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Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World
“Mesmerizing, magical, deeply moving.” ―Elif Shafak
Expanding on the popular podcast of the same name from On Being Studios, Poetry Unbound offers immersive reflections on fifty powerful poems. In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama’s appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem’s artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives. Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Ó Tuama engages with a diverse array of voices that includes Ada Limón, Ilya Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Natasha Trethewey meditates on miscegenation and Mississippi; Raymond Antrobus makes poetry out of the questions shot at him by an immigration officer; Martín Espada mourns his father; Marie Howe remembers and blesses her mother’s body; Aimee Nezhukumatathil offers comfort to her child-self. Through these wide-ranging poems, Ó Tuama guides us on an inspiring journey to reckon with self-acceptance, history, independence, parenthood, identity, joy, and resilience. For anyone who has wanted to try their hand at a conversation with poetry but doesn’t know where to start, Poetry Unbound presents a window through which to celebrate the art of being alive.
Expanding on the popular podcast of the same name from On Being Studios, Poetry Unbound offers immersive reflections on fifty powerful poems. In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama’s appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem’s artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives. Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Ó Tuama engages with a diverse array of voices that includes Ada Limón, Ilya Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Natasha Trethewey meditates on miscegenation and Mississippi; Raymond Antrobus makes poetry out of the questions shot at him by an immigration officer; Martín Espada mourns his father; Marie Howe remembers and blesses her mother’s body; Aimee Nezhukumatathil offers comfort to her child-self. Through these wide-ranging poems, Ó Tuama guides us on an inspiring journey to reckon with self-acceptance, history, independence, parenthood, identity, joy, and resilience. For anyone who has wanted to try their hand at a conversation with poetry but doesn’t know where to start, Poetry Unbound presents a window through which to celebrate the art of being alive.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
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April 3, 2024
Happy National Poetry Month!
I have a real soft spot for collections like this. Anthologies are always a great way to learn new poets and poems and have a wonderful index of works that revolve around various themes, something to reach for when the words to express a situation fail you but you know that, somewhere, a poet has put a net of words around the ineffable. Pádraig Ó. Tuama’s Poetry Unbound: 50 poems to Open Your World goes one step further, providing a close reading of each of the 50 poems found within, with personal insights and stories that catch the gusts of beauty in the poems and soar to their own spectacular heights. As the epigraph from Christian Wiman says ‘we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them,’ Tuama provides us with poems to better inhabit our own feelings with these ‘fifty little doors to open up the world.’ One thing I feel strongly about is poetry’s unique ability for the speaker to really reach inside the reader and help us see the world through the abstraction of their words, to better understand, better empathize, better feel the vastness of the world and that each person in it is a living story on their own unique trajectory. As Winman says, if we better inhibit our lives and our world ‘we might be less apt to destroy both,’ and the selection of poets and poems found in this book are finely tuned towards such an endeavour. Drawing mostly from current poets, the selections here all become a balm on a weary soul and are an incredible group of writers. We have poets like current US Poet Laureate Ada Limon, or former Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, as well as other brilliant poets including Layli Long Soldier, Ilya Kaminsky, Natalie Díaz, Kaveh Akbar, Joy Ladin, Aracelis Girmay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and many more.
This is a perfect book for any poetry collection and would make an amazing book for someone looking for a start in reading poetry. The essays that follow each poem are full of gorgeous insights and help readers learn how to unlock poetry and bask in its beauty. A poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó. Tuama provides a lot of personal history to these essays that endear you to him as well. A queer poet growing up in a religious household and community, his selections and ideas often revolve around ideas of religion but in ways that step outside of theology and into the art of myth-making for the sake of enlightenment and the betterment of the self and the world. The poems here often address the issues of the world around us and make for excellent guides through difficult or painful conversations about society, politics, the traumas and sadness of living, but also the joy that miraculously survives amidst all the world throws at us. Thank you poetry for always capturing hope. This is a lovely book and I highly recommend it.
