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Poetry Unbound

On Being Studios

Your poetry ritual: An immersive reading of a single poem, guided by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Unhurried, contemplative and energizing. New episodes on Monday and Friday, about 15 minutes each. Two s...

Episodes

20 of 227 episodes

Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Don McKay

“I still have the best three-point shot of any Canadian poet born before 1943” is one of the first things that acclaimed poet Don McKay says...

00:45:20May 15, 2026

Poetry Unbound Bonus — Walter de la Mare

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...

00:09:16Mar 9, 2026

Leonard Cohen — Book of Mercy “I,8”

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...

00:16:34Mar 6, 2026

Billy-Ray Belcourt — Subarctica

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

00:17:46Mar 2, 2026

Ruth Irupé Sanabria — Carne

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

00:17:18Feb 27, 2026

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha — Dukka

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

00:15:55Feb 23, 2026

Rachel Mann — #TDOR

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 b...

00:20:32Feb 20, 2026

Sanah Ahsan — Ramadan’s Greeting

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

00:15:53Feb 16, 2026

Kevin Hart — Prayer

“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 delicio...

00:16:30Feb 13, 2026

Harryette Mullen — LUVTOFU

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...

00:14:57Feb 9, 2026

Dante Micheaux — Theologies for Korah

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...

00:18:28Feb 2, 2026