Poetry Unbound

Poetry Unbound Bonus — Walter de la Mare

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Host Pádraig Ó Tuama shares “The Listeners” by Walter de la Mare, a favorite childhood poem of his, and offers an audio postscript to Season 10 ...

Leonard Cohen — Book of Mercy “I,8”

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever watched, in awe, as a skilled gymnast or skater lifts off and completes a dizzying number of revolutions in less than a second before la...

Billy-Ray Belcourt — Subarctica

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Will you leave this episode feeling uplifted, envious, curious, or something else entirely? Yes. Billy-Ray Belcourt’s poem “Subarctica” transpor...

Ruth Irupé Sanabria — Carne

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ruth Irupé Sanabria’s delicious and dexterous “Carne” begins with these lines: “I've eaten pork from / pernil to chuletas to chitterlings.”...

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha — Dukka

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Loving in the face of violence, danger, and distress is an act of defiance, as demonstrated in Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s achingly beautiful poem “Dukk...

Rachel Mann — #TDOR

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Mann’s “#TDOR” manages to turn a depiction of one side of a conversation about marking Trans Day of Remembrance into a poem that is both ...

Sanah Ahsan — Ramadan’s Greeting

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sanah Ahsan’s evocative “Ramadan’s Greeting” brings us into the thoughts and experiences of a person observing the holiest month in Islam. In ...

Kevin Hart — Prayer

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“O come, in any way you want” is the first line in Kevin Hart’s marvelous, mystical “Prayer”. So come to this poem — whether for its deli...

Harryette Mullen — LUVTOFU

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Too many of us left high school thinking that a poem could be taken seriously only if it was difficult to understand, subdued in its use of rhyme and ...

Stewart Henderson — How To Speak Love In A Storm?

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What is there to say or do when the life of a loved one has been upended and devastated? Stewart Henderson’s poem “How To Speak Love In A Storm?”...

Dante Micheaux — Theologies for Korah

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Dante Micheaux’s rich and rollicking poem “Theologies for Korah” is written on the occasion of an infant’s baptism, but it’s anything but ba...

Oksana Maksymchuk — Arguments for Peace

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“How could there be a war in this city?” is the plaintive question that starts Oksana Makysymchuk’s “Arguments for Peace”. Like ours, the wo...

Armen Davoudian — Coming Out of the Shower

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Armen Davoudian’s casually intimate poem “Coming Out of the Shower”,  mother and son perform their morning routines in the small, shared spa...

Orlando Ricardo Menes — Grace

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Some religions and some people have very specific ideas about “grace”, and that includes poet Orlando Ricardo Menes. In the carefully constructed ...

Cyrus Cassells — Jasmine

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In fewer than two dozen lines, Cyrus Cassells’s poem “Jasmine” offers readers a multisensory, cinematic immersion into late spring life in Rome....

W.S. Merwin — For The Anniversary of My Death

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

W.S. Merwin’s “For The Anniversary of My Death” is a slim, precise poem — just 13 lines made up of 84 words — about the very weightiest of s...

Kimblerly Blaeser - my journal records the vestiture of doppelgangers

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Words can’t quite fully capture the activity, oddity, and awe that is everywhere around us, but poet Kimberly Blaeser makes a gorgeous attempt in he...

Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Marie Howe

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Marie Howe’s poetry shimmers with the keen attention she pays to language: the language of the body (both the human body and “the beautiful body o...

Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Lorna Goodison

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Spending time in hell is not my idea of something that one should do,” says poet Lorna Goodison, yet she immersed herself there for years to crea...

Denise Duhamel — How It Will End

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever gotten consumed by watching a couple argue in public and trying to decipher what’s really going on between them? Denise Duhamel’s de...

Fady Joudah — [...]

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Even though Palestinian-American Fady Joudah’s poem is sparingly titled “[...],” an ellipsis surrounded by brackets, this work itself is psychol...

Benjamin Zephaniah — To Michael Menson

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Zephaniah’s urgent, imperative “To Michael Menson” was written when he was a poet in residence at a human rights barrister in England. ...

