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Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Kitchen Hymns opens with a question: “Do You Believe in God?” — but the bee, “gone extinct,” cannot answer, and the grass calls believe “a poor verb.” This collection trades belief for language, and philosophy is grounded in form and narrative. Kitchen Hymns is structured like a ghost mass, where even if God is a “favorite emptiness,” longing still has things to say: Jesus and Persephone meet at Hell’s exit and discuss survival; someone believes more in birds than belief; hares carry messages from the overworld to the underworld. A study in lyric address, Kitchen Hymns speaks to a shifting “you”: an unknown you; the strange you; a lover, a hated other; the you of erotic desire; the you of creation and destruction. Large themes are informed by and contained in a poetics of observation, humor, trauma, dialogics, lament, rage and praise. Delivered in finely honed melodies, shaped with force and conviction, Kitchen Hymns “reckon[s] with the empty,” and becomes “busy with a body / not a question.”
“For Irish poet Padraig O Tuama, seeing the world through poetry is a calling, whether that’s his own poetry or someone else’s.”—All Things Considered on NPR
“Host of On Being’s beloved Poetry Unbound podcast, Irish poet Ó Tuama continues his search for a faith not borne strictly of religious practice. The title references Irish religious songs heard at home, suggesting the conversational tone of this meditative work. . . . VERDICT Heartfelt, questing poems for anyone reconsidering how to believe”—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal, STARRED review
“In reflective, questing poems, Irish theologian Tuama (Poetry Unbound, 2022), a prolific lecturer and editor, unpacks the contradictory coils of life. . . . The poet grapples with doubt and disillusionment and locates answers in language. . . . Tuama is especially adept at depicting the passage of time, whether it’s the circuitous rejuvenation of sunrise (‘the way that morning is both dead and new’) or the colorful autumnal sequence of the seasons, ‘the green has gone to brass and berry, copper, ember, fire.’ Readers will enjoy this title as a return to or entry point into Tuama’s work.”—Diego Báez, Booklist
About the Author
Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet, theologian, and seasoned broadcaster. He hosts Poetry Unbound with On Being Studios and has published critical and theological essays, a memoir, and multiple volumes of poetry. His writing has previously been published in Kenyon Review, the New England Review, Poetry Ireland, Harvard Review and others. Working fluently on the page and in public, he is a compelling writer and skilled speaker and teacher. He holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in theology, multiple professional qualifications in conflict mediation, and a PhD in Poetry and Theology from the University of Glasgow. From 2014-2019 he was the leader of the Corrymeela Community, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation community. For the fall terms of 2024-28, he is a visiting scholar at the Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.