I have a real soft spot for collections like this. Anthologies are always a great way to learn new poets and poems and have a wonderful index of works that revolve around various themes, something to reach for when the words to express a situation fail you but you know that, somewhere, a poet has put a net of words around the ineffable. Pádraig Ó. Tuama’s Poetry Unbound: 50 poems to Open Your World goes one step further, providing a close reading of each of the 50 poems found within, with personal insights and stories that catch the gusts of beauty in the poems and soar to their own spectacular heights. As the epigraph from Christian Wiman says ‘we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them,’ Tuama provides us with poems to better inhabit our own feelings with these ‘fifty little doors to open up the world.’ One thing I feel strongly about is poetry’s unique ability for the speaker to really reach inside the reader and help us see the world through the abstraction of their words, to better understand, better empathize, better feel the vastness of the world and that each person in it is a living story on their own unique trajectory. As Winman says, if we better inhibit our lives and our world ‘we might be less apt to destroy both,’ and the selection of poets and poems found in this book are finely tuned towards such an endeavour. Drawing mostly from current poets, the selections here all become a balm on a weary soul and are an incredible group of writers. We have poets like current US Poet Laureate Ada Limon, or former Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, as well as other brilliant poets including Layli Long Soldier, Ilya Kaminsky, Natalie Díaz, Kaveh Akbar, Joy Ladin, Aracelis Girmay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and many more.
This is a perfect book for any poetry collection and would make an amazing book for someone looking for a start in reading poetry. The essays that follow each poem are full of gorgeous insights and help readers learn how to unlock poetry and bask in its beauty. A poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó. Tuama provides a lot of personal history to these essays that endear you to him as well. A queer poet growing up in a religious household and community, his selections and ideas often revolve around ideas of religion but in ways that step outside of theology and into the art of myth-making for the sake of enlightenment and the betterment of the self and the world. The poems here often address the issues of the world around us and make for excellent guides through difficult or painful conversations about society, politics, the traumas and sadness of living, but also the joy that miraculously survives amidst all the world throws at us. Thank you poetry for always capturing hope. This is a lovely book and I highly recommend it.
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February 2, 2024The good news? This is not just another anthology featuring famous poets or, God forbid, chestnuts we've roasted on open fires in the past. The maybe bad news and maybe not? The anthology is editor-centric in that it fits the editor's personal mindset and politics.
"Political poetry" is a weird term, I admit. Some see the two words and say "odd bedfellows." Other, philosophical types who are not sitting in a chair but a construct (or something), say everything is political. OK, far be it for me to call it. I get both points of view.
Ó Tuama's book is Brave New World circa 2024 and that's a good thing if you're tired of the same old, same old. About the only familiar and expected names here are those of Ada Limón, Margaret Atwood, RainerMaria Rilke, Marie Howe, Christian Wiman, Ocean Vuong, and James Wright. After that, Ó Tuama, an Irish poet himself, selects mostly marginalized, indigenous, and minority poets -- many from countries other than the USA and UK. Thus the anthology meets the challenge of its title. It is, indeed, "Poetry Unbound" -- especially from the past, and most especially still from the dead and the white and the male.
If you're allergic to political slants and want a more even distribution of topics, including the more traditional ones like nature poetry (Wright's "A Blessing" being the best example here), then you might like it less and perhaps should look elsewhere.
That aside, what I liked best was Ó Tuama's organization for the book. Each poem comes with a short (say, 1/4th of the page) intro, then the poem, and then his analysis, typically 3-4 pages. His analytical skills are solid. In the end, then, the "politics or no" views of any given reader may prove meaningless. You can learn from this book, even if you aren't wild about every selection -- a fate we should allow for in any anthology.
"Political poetry" is a weird term, I admit. Some see the two words and say "odd bedfellows." Other, philosophical types who are not sitting in a chair but a construct (or something), say everything is political. OK, far be it for me to call it. I get both points of view.
Ó Tuama's book is Brave New World circa 2024 and that's a good thing if you're tired of the same old, same old. About the only familiar and expected names here are those of Ada Limón, Margaret Atwood, RainerMaria Rilke, Marie Howe, Christian Wiman, Ocean Vuong, and James Wright. After that, Ó Tuama, an Irish poet himself, selects mostly marginalized, indigenous, and minority poets -- many from countries other than the USA and UK. Thus the anthology meets the challenge of its title. It is, indeed, "Poetry Unbound" -- especially from the past, and most especially still from the dead and the white and the male.
