Poetry Unbound – Armen Davoudian: "Coming Out of the Shower"

Host: Pádraig Ó Tuama
Date: January 28, 2026
Podcast: On Being Studios

Episode Overview

In this episode of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama immerses listeners in Armen Davoudian’s poem “Coming Out of the Shower.” The episode focuses on exploring themes of intimacy, family, privacy, and identity, rendered through a close examination of the poem’s technical form and sensory detail. Ó Tuama guides listeners into the everyday world depicted by Davoudian—specifically, a communal family bathroom—and unpacks the poem’s formal structure, emotional resonance, and underlying cultural contexts.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Rhyming and Poetic Tradition (00:04 – 01:45)

• Ó Tuama introduces the topic of poetic structures, especially rhyme, and how different traditions favor rhyme, alliteration, assonance, or strict syllabics.

  “All of those metricalities, whether rhyme or alliteration or assonance or syllable count, all of them bring us back to the primary music of all of our lives, which is the Heartbeat.” (00:44)

Reading of "Coming Out of the Shower" (01:46 – 03:30)

• Ó Tuama reads Armen Davoudian’s poem aloud, emphasizing the sensory and emotional experience of its setting—a shared family bathroom, the textured details of daily rituals, and the delicate navigation of intimacy and privacy.

Intimacy, Privacy, and Domestic Spaces (03:31 – 06:10)

• Dissects the domestic dynamics of a “one-bath four-person household,” highlighting the fine line between intimacy and privacy in close family quarters.
• Observes how the poem’s physical setting (the bathroom) symbolizes vulnerability and the rituals through which family members navigate closeness.

  “With the proximity comes privacy that holds them together and makes them distinct, and that, I think is a characteristic of so much of his poetry throughout his work.” (04:00)

Familial Relationships and Daily Rituals (06:11 – 08:25)

• Examines the actions within the poem: the mother’s application of “foundation and concealer," and the speaker’s use of her “rose water shampoo" and “lavender robe.”
• notes the themes of imitation, inheritance, and boundary—how what is shared and what is private overlap in such households.

  “There's such predications, privacy and such everyday and such intimacy in it.” (04:35)

The Poem’s Formal Structure (08:26 – 09:50)

• Breaks down the technical form: 8 four-line stanzas, with an AABB rhyme scheme.
• Details the syllabic patterns—first and third lines are ten syllables; second and fourth are typically seven or eight.

  “Every time I read this poem, I find myself slowing down because it uses such vernacular language...and it's also a poem of such formal composition.” (05:08)

• Highlights playful and slant rhymes (e.g., “out” and “not,” “chambre” and “clamber”), which create a subtle musicality and occasional surprise.

Cultural Context and Multiple Meanings (09:51 – 11:29)

• Places the poem within Davoudian’s broader background: Armenian heritage, raised in Iran, now in the US; trilingual in Armenian, Persian, English; gay identity.

  “So the title Coming out of the Shower could perhaps have some other meaning, multiple meanings, perhaps.” (10:35)

• Suggests the poem mirrors James Merrill’s work on similar themes while locating presence, absence, and transformation in rituals of home and self.

Seen and Unseen, Foundation and Concealer (11:30 – 12:55)

• Delves into the metaphoric use of “foundation and concealer” as both a literal beauty ritual and as symbols for what underpins and what is hidden in families.

  “It seems to me like those two things are not simply describing what it is that the mother's doing...but also thinking about what are the foundations of shared family life...” (12:20)

Sensory and Emotional Resonance (12:56 – 13:50)

• Draws attention to the poem’s sensual imagery—not just visual, but olfactory (rose water, lavender), tactile (cotton mat), and aural (shared announcements in the bathroom).
• Repeats the poem’s sense of “revelation”—of the body, of dreams, and of love—even in “chosen reticence.”

  “The intimacy and the privacy in this poem is powerful and is found in so many of his poems. And here what we see too is revelation.” (13:40)

Love, Forgiveness, and Proximity (13:51 – 14:47)

• Concludes with a reflection on love amid the everyday: the small forgivenesses of family, the ways we learn “what we mustn’t see,” and the silent, persistent bonds formed in limited spaces.

  “There's such nearness, you know, wherever she is, she's looking in the mirror. And they're mirrored in the tile anyway, both of them. And in the small space between them. There's a vast, beautiful richness of love between them.” (14:25)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On poetic structure and musicality:

  “All of them bring us back to the primary music of all of our lives, which is the Heartbeat.” – Ó Tuama (00:44)

• On familial privacy and intimacy:

  “With the proximity comes privacy that holds them together and makes them distinct.” – Ó Tuama (04:00)

• On poetry’s everyday language and form:

  “Every time I read this poem, I find myself slowing down because it uses such vernacular language and...particular attention to what's seen and what's not seen.” – Ó Tuama (05:08)

• On shared rituals and boundaries:

  "We learn what we mustn't see, growing in time, so coolly intimate with one another's silhouette behind the opaque frosted shower screen that once more stands between us two." – Davoudian, as read by Ó Tuama (03:05)

• On cultural and personal layers of meaning:

  “The title Coming Out of the Shower could perhaps have some other meaning, multiple meanings.” – Ó Tuama (10:35)

• On love in the small moments:

  “There's a vast, beautiful richness of love between them. Forgiveness, forgetting and love. All the ways we love each other in the midst of and despite of and because of the overlapping proximities that we share in tiny spaces.” – Ó Tuama (14:25)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:04 – Introduction to rhyme and form in poetry
• 01:46 – Full reading of “Coming Out of the Shower” by Ó Tuama
• 03:31 – Close reading: bathroom setting, proximity, privacy
• 06:11 – Familial rituals and the sensorium of the poem
• 08:26 – Breakdown of poem structure: rhyme and syllabics
• 09:51 – Armen Davoudian’s cultural and personal context
• 11:30 – Foundation and concealer: metaphors of family
• 12:56 – Sensory invocation; aroma, texture, intimacy
• 13:51 – Final reflections on everyday love, proximity, forgiveness

Episode Tone & Language

Gentle, reflective, and deeply attentive, Ó Tuama’s tone encourages listeners to slow down and contemplate unassuming daily rituals as sites of poetic revelation. The episode invites familiarity, intimacy, and empathy, honoring the everyday spaces—both physical and emotional—where poetry and life intermingle.

Final Thoughts

This episode is a masterclass in reading poetry for nuance—lingering in the ordinary until it reveals the extraordinary. Through close attention to language, form, and context, Pádraig Ó Tuama reveals how “Coming Out of the Shower” is about more than a morning routine—it is a meditation on love, growth, and the simultaneous closeness and privacy of family life. The episode offers listeners rich entry points into both Davoudian’s poetry and their own remembered spaces of intimacy and self-discovery.