Carmen Giménez — Ars Poetica

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Carmen Giménez’s poem “Ars Poetica” is a stunning waterfall of words, a torrent of dozens of short statements that begin with “I” or “I’...

Rick Barot — The Singing

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rick Barot’s poem “The Singing” takes place in the humdrum, relatable setting of the waiting room at a car dealership. But the unexpected occurs...

Diannely Antigua — Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“You would’ve made a lousy nun.” The narrator of Diannely Antigua’s “Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me” overhears these w...

Don McKay — Neanderthal Dig

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Don McKay’s poem “Neanderthal Dig” begins with the discovery of an ancient, child-sized skeleton placed on the wing of a swan and then takes fli...

Ernesto Cardenal — Give Ear to My Words (Psalm 5)

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When dictatorial leaders use talk of peace as a smokescreen to conceal their plans for war and  destruction, what are the people to do? Believe in a ...

Diego Báez — Inheritance

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many people say their experience of time changes after they have children, a phenomenon that Diego Báez captures in “Inheritance.” In this poem, ...

Danielle Chapman — Trespassing with Tweens

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Wonder and strangeness commingle with the commonplace and universal in Danielle Chapman’s “Trespassing with Tweens.” In a not-quite mirroring, a...

Richard Langston — Hill walk

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 play...

Robert Hayden — Those Winter Sundays

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Taylor Johnson — Pennsylvania Ave. SE

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Joh...

Kinsale Drake — Put on that KTNN

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Poetry Unbound — Season 9 Trailer

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, December 2. Featured poets in this season include Robert Hayden, Kinsale Drake, Danielle...

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

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this concluding episode of "Poems as Teachers," our special miniseries on conflict and the human condition, host Pádraig Ó Tuama says the poems d...

Yehuda Amichai — Poems as Teachers | Ep 6

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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,” t...

Jericho Brown — Poems as Teachers | Ep 5

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 i...

Mosab Abu Toha — Poems as Teachers | Ep 4

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 san...

Constantine P. Cavafy — Poems as Teachers | Ep 3

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We ask questions to find out the facts, but what if you can’t trust the answers, the questions, or the person who's asking the questions? In Constan...

Joy Harjo — Poems as Teachers | Ep 2

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As appealing as it may sound, is it really possible to live in a world completely free of conflict? No. And since differences and disagreements are in...

Introducing: Poems as Teachers (ft. Wisława Szymborska) | Ep 1

12 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Host Pádraig Ó Tuama gives an overview of this Poetry Unbound mini season that's devoted to poems with wisdom to offer about conflict and humanity. ...

Thomas Lux — Refrigerator, 1957

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 h...

Rita Wong — flush

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Won...

Maria Dahvana Headley — Beowulf

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bro — this is definitely not the “Beowulf” that you read back in school. Maria Dahvana Headley’s gutsy, swaggering translation brings the Old ...

Michael Klein — Swale

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 livin...

Ray Young Bear — Our Bird Aegis

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 h...

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

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While disputes over contested lands result in damage that can be seen and documented, they also create countless unseen ruptures in the hearts, minds ...

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

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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....

Carl Dennis — Breath

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A fragile and wondrous technology that we all possess, the human breath powers any number of things in our lives — speeches, feats of music, athleti...

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

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 betw...

Ofelia Zepeda — Deer Dance Exhibition

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Sandra Cisneros — When in Doubt

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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?...

Kandace Siobhan Walker — Three Mangoes, £1

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 catc...

Francisco Aragón — Asleep You Become a Continent

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It is an intimate thing, to watch a lover while they sleep. In Francisco Aragón’s translation of Francisco X. Alarcón’s homoerotic poem, “Asle...

Conor Kerr — Winter Songs

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conor Kerr’s “Winter Songs” depicts a future scene: coyotes roaming through a rewilded city, digging up the bones of Indigenous ancestors who th...