If you're allergic to political slants and want a more even distribution of topics, including the more traditional ones like nature poetry (Wright's "A Blessing" being the best example here), then you might like it less and perhaps should look elsewhere.
That aside, what I liked best was Ó Tuama's organization for the book. Each poem comes with a short (say, 1/4th of the page) intro, then the poem, and then his analysis, typically 3-4 pages. His analytical skills are solid. In the end, then, the "politics or no" views of any given reader may prove meaningless. You can learn from this book, even if you aren't wild about every selection -- a fate we should allow for in any anthology.
August 1, 2023
Inspired by the Poetry Unbound podcast that Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama began during the early months of the pandemic, this lovely anthology explores all the ways that poetry illuminates, restores, challenges, delights and soothes our souls. With intimate tidbits from his own life, Ó Tuama teases out the nuances of each poem to illustrate both the craft of poetry and its thematic, emotional profundity.
The majority of the fifty selections are from living poets, some well-known (Ada Limón, Christian Wiman, Ocean Vuong, Paul Tran), others emerging but accomplished in their own right (Richard Georges, Kaveh Akbar, Leanne O'Sullivan). Rilke and James Wright are the only historical poets in the collection that I can recall and I will deem Margaret Atwood, Marie Howe, and Jónina Kirton literary legends, but otherwise, many of these writers are my contemporaries or significantly younger. I will admit to being biased toward the spiritually-, nature-, family- themed poems and less inclined toward the political and personal identity/trauma-based work, but there are just a handful of pieces that did not resonate. Most did, and some deeply in ways that I did not expect. Ó Tuama's generous, sweet, funny, and grounded explication of each poem opened doors into the work that I found astonishing, comforting, revelatory and deeply moving. I think of Wishing Well by Gregory Pardio, an urban conversation between two strangers that leaves one, at first annoyed and disinterested, forever changed by a momentary encounter. I think of Kei Miller's Book of Genesis that opens up an entire world of possibility with one simple word: let. Of Imtiaz Dharker elegiac ode of longing and passion for her deceased husband in Don't Miss Out! Book Right Now for the Journey of a Lifetime!
Whether you are an avid reader of poetry, never touch the stuff, or are somewhere in between, Poetry Unbound is a collection of reflections you can dip in and out of, a way to begin your poetic explorations or a means to deepen what you've already learned and received in your reading journey. Gorgeous. Highly recommended.
The majority of the fifty selections are from living poets, some well-known (Ada Limón, Christian Wiman, Ocean Vuong, Paul Tran), others emerging but accomplished in their own right (Richard Georges, Kaveh Akbar, Leanne O'Sullivan). Rilke and James Wright are the only historical poets in the collection that I can recall and I will deem Margaret Atwood, Marie Howe, and Jónina Kirton literary legends, but otherwise, many of these writers are my contemporaries or significantly younger. I will admit to being biased toward the spiritually-, nature-, family- themed poems and less inclined toward the political and personal identity/trauma-based work, but there are just a handful of pieces that did not resonate. Most did, and some deeply in ways that I did not expect. Ó Tuama's generous, sweet, funny, and grounded explication of each poem opened doors into the work that I found astonishing, comforting, revelatory and deeply moving. I think of Wishing Well by Gregory Pardio, an urban conversation between two strangers that leaves one, at first annoyed and disinterested, forever changed by a momentary encounter. I think of Kei Miller's Book of Genesis that opens up an entire world of possibility with one simple word: let. Of Imtiaz Dharker elegiac ode of longing and passion for her deceased husband in Don't Miss Out! Book Right Now for the Journey of a Lifetime!
Whether you are an avid reader of poetry, never touch the stuff, or are somewhere in between, Poetry Unbound is a collection of reflections you can dip in and out of, a way to begin your poetic explorations or a means to deepen what you've already learned and received in your reading journey. Gorgeous. Highly recommended.
December 24, 2022
I found a signed edition of this incredible book by the Irish poet Pádraig Ó. Tuama recently while on holiday in Scotland at Blackwell's in Edinburgh. These poems, by a wide variety of poets from around the world, is brilliantly compiled, and the essays by Pádraig are fascinating and incredibly moving. My favorite poem from this volume is Consider the Hands That Write This Letter by Aracelis Girmay, which is posted below. I highly recommend this book.
