On Sundays, We Read Poetry

Each Sunday, I post a brief introduction to a collection of poetry I've been loving. I include one poem that I think really sings. No review. No need. If it's here, you'll know I recommend it. If you have one to recommend (yours or someone else's), send it along. I'll do my best to be here every Sunday.

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That bit above is usually true on Sundays. Today, I offer a different kind of collection. Because sometimes, the very best way to encounter poetry is to be surprised by it, to catch it out of the corner of your eye.

The Poetry Unbound podcast from On Being is a lovely way to let a poem, a single poem take up all the space in the room. Too often, with a collection, we read poem after poem, letting the accumulated power of them do their important work. With this podcast, host Pádraig Ó Tuama guides listeners through a single poem, not belaboring it but opening it up, lifting it to the light for a closer look. New episodes arrive each Monday and Friday, which means I can always find a Sunday poem if I need it. My favorites are all here: Ada Limón and Ross Gay and a few favorites I hadn't met yet, like "Prayer" from Faisal Mohyuddin, which contains this perfect reminder of why I read poetry on Sundays:

. . . unfasten your cluttered mind from the tangible hold of secular trances bow down

before the cascading glow of God’s mercy submit to a centripetal course towards the gates of a more perfect emptiness