Valencia Robin — The Coup

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Valencia Robin’s poem portrays a tense relationship between mother and daughter; perhaps each resembling the other too much. In desperation — and ...

Eugenia Leigh — How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a poem about how a small moment can help you make a wise decision, Eugenia Leigh finds the strength to go back home after storming out. No self-pit...

Poetry Unbound — Season 8 Trailer

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, January 1. Featured poets in this season include Amber McBride, Eugenia Leigh, Francisco...

Clint Smith with Krista Tippett — What We Know in the "Marrow of Our Bones"

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Friends, Pádraig here — we are awakening your Poetry Unbound feed to share this brilliant episode from the newest season of On Being, which is well...

BONUS: Truth-seeking and the Symphony of Language with Henri Cole

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A central duality appears in the work of Henri Cole: the revelation of emotional truths in concert with a “symphony of language” — often accompa...

BONUS: Making Space for the Erotic with Aimee Nezhukumatathil

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poems are filled with butchery and blood as she carves space for desire, motherhood, and an encyclopedic knowledge of plants...

BONUS: Poetry That Pays Attention with Patricia Smith

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Through her poetry, Patricia Smith generously, skillfully puts language around what can be seen both in the present and deliberately looking back at o...

Maya C. Popa — They Are Building a Hospital

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

So much of what was once deemed impossible was found — during Covid — to be possible. Here, a poet watches a tent, a huge temporary hospital, be r...

Jenny Mitchell — A Man in Love with Plants

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How to remember a beloved who died tragically, violently? Remember the violence? Sometimes, yes. But also this: remember his love of flowers.Jenny Mit...

Vidyan Ravinthiran — Artist

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What self-consciousnesses do artists carry? It can be difficult to know how to hold onto confidence in your work, especially when small jibes from oth...

Mark Turcotte — Dear New Blood

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A poet reads to a room full of youths who seem to have some residual resentment to the poet. The poet doesn’t mind — he understands, and calls on ...

Wo Chan — the smiley barista remembers my name

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What do sandwiches, laundry, therapy, childhood homes, and forgiveness have to do with each other? Wo Chan weaves a poem that charts the many things a...

Amanda Gunn — Ordinary Sugar

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A note from the Poetry Unbound team:We’ve updated the audio for our episode “Amanda Gunn — Ordinary Sugar.” This updated version includes an...

J. Estanislao Lopez — Alternate Ending: The Escape of Jephthah’s Daughter

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Old stories — of mythology or religion — have sometimes been depicted as having one narrative and one interpretation. Here, J. Estanislao Lopez ta...

BONUS: A Conversation with Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are delighted to offer this extended conversation between host Pádraig Ó Tuama and the poet Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe. Together, they take a d...

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe — Blue

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a poem that explores a story of a name, a story of a color, a story of a sound, a story of an identity, a the story of a person — we hear of ance...

Charif Shanahan — Present Moment

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On one particular day, a poem places events alongside each other, the ordinariness of each event casting the other events into light and shade.Charif ...

Brenda Cárdenas — This Is Why

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we do the things we do when we’re young? Brenda Cárdenas recalls nights sneaking out of the house as a teenager, looking for highs, looking ...

Nithy Kasa — Blouse

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An item of clothing — the blouse of a grandmother — is praised for its artistry, is remembered for how it sits on the body. And then, having been ...

Selina Nwulu — Replay

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What might have been? A poet recalls flirtations and electric connections that could have led to a different life.Selina Nwulu is a writer of Nigerian...

John Lee Clark — Self Portrait

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you had to make a self portrait of your daily morning routine through language and sensation, what would you include? John Lee Clark offers memorie...

Kay Ulanday Barrett — Pantoum for recital when my mom said, don’t let them see you cry

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A memory from childhood is viewed through the lens of the Malaysian poetic form of pantoum. New things emerge when lines break and reform with new ass...

dg nanouk okpik — In a Lock of Hair

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you could put a lock of your hair under a microscope, what would it contain? DNA certainly, but here in dg nanouk okpik’s poem, the hair also con...