Consider the Hands that Write this Letter
BY ARACELIS GIRMAY
after Marina Wilson
Consider the hands
that write this letter.
Left palm pressed flat against paper,
as we have done before, over my heart,
in peace or reverence to the sea,
some beautiful thing
I saw once, felt once: snow falling
like rice flung from the giants' wedding,
or strangest of strange birds. & consider, then,
the right hand, & how it is a fist,
within which a sharpened utensil,
similar to the way I've held a spade,
the horse's reins, loping, the very fists
I've seen from roads through Limay & Estelí.
For years, I have come to sit this way:
one hand open, one hand closed,
like a farmer who puts down seeds & gathers up;
food will come from that farming.
Or, yes, it is like the way I've danced
with my left hand opened around a shoulder,
my right hand closed inside
of another hand. & how I pray,
I pray for this to be my way: sweet
work alluded to in the body's position to its paper:
left hand, right hand
like an open eye, an eye closed:
one hand flat against the trapdoor,
the other hand knocking, knocking.
Consider the Hands that Write this Letter
BY ARACELIS GIRMAY
after Marina Wilson
Consider the hands
that write this letter.
Left palm pressed flat against paper,
as we have done before, over my heart,
in peace or reverence to the sea,
some beautiful thing
I saw once, felt once: snow falling
like rice flung from the giants' wedding,
or strangest of strange birds. & consider, then,
the right hand, & how it is a fist,
within which a sharpened utensil,
similar to the way I've held a spade,
the horse's reins, loping, the very fists
I've seen from roads through Limay & Estelí.
For years, I have come to sit this way:
one hand open, one hand closed,
like a farmer who puts down seeds & gathers up;
food will come from that farming.
Or, yes, it is like the way I've danced
with my left hand opened around a shoulder,
my right hand closed inside
of another hand. & how I pray,
I pray for this to be my way: sweet
work alluded to in the body's position to its paper:
left hand, right hand
like an open eye, an eye closed:
one hand flat against the trapdoor,
the other hand knocking, knocking.
December 23, 2022
Drawn in by the podcast, I have found reading the book almost like a spiritual experience of close reading a text and meditating on each word in the context of lived experience. This is a genre that should have more books in it.
November 22, 2023
I really enjoyed this collection of poetry 💖
I liked :
🌟 the diversity of voices
🌟 the choice of poems
🌟 the brief introductions, drawing on Pádraig Ó Tuama's own experiences and relationship to the poem.
🌟 the short commentary /discussion after each - inviting thought as much as giving thoughts 🙂
🌟 listening to Pádraig Ó Tuama reading it 🙂♥
it's an anthology I think I'd like to read again, and maybe listen alongside seeing the physical layout of the poems on paper 🙂
accessed as a library audiobook, read by Pádraig Ó Tuama ♥
I'm currently slowly, on and off, reading both nonfiction and poetry by Pádraig Ó Tuama, and I really like his compassionate approach to life and other beings.
I liked :
🌟 the diversity of voices
🌟 the choice of poems
🌟 the brief introductions, drawing on Pádraig Ó Tuama's own experiences and relationship to the poem.
🌟 the short commentary /discussion after each - inviting thought as much as giving thoughts 🙂
🌟 listening to Pádraig Ó Tuama reading it 🙂♥
it's an anthology I think I'd like to read again, and maybe listen alongside seeing the physical layout of the poems on paper 🙂
accessed as a library audiobook, read by Pádraig Ó Tuama ♥
I'm currently slowly, on and off, reading both nonfiction and poetry by Pádraig Ó Tuama, and I really like his compassionate approach to life and other beings.
October 6, 2022
I've enjoyed reading this collection over the past few weeks, in between other books. Well chosen and with accompanying essays, perfect for poetry novices like myself.
January 20, 2023
What a wonderful book of poetry! Ó Tuama presents a poem & then gives a short but enlightening commentary on it. Many of the poems came to life with his help, even those that I didn’t initially care for. The audio version is a gem with the poems read by Ó Tuama in his lyrical soothing Irish voice. If you love poetry and especially if you think you don’t, this is a book that needs to be read & shared.
