Summary6 min read

Poetry Unbound: Rachel Mann — #TDOR (February 20, 2026)

Overview

In this episode of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama dives deep into Rachel Mann's poem "#TDOR" (Trans Day of Remembrance). Through a careful reading and reflection, Pádraig explores how the poem navigates commemoration, language, and the complexity of memorializing trans lives lost to violence. The episode unpacks the tone, structure, and ethical questions of the poem, considering both its explicit and implied meanings, and drawing connections to broader traditions of remembrance.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Presence and Absence in Poetry

Pádraig opens by considering what poems reveal explicitly and what they imply, highlighting the power of blank space, pauses, and omissions in poetry.

"A poem can have a ghost of itself, the presence of an omission, perhaps, and the inference of everything that's coming to you."
(00:02)

Reading "#TDOR"

Pádraig reads Rachel Mann’s poem aloud in its entirety, preserving its hesitations, repetitions, and layered invitations. These structural choices create an atmosphere that feels both earnest and overwhelmed, echoing the emotional labor involved in Days of Remembrance.
The poem’s opening lines establish the voice of someone asking a trans person to help mark the day, with repeated, careful requests:

"Will you, would you, would you please, would you please come?"
(Read from 00:56)

Who is Speaking & To Whom?

The speaker is not a trans person but someone seeking guidance from a trans person or community, embodying well-meaning but awkward attempts to do justice to remembrance.
Pádraig notes how the poem’s repeated requests and corrections paint a picture of a "chorus" of people, "stumbling their way towards trying to do something appropriate and as painless as possible on a terribly painful day." (04:51)
The recurrence of “you”: The word “you” appears 22 times, creating a sense of pressure and demand on the addressee.

“When you look at the list of yous like this, I wonder who’s being spoken to and what it’s like to be spoken to. ... Perhaps, from many different well-meaning quarters every year.” (08:14)

Context: November as a Month of Remembrance

Pádraig explains that the poem references broader traditions of remembrance in November (such as poppy-wearing for war dead in the UK & Canada), situating Trans Day of Remembrance within this context.

“So the recognition of this broader month of remembrance, as well as the specificity of Trans Day remembrance occurring in November, is present in the poem and present in the speaker of the poem.” (05:40)

Names and Sanctification

The poem lists victims’ names, blending the personal and sacred: “Eleanor, El, Laurel, Bryce, Angel, Kyle, Angelica, Eleanor... Saints, souls, such a season as this. St. Eleanor, St. Kyle.”
(09:40)
The elevation of these names to “Saint” or even “Martyr” sanctifies those lost.

“The names of all of the people ... are lifted up to a kind of sanctification and the addition of Jesus. ... The inclusion of Martyr there again creates something like a mass, something like a liturgy for this poem of lifting up the ways ... somebody has been martyred. And of course, you begin to ask by whom.” (12:11)

Rachel Mann and Historical Context

Pádraig introduces Rachel Mann as a writer, priest, heavy metal musician, and scholar.
The poem references Eleanor John Reichner (John Eleanor Reichner), a 14th-century English figure “claimed ... as an example of a trans person living in medieval England.” (10:37)

The Power of Language and Awkwardness

The poem highlights language’s central (and sometimes inadequate) role in memorialization:

“We would want words, let there be words, just the right amount. Perhaps you could shape words and words and names, we shall read names. Could you suggest how we read names?” (Poem, 01:40)
Pádraig reflects on the complexity and discomfort of well-intentioned but potentially distancing language:

“They don’t want to appropriate and I think that’s wise. But in so doing, accidentally or deliberately or revealingly perhaps, they distanciate. They create some distance between the your, our ...” (07:20)

The Pain and Complexity of Remembrance

The recurring mention of reading names, and the burden that is potentially placed on trans people to facilitate remembrance, raises questions about responsibility and emotional labor.
The word “ditch” emerges late in the poem—harsh and unvarnished—standing in for the unspoken word “murder,” and for the reality of violence:

“And ditch, they say ditch, that’s where they found a ditch.” (13:47)
“Who could stop this? Murderers. Murderers could stop murdering.” (15:14)

The Final Request and Reflection

The poem ends with "Could you say words?" which, as Pádraig suggests, both encapsulates the awkward request for guidance and reaches out as an urgent call to action for everyone to stop the violence and the need for further memorialization.

“Those last four words lift themselves out of the particular narration of the poem and direct themselves towards any of us, all of us, everyone who can do something to agitate stopping such violence, stopping the need for new names on trans day of remembrance.” (15:42)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Ghost of a Poem:

“In that way, a poem can have a ghost of itself, the presence of an omission, perhaps, and the inference of everything that's coming to you.”
(00:15, Pádraig Ó Tuama)
On Naming and Memorialization:

“…So many a day where sad and name and list mean same and some names, the pronunciation but they matter, don't they? And you will agree and each year the words and the names and the candles it's our privilege. A way to show we care for your our community.”
(From the poem, 02:12)
On Pressure and Distance:

“What do you hear in this speaker is that they don't want to appropriate and I think that's wise. But in so doing, accidentally or deliberately or revealingly perhaps, they distanciate. They create some distance between the your, our… the anxiety of this perhaps evokes some of the very complexity and pain and difficulty and removal that they're trying to alleviate...”
(07:31, Pádraig Ó Tuama)
On the Urgency of Stopping Violence:

“…One of the urgings and urgencies of this poem is to direct awkward language towards those who are advocating violence of any kind towards trans people.”
(14:34, Pádraig Ó Tuama)

Important Timestamps

00:02 — Introduction: Poetic presence and absence
00:56–03:33 — Full reading of Rachel Mann’s "#TDOR"
04:51 — Analysis of the poem’s voice, repetition, and intentions
05:40 — November as a time of multiple remembrances
07:20 — “Your/Our” complexity and the challenge of language
08:14 — Counting the use of “you”; impact on the addressee
09:40 — Naming and sanctifying the dead
10:37 — The historical figure of Eleanor (John Eleanor Reichner)
12:11 — Elevation of names, liturgy, and the concept of martyrdom
13:47 — The appearance of “ditch” and its brutal implication
14:34–15:42 — Final reflections: shifting the call to those who can prevent future violence

Summary Flow and Tone

Pádraig Ó Tuama brings a gentle, contemplative, and unhurried tone to the exploration of "#TDOR." His delivery and insights are marked by empathy, respect for the material, and a willingness to sit with discomfort and ambiguity. He emphasizes the poem's power, not just in what it says directly, but in what it