One of the joys of listening to the program is that Ó Tuama uses ordinary language to describe poetic forms and styles. Marilynne Robinson’s new novel explores an impossible love.How therapeutic clowning injects humour for a different kind of healing.Oldyssey puts a 21-century twist on pen pals with online French meetups.By the end of each episode, the listener’s glance around the room has turned up some interesting clues, whether that’s some background into the life of the poet or a technical feature of the poem. “The idea is that people, with a bit of company, are stepping into a room and looking around,” he says, indulging in the metaphor.

It’s a remarkably simple approach, and therein lies its draw: listeners feel welcomed into the space of a single poem, with Ó Tuama as their gentle and generous host. He always begins with a reading of a chosen poem, and then moves listeners into a short personal reflection before closing with a second reading. Each episode runs about 15 minutes and unfolds like a sacred ritual, with Ó Tuama’s calming voice coming together with meditative music to enhance the contemplative feel. “It was so much more important than a career it was a way of life.” Now, as a critically acclaimed poet and the host of On Being Studios’ Poetry Unbound podcast, Ó Tuama has embraced poetry as his vocation.īehind Poetry Unbound is a radical vision for today’s hurried world: that readers will pause twice a week and slow down long enough to listen to poetry. “It never occurred to me that I might want to think about this as a career,” he recalls. “That lasted the right amount of time - and it’s much nicer to recite to yourself,” he says, laughing.Īs a gay man growing up Catholic in conflict-ridden Northern Ireland, Ó Tuama turned to poetry as his language of survival.

Yeats’s poem To a Child Dancing in the Wind. In the early days of the pandemic, when health officials were advising people to sing Happy Birthday twice while washing their hands, poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama knew there had to be something better to recite.

Poetry unbound podcast