November 25, 2022
An overwrought, idealogical, guilt-ridden, hand-wringing collection of modern poetry in which anyone who isn’t non-white and dying in a ditch is portrayed as privileged, racist, imperial, homophobic, colonial, and capitalist. The problem with this collection is not the poems, though they are not great. The problem is you get an awful lot of Padraig O’Tuama’s analysis and ideology (plus his dreary misrerabilist voice if you listen to the audiobook version on Audible) for not very much poetry.
It would be easy to think of O’Tuama as some harmless, well-meaning, under-employed, middle-class, beardie sitting in a yurt in his back garden, crying at every sad story he reads on his iPhone, but I think that would be too generous. Myopic worldviews are dangerous regardless of which side of the ‘debate’ they come from, and this collection definitely comes from an entrenched political position of victimhood. Not for me.
It would be easy to think of O’Tuama as some harmless, well-meaning, under-employed, middle-class, beardie sitting in a yurt in his back garden, crying at every sad story he reads on his iPhone, but I think that would be too generous. Myopic worldviews are dangerous regardless of which side of the ‘debate’ they come from, and this collection definitely comes from an entrenched political position of victimhood. Not for me.
August 22, 2022
This might be my new favorite poetry collection. Each of the fifty poems in this anthology has a tiny introduction and an essay following it, both by Padraig O'Tuama, who is a fantastic poet, peace-worker in Ireland, podcast host of "Poetry Unbound," and frequent visitor to the "On Being" podcast. I loved reading this book, but also, those of you who are English teachers might find it very usefully excerptable for your classes.
April 21, 2025
The title is the same as that of the author’s popular podcast, from which this arose. It’s an anthology of 50 poems to which he’s devoted personal introductions and critical/exploratory essays. He describes poetry as “like a flame: helping us find our way, keeping us warm.” Many of the poets were unfamiliar to me, though I had previously encountered the specific poems by Kaveh Akbar, Ilya Kaminsky, Kei Miller, Roger Robinson, Esteban Rodriguez, Ocean Vuong, and Christian Wiman. Kathleen Flenniken and Marie Howe were my top discoveries; both of their poems are about dead parents. I already knew I was desperate to try Ada Limon and her “Wonder Woman,” which opens the book, is excellent. “The Place Where We Are Right” by Yehuda Amichai felt very apt for these polarized times (“From the place where we are right / flowers will never grow / in the spring.”) It was a slow read for me as I only read one poem and essay pair in a sitting, but a nice thing to have in the stack.
August 20, 2024
read this if you want to get into poetry, but don’t quite know where to start. 50 poems from poets all over the world and varying stages of popularity and styles. the author/editor of the book then breaks down the poem into its parts, dissects its possible meaning, and gives anecdotes and thoughts behind each. no part of his analysis was too influential that i couldn’t form my own opinion, it only enhanced how i felt about the poem. easily, my favorite in this collection is We Lived Happily during the War by Ilya Kaminsky; followed by What You Missed that Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin; then A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson. highly recommend!
July 15, 2023
None of these poems particularly stood out for me, but I enjoyed reading Tuama's interpretations of them. He hosts a podcast in which he discusses poetry. And if you like that, you might also like The Slowdown.
May 21, 2024
There is something for everyone in this collection. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, solace, joy, or sorrow, this collection has it!
September 15, 2024
5/5 because i not only love this anthology but also love the podcast poetry unbound. padraig o tuama made me believe poetry was something accessible to me and art that everyone can understand and deeply relate to. he is an incredible storyteller. i have never met someone who can talk about such mundane yet uniquely human things so beautifully. when i started to listen to the podcast, i felt deeply alone working in the backcountry of wyoming. poetry helped me get through a hard summer and felt like i still deeply connected with others within my loneliness. i learned so much about different kinds of poems and elements of poetry. tuama introduced me to some of my favorite poets in his podcast and highlighted them again into this collection. i am excited to continue to explore poetry on my own and with o tuama.
April 8, 2023
4.5/5 stars? who cares. I am so grateful for poetry and the diversity of human experience
June 15, 2024
This was a weekly reading habit that I started in Saturdays: wake up, brew coffee, read two poems. I’ve never considered myself a lover of poetry, but this book has made me reconsider that notion. I highly recommend this to anyone that has little to no experience with poetry.
July 9, 2024
Absolutely loved this book. This book will make you want to read poetry!
March 16, 2025
Strike one: mention of Gal "Genocide" Gadot
Strike two: inclusion of Israeli poem
Strike three: not a single mention of Palestine, less alone the inclusion of a Palestinian poem
Strike two: inclusion of Israeli poem
Strike three: not a single mention of Palestine, less alone the inclusion of a Palestinian poem
February 5, 2023
Pádraig Ó Tuama's collection of 50 poems is an impressively curated assembly of brilliance from around the literary world, and the essays he writes to accompany them are works of art and introspection in their own right. In this time when so many things seem transient and there are so many different things pulling on our attention, a book like this, which invites the reader to slow down and observe more closely and more inwardly, is invaluable.
January 30, 2023
4.5*
Incredible collection of poems chosen and discussed by a person I’d love to sit by at a dinner party. I’m so glad that I own this book because I don’t have to feel bad about the dogeared pages and all of the writing in it.
Incredible collection of poems chosen and discussed by a person I’d love to sit by at a dinner party. I’m so glad that I own this book because I don’t have to feel bad about the dogeared pages and all of the writing in it.
March 23, 2024
I love Padraig so much and I found myself reading these poems in his voice like I was listening along to Poetry Unbound. A wonderful collection that comes with more details and explanation of the poems themselves. If you’re looking to get into poetry this is a perfect place to start and see what you like and get a greater understanding 🤌🏽overall the intros remind me how important poetry is for others to see themselves and I’m so thankful for that
POTB:
"I Love You"
Early on, I noticed that you always say it to each of your children
as you are getting off the phone with them just as you never fail to say it
to me whenever we arrive at the end of a call.
It's all new to this only child.
I never heard my parents say it, at least not on such a regular basis, nor did it ever occur to me to miss it.
To say I love you pretty much every day
would have seemed strangely obvious, like saying I'm looking at you
when you are standing there looking at someone.
If my parents had started saying it a lot, I would have started to worry about them.
Of course, I always like hearing it from you.
That is never a cause for concern.
The problem is I now find myself saying it back if only because just saying good-bye
then hanging up would make me seem discourteous.
But like Bartleby, I would prefer not to say it so often, would prefer instead to save it for special occasions, like shouting it out as I leaped into the red mouth of a volcano with you standing helplessly on the smoking rim,
or while we are desperately clasping hands before our plane plunges into the Gulf of Mexico, which are only two of the examples I had in mind, but enough, as it turns out, to make me want to say it to you right now,
and what better place than in the final couplet of a poem where, as every student knows, it really counts.
POTB:
"I Love You"
Early on, I noticed that you always say it to each of your children
as you are getting off the phone with them just as you never fail to say it
to me whenever we arrive at the end of a call.
It's all new to this only child.
I never heard my parents say it, at least not on such a regular basis, nor did it ever occur to me to miss it.
To say I love you pretty much every day
would have seemed strangely obvious, like saying I'm looking at you
when you are standing there looking at someone.
If my parents had started saying it a lot, I would have started to worry about them.
Of course, I always like hearing it from you.
That is never a cause for concern.
The problem is I now find myself saying it back if only because just saying good-bye
then hanging up would make me seem discourteous.
But like Bartleby, I would prefer not to say it so often, would prefer instead to save it for special occasions, like shouting it out as I leaped into the red mouth of a volcano with you standing helplessly on the smoking rim,
or while we are desperately clasping hands before our plane plunges into the Gulf of Mexico, which are only two of the examples I had in mind, but enough, as it turns out, to make me want to say it to you right now,
and what better place than in the final couplet of a poem where, as every student knows, it really counts.
December 29, 2024
I quite liking having insight into why poems were selected in a collection that includes a personal ‘debrief’ and interpretation on each: it reminds me of listening to fervent speeches from English teachers I’ve had and takes me back to the careful act of deciphering someone else’s work until I’ve adequately illicited ‘the point’, ‘the meaning’ and ‘my analysis’ out of it. How I miss communal study and discussion with writing!