On Poetry and Patronage: An Invitation to Love Us

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pádraig reflects on the transformative force of poetry, and Krista joins with an invitation to pay tribute to the ongoing work of Poetry Unbound.Make...

Benjamin Gucciardi — The Rungs

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A social worker holds a group for teenagers at a school. They only half pay attention to him. Then something happens, and they pay attention to each o...

Rowan Ricardo Phillips — Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever had a private moment — perhaps in the middle of the night — in a large city? When it just seems like it’s you and the great dreami...

Alexander Posey — The Dew and the Bird

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a poem of strict rhymes and old forms, Alexander Posey (1873-1908), a poet of the Creek Nation, poses challenges to pomposity.Alexander Posey was a...

José Olivarez — No Time to Wait

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a church there are liturgies and prayers and statues. But in José Olivarez’s poem, there are more urgent things taking place, things that have “...

Safia Elhillo — Ode to My Homegirls

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Friendships deserve praise songs, and here’s a praise song — an ode — to friends that have crossed continents for each other, and would go furth...

Poetry Unbound — Season 7 Trailer

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, May 22. Featured poets in this season include Selina Nwulu, Wo Chan, Rowan Ricardo Phill...

Ada Limón with Krista Tippett — “To Be Made Whole”

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Friends, we are awakening your Poetry Unbound feed for a moment to share this episode from the big, beautiful new season of On Being. And Pádraig’s...

BONUS: A conversation with Lorna Goodison – and the humans behind Poetry Unbound

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As part of a celebratory launch party for the new Poetry Unbound book, Pádraig welcomed Lorna Goodison, former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, into a joyfu...

Danusha Laméris — Bonfire Opera

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A younger woman looks at an older woman, admiring her beauty, skill, and freedom. Older now, she thinks of how hard-won such freedom is. Also: singin...

Rumi — You wake the dead to life

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Who brings you to praise? Rumi’s great poem of praise to the “you” is to his great friend Shams, and through that friendship, to God.Rumi was a ...

Naomi Shihab Nye — I Feel Sorry for Jesus

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What’s it like to be owned by the world, to have populations claiming you, to have millions speaking on your behalf? Naomi Shihab Nye takes a close ...

Victoria Adukwei Bulley — not quiet as in quiet but

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Quiet. Shhh. Softly. Don’t make a fuss. Don’t upset the authorities. Victoria Adukwei Bulley unquiets the quiet.Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet,...

Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley — small talk or in my hand galaxies

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On the day you wake to a broken window in your car, what do you do? And what happens when the woman repairing that window offers a glimpse of somethin...

Dan Vera — Norse Saga

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When you move to a new place, everything seems different. Hell’s not hot anymore; it’s freezing. A poem of strangeness and wonder. Dan Vera is a ...

Solmaz Sharif — Self-Care

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Who decides what’s self care and what isn’t? Who benefits? Who pays? Upon whom does the burden of self care rest? Solmaz Sharif excavates.Solmaz S...

Dunya Mikhail — Eva Whose Shadow Is a Swan

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Some friendships are built on small encounters and last a lifetime. Two women — from across culture, location, and age — spend a lifetime in commu...

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura — What’s Kept Alive

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the hingepoint of change, a poet walks through the garden his late father planted. Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is a writer and visual artist. He is the a...

Kevin Goodan — We give…

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Firefighting pushes the body to breaking point; Kevin Goodan’s poem locates the “ash-dark art” of firefighting not just in the wilderness where ...

David Whyte — Leaving the Island

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes leaving feels like you’re splitting yourself in two, but you leave anyway. What compels us? What holds us together even as we look back? D...

Andrés N. Ordorica — Mis raíces

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is the landscape that has most influenced you? When do you go there? In person? Andrés N. Ordorica goes in dreams. Andrés N. Ordorica is a que...

Laura Villareal — My Worries Have Worries

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you were to use a metaphor for your worries, what metaphor would you turn to? Here, the worries have worry babies of their own. And they look back ...