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Since the start of the pandemic, prose has been the source of so many of my problems.
I spend most of my working and waking hours distracted by words.
The relentless upward march of the coronavirus death toll and the bottomless pit of our politics have felt all-consuming.
So much seems to demand my attention, yet so little seems to reward it.
WhenPoetry Unboundarrived in my life last year, it was a refreshing reminder of the restorative power of language.
Listening to the podcast is like descending into a bubble bath.
Your first foot into the water is the music, produced by Brooklyn artist Gautam Srikishan.
It warms you with tenderly touched piano keys and finger-plucked guitar strings and soothing synthetic soundscapes.
Within a few moments, the words of a poem are washing over you, and youre floating.
Poetry demands absolute devotion.
But stick with it, and you might come away with a capital-T truth about the human condition.
Its no wonder the show was downloaded more than 3 million times in a year like 2020.
The possibility of surprise as a public experience, thats one of the things that might save us.
The first is O Tuamas transparent respect for every piece he selects for the show.
Although the process for picking the poems is, he jokes, entirely unscientific, it is not unserious.
He reads about 200 books of poetry to prepare for each season.
(Season three will premiere on April 26.)
And he will only include a piece if he has read the entire collection it was published in.
Its not a check and balance, which implies something negative, he said.
Is it facing something else?
What place does it have in the population of poems it was put together in?
O Tuama and his producers make a conscious decision to elevate voices from diverse backgrounds.
Among themost memorable episodesof Season two was a piece by the Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier.
Her 2017 book,Whereas, was a response to the 2009U.S.
Congressional Apology to Native Peoples.
The other ingredient is O Tuamas transparent respect for the audience.
Episodes rarely stretch past 15 minutes.
O Tuama, is not, to put a very fine point on it, waxing poetic.
As with the art of poetry itself, the shows economy of language is an elegant editorial decision.
Although the poems are often profoundly spiritual, the show refuses to devolve into didacticism.
And although the show is undoubtedly intellectual, it resists the temptation to be instructional.
But this isnt for that.
I also think its asking: What do we do in times of conflict?
Conflict has been a central theme in O Tuamas life.
He was born in an Ireland in which homosexual acts between men were illegal.
He was raised in a Catholic church in which they were immoral.
How do we speak to each other?
What does it mean to speak to each other?
How can we use metaphors and pause and silence and space on a page or space in a room?
For O Tuama, the radio has often been a place of exploration.
As a kid, hed collect the free earphones that were often given away at gas stations.
At night, hed clandestinely discover new ideas or new music in the twilight of his bedroom.
He was an avid listener to Krista Tippetts renowned radio program,On Being.
The producers were so moved by O Tuamas comment that they asked him to record it for air.
And each have a posture of respect toward each other.
He also hopes it will be relaxing.
The website describes the show as your new ritual.
Thats of interest to me.
There have always been distractions.
The question is: What will you do in the face of those?
Human dignity can call words to account.
