Mosab Abu Toha — Poems as Teachers | Ep 4
Poetry Unbound15 Mai 2024

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 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 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, and invite you to read Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound book, or listen back to all our episodes.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(218)

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

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

“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 words, and they jolt her into contrasting her life experience wit...

27 Jan 202516min

Don McKay — Neanderthal Dig

Don McKay — Neanderthal Dig

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 flight, showing us how love and death are riddled with para...

20 Jan 202514min

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

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

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 vision of peace and freedom that is muscular, sturd...

13 Jan 202517min

Diego Báez — Inheritance

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 shi...

20 Des 202420min

Danielle Chapman — Trespassing with Tweens

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 ...

16 Des 202416min

Richard Langston — Hill walk

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 marv...

13 Des 202412min

Robert Hayden  — Those Winter Sundays

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 Ha...

9 Des 202412min

Taylor Johnson — Pennsylvania Ave. SE

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 ...

6 Des 202413min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
popradet
aftenpodden-usa
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
grenselos
wolfgang-wee-uncut
min-barneoppdragelse
synnve-og-vanessa
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
fladseth
frokostshowet-pa-p5
alt-fortalt
rss-dannet-uten-piano
198-land-med-einar-trnquist
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem