Podcast Summary: Poetry Unbound

Episode: Oksana Maksymchuk — Arguments for Peace
Host: Pádraig Ó Tuama
Date: January 30, 2026

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode of Poetry Unbound offers a close reading and reflective exploration of “Arguments for Peace” by Oksana Maksymchuk. Pádraig Ó Tuama walks listeners through the emotional landscape of the poem, considering how language and ordinary life both sustain hope and confront the reality of war. The episode thematically centers on the tension between everyday beauty and the intrusion of conflict—how language, denial, and ritual serve as both protection and witness in times of crisis.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Poem & Its Immediate Questions

• Ó Tuama reads the poem in a measured, immersive style, highlighting its opening challenge:

  “How could there be a war in this city with cobblestone streets, glowing stars in the windows, festive dogs in felt, deer antlers in a central park, children sled down the hills making sharp, joyful noises…?”
  (01:12 – 02:00)

• He unpacks the dissonance between the innocence and festivity of city life and the encroachment of violence, emphasizing how the language of everyday beauty (“sparkling,” “lights up,” “clusters of snow”) is placed alongside the vocabulary of war.
  (02:00 – 04:30)

2. Language’s Double Edges in War

• Ó Tuama meditates on how the poem attempts to reclaim peaceful language from war’s metaphors:

  “The usage of language like this is perhaps all that’s left: to take the language of invasion, to take the language of war, to take the language of assault and the metaphors that it uses, and to return them to the uses that are hospitable, that are generative, that are hopeful…”
  (04:35)

• The poem’s repeated denials—“There’ll be no war, there’ll be no war”—are interpreted as both desperate reassurance and indirect acknowledgment of reality.
  (06:15 – 07:15)

3. Reality, Denial, and Human Response

• “Telling yourself that what’s happening all around you couldn’t be happening…is one of the ways we all respond to crisis, or most of us, anyway.”
  (07:40)

• Ó Tuama considers what it means for language and ritual to falter:

  “…even the language that you typically use to make sense of the world isn’t giving you any sense, making the final repetition…an attempt to tell yourself that something isn’t true even while you know it is.”
  (06:50 – 07:30)

• He highlights the poem’s subtle layering:

  “If you took out ‘joyful,’ you’re left with ‘sharp noises,’ which feels like even in the joy, there’s the understanding about what the cracks of firearms might be…”
  (09:30)

4. Universality & Simplicity

• Ó Tuama observes the poem’s deliberate geographical vagueness (no city named, no holiday specified) as an invitation for identification—“this could be my city.”

  “…they’re left with an open door, in an act of hospitality, but also…this could be my city. And that might be part of the function.”
  (11:20)

• The simple joys (“cakes,” “lit trees,” “children’s games”) under siege magnify the poem’s emotional impact, mirroring the rituals many listeners might recognize from their own lives.
  (12:40 – 13:30)

5. Resistance, Ritual, and Pretending

• The act of “pretending not to notice” is dissected as both nurture (protecting children) and existential denial:

  “These are macabre, threatening, and there’s no doubting the truth about what’s going on. But you pretend.”
  (14:30)

• He discusses the power and limitation of language:

  “I wish my language could stop this, I wish I could find a way to intervene. But there’s no agency in the speaker of this poem, not because they’re lacking agency in themselves, but because they’re not the one who’s declaring war…”
  (17:40)

6. Biographical & Literary Context

• Maksymchuk’s background (growing up in Lviv, child of a dissident actor and a doctor) and the family apartment “filled with people, culture…an understanding of the truth of what it is that acting does.”
  (12:50 – 14:00)

• Still City: Diary of an Invasion as a work rooted in daily documentation and testimony through poetry.
  (10:10 – 11:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What’s a missile to do with a concert hall full of children? What’s an air raid to do with a holiday celebration?”
  – Oksana Maksymchuk (recited by Ó Tuama) (02:25, 17:40)

• “This is classic tragic comedy because there’s beauty uplifting in the midst of it, amidst the tragedy…”
  – Pádraig Ó Tuama (13:45)

• “We say, it couldn’t be. War wouldn’t dare come. Seeing how happy we are, how good our lives and all that we’ve got to lose.”
  – Pádraig Ó Tuama, quoting Maksymchuk (03:20, 17:20)

• “And it is holding an illusion for now, knowing fully that the illusion probably won’t last.”
  – Pádraig Ó Tuama (14:10)

• “If you excised all of the things that are terrible about it, you would feel like, oh, this is a romantic poem…”
  – Pádraig Ó Tuama (16:00)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:03–03:00: Ó Tuama’s introduction and reading of the poem
• 03:00–05:00: Dissecting the poem’s setting, war’s intrusion, and language
• 05:00–09:00: Language as defense and denial; parsing the poem’s structure
• 09:00–14:00: Beauty under threat; universality; Maksymchuk’s background
• 14:00–17:00: Ritual, pretending, resistance, and the limits of language
• 17:00–18:35: Full, final reading of the poem and closing reflective notes

Tone & Language

Ó Tuama’s tone is warm, deeply empathetic, and contemplative—marked by careful, recurring questions and gentle, searching insights. He maintains a sense of the poem’s tension and bewilderment, naming the power and the powerlessness of language, the urge to protect, and the heartbreak of living through war. The episode is a moving, unhurried, and deeply personal lesson in both poetry and humanity.

For Further Exploration

The episode spotlights Oksana Maksymchuk’s collection, Still City: Diary of an Invasion, and encourages listeners to reflect on the intersections of beauty, denial, and crisis in their own lives, especially during times of communal festivity or stress.

For a richer experience, listeners are encouraged to read the poem alongside the episode, and contemplate how language—both poetic and everyday—carries us through times of threat and hope.