Poetry Unbound On Being Studios
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- Arts
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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.
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Thomas Lux — Refrigerator, 1957
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.
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Rita Wong — flush
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.
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Maria Dahvana Headley — Beowulf
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.
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Michael Klein — Swale
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.”
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Ray Young Bear — Our Bird Aegis
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.
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Suji Kwock Kim — Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border
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.
Customer Reviews
I am a big fan of the way he explains the poets work and explains the poetry
I am a big fan of the way he takes an art form that I love and go to when things seem a little pointless when he helps me see the totality and relates the thing being conveyed so I see better things I may never relate to that collection of ideas
Grateful
Growing up reading my parent’s Carl Sandburg poems, my love for poetry was always there, but your insightful explanations have added depth to my understanding and appreciation. Thank you!
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 perfects it. This is an joyous celebration of poetry, its power, its reach. As a fellow poet, thank you for this!