Valencia Robin — The Coup

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 10 of Poetry Unbound. Later in 2026, he will bring us more Poetry Unbound to look forward to — find out what and when here. In the meantime ...  Show more

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 before landing safely back down? That’s how you may feel upon reading the great Leonard Cohen’s urgent, dreamlike poem “I, 8” from Book of ...  Show more

When the poet Robin Coste Lewis discovered a trove of photographs under her late grandmother’s bed, she recognized them not only as a document of her family’s history during the Great Migration, but also as a testament to Black intimacy and ingenuity across generations. From s ...

Today’s guest, Mexican poet, painter, and translator Valerie Mejer Caso talks about her latest book, the bilingual publication of poetry, collage, and photography Edinburgh Notebook, translated by Michelle Gil-Montero for Action Books. What does it mean to write something both au ...  Show more

An impassioned plea, a yearning for connection — the poem U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón wrote when she says all language failed her. Take in Ada's reading of her piece, “The End of Poetry” — and hear her read more of her work in the On Being episode, “To Be Made Whole.”Ada Limón i ...  Show more

This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert talks with Cecilia, a young poet in Florida. Cecilia fell in love with poetry in college and applied to a dozen MFA programs. She got rejected from every one. Devastated by the rejection she fell into great despair and wondered if she ...  Show more