisneros, where she generously shares some of the wisdom that she’s gleaned over the years.

Kandace Siobhan Walker — Three Mangoes, £1

2024/01/15

To be alive is to be in conversation with the dead. The ghosts of loved ones are always swirling around us, and sometimes we’re lucky enough to catch a glimpse. In the poem “Three Mangoes, £1,” Kandace Siobhan Walker describes a surprising encounter with her late grandmother at a busy market, and an encounter with a stranger.

Read Poetry Unbound podcast reviews

4.9 out of 5

3253 reviews

mJw511 2024/02/19

The BEST Poetry Podcast

I absolutely love this podcast. The poem selection alone is amazing, then add to it the gentle enthusiasm of host Pásraig Ò Tauma and it’s just perfec...

O2121 2024/02/17

Inspiring!

Love this podcast. The poems are so well-selected and the commentary is thoughtful. The musical aesthetic of the show fits the theme, almost meditativ...

foolishmcnabbit 2024/02/15

Outstanding Podcast

His voice is soothing. His analyses of the poems are insightful. I look forward to every release

Rdswinford 2024/02/12

Just wonderful a wonderful poem and reading

The visual images were there as you read the poem- almost empathetically I was there. Felt the love for that big black shiny horse

Nana@5531 2024/02/11

Our Bird Aegis

What an extraordinary gift is this episode! Deep gratitude and something else that seems not to want to be wordified…

Martynav 2024/02/07

Healer / teacher

This is my favorite podcast. I cannot put into words extraordinary healing, relief, joy and freedom when I listen to this podcast and am comforted by ...

TheWatertree 2024/01/25

Best 15 minutes of my day

In as little as 5 minutes I am swiftly taken to landscapes that only poetry can travel me. Pad further guides the tour with confident unpretentious en...

Austin sadowski 2024/01/05

Poet

I love the poetry and I’m a poet myself It gives me joy to listen to poetry.

mikeymcdangerface 2023/11/22

Mid

Very short unchallenging safe poems read and over-examined by a mono-tonal Leprechaun. Fluffed up with Bland Cookie cutter interlude music that scream...

The Real Zen Boy 2023/11/14

Gone 100% Negative

I used to really enjoy this podcast, especially the first season. The host is really insightful and draws a lot of meaning out of poems. The problem i...

check all reviews on aple podcasts