[music: “Praise the Rain” by Gautam Srikishan]

My name is Pádraig Ó Tuama, and I present Poetry Unbound from On Being. When I was younger, I used to record songs off the radio and then play them back and press pause so I could write out the lyrics of the song. And that way, I had pages and pages and pages of popular songs where I had my version of the lyrics. Plenty of times I got it wrong. But these days, I look back and realize that one of the things that that was, was living my life in conversation with texts, with poetry of music, that was helping me to be alive, helping me to see the world.

And that’s what poetry is too: it is giving us language to help us to see what’s around us. It doesn’t matter if you can recall it perfectly, or if you can just record a single snippet, or half a line, or two lines. Poetry is alive to what it means to be alive, and it helps us pay attention to our world and to our relationships. That’s the gift of it, and it’s our gift to the poem too: to bring the poem into new places where it hasn’t gone yet.

[music: “Praise the Rain” by Gautam Srikishan]

Poetry Unbound is coming back for Season 5, starting on April 11th. There’ll be new episodes every Monday and Friday for eight glorious weeks. You can follow us on Spotify, or Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Anchor your life with poetry, and join us for Season 5 of Poetry Unbound, from On Being.

[music: “Praise the Rain” by Gautam Srikishan]