Kay Ulanday Barrett — Pantoum for recital when my mom said, don’t let them see you cry
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 associations.Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, essayist,...
12 Jun 202313min
dg nanouk okpik — In a Lock of Hair
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 contains memory, smell, location, disease, dreams, and ...
9 Jun 202313min
On Poetry and Patronage: An Invitation to Love Us
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 a gift and learn more at onbeing.org/LoveUs. Hoste...
7 Jun 20231min
Benjamin Gucciardi — The Rungs
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 other.Benjamin Gucciardi was born and raised in San...
5 Jun 202315min
Rowan Ricardo Phillips — Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same
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 dreaming metropolis? Rowan Ricardo Phillips brings us into a m...
2 Jun 202312min
Alexander Posey — The Dew and the Bird
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 poet, editor, and satirist born in 1873 in the Cr...
29 Mai 202311min
José Olivarez — No Time to Wait
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 “no time to wait.”José Olivarez is the son of Mexican ...
26 Mai 202311min
Safia Elhillo — Ode to My Homegirls
Friendships deserve praise songs, and here’s a praise song — an ode — to friends that have crossed continents for each other, and would go further if needed.Sudanese by way of D.C., Safia Elhillo is t...
22 Mai 202312min