Poetry is objectively difficult because it is subjective. The fluidity and open-endedness nature of having anyone write anything any way they want means that poems can not only be hard to get through: it is hard to find the pieces that resonate as if they were the ones to find you. For some reason, this ideal stands between me and this book… I just did not feel moved by these the way that reading a singular author’s publication or even a careful editor like The Analog Sea Review did, which is odd because I turned to political poems for comfort and commentary during the 2024 election so I thought this would fit what I wanted. That’s not to say I wasn’t touched and impressed by ideas and execution… I was inspired by some unique pieces by Ocean Vuong, Lemn Sissay, Imtiaz Dharker and Paul Tran that are just inimitable in the internet poetry age so I thank this book for exposing me those pieces and their clever ways of writing. It’s time for me to part with this anthology and continuing with my lifelong search for poems that feel like sustenance!
Poetry is objectively difficult because it is subjective. The fluidity and open-endedness nature of having anyone write anything any way they want means that poems can not only be hard to get through: it is hard to find the pieces that resonate as if they were the ones to find you. For some reason, this ideal stands between me and this book… I just did not feel moved by these the way that reading a singular author’s publication or even a careful editor like The Analog Sea Review did, which is odd because I turned to political poems for comfort and commentary during the 2024 election so I thought this would fit what I wanted. That’s not to say I wasn’t touched and impressed by ideas and execution… I was inspired by some unique pieces by Ocean Vuong, Lemn Sissay, Imtiaz Dharker and Paul Tran that are just inimitable in the internet poetry age so I thank this book for exposing me those pieces and their clever ways of writing. It’s time for me to part with this anthology and continuing with my lifelong search for poems that feel like sustenance!
October 2, 2023
I bought this on Audible, and have the hard copy. Padraig's voice is a balm, and his insight into the 50 poems he's selected is exhilarating. I love listening to him read the poem, and then reading it myself afterwards from the book. I've always loved poetry, and studied it at university, but I feel like I learned more about it from his analysis than I did from any of my lecturers. It has quickly become one of my favourite books - I know I'll go back to it in years to come.
January 25, 2025
A beautifully curated collection of poems from 50 different poets with accessible expert literary analysis by the brilliant Pádraig Ó Tuama. Poetry has intimidated me for decades. Like fine art, I’ve struggled to distinguish good from bad poems. Reading this book is like reading 50 diverse poems, carefully curated by and then explained by a cool, insightful friend. Do I agree with every hit and tittle of the analysis? No, but the poet’s backstory and information about the context of the poem unlocked the genre for me. So much so, that I’m writing poetry for the first time since college.
May 21, 2024
I have loved taking my time chewing over these poems and their analysis. Pádraig introduces each poem with an autobiographical insight, which gives the reader a sense of story and whets the appetite for the poem to come.
The poems themselves are from a wonderfully diverse range of poets, whose form, themes, and creativity stretch the imagination.
All the analyses that follow are warm-hearted, instructive, and illuminating.
I feel my humanity is extended and engagement with poetry enlivened through reading this book. Thoroughly recommend it.
The poems themselves are from a wonderfully diverse range of poets, whose form, themes, and creativity stretch the imagination.
All the analyses that follow are warm-hearted, instructive, and illuminating.
I feel my humanity is extended and engagement with poetry enlivened through reading this book. Thoroughly recommend it.
February 6, 2024
I started this book not really knowing what I was getting into. I thought it would be a collection of poetry from dead white guys, but this collection is very diverse in both authorship, tone, and subject. Each poem stands alone magnificently, though Ó Tuama prefaces each poem chosen with a sort of evocation of experience, then follows each own with commentary on how it affected or moved him. If you're new to poetry, this is a great introduction. If you're looking for new posts or just some inspiration to reconnect with the power of words, this is an excellent place to start.
September 2, 2025
this book felt like my favorite parts of literature class.... where we can enjoy a great piece and talk about why we like it. not too arrogant or know-it-all-y but just humans enjoying art. humans feeling feelings. (the best part of poetry)
December 10, 2023
Wish everybody could start with this as their introduction to poetry. I think more people would engage with it once they heard Padraig’s responses to the poems. A lovely lovely man.
December 31, 2023
I deliberately read my way through this gorgeous collection across the full year so that I could take my time with the poems. Pádraig's writing gently invites the reader into a dialogue with each poem, his commentary is always enlightening but never closes down the conversation or makes the reader feel stupid. I'll enjoy returning to dip into this again and again because I know that each time I read one of the poems it will speak to me in a different way. Highly recommended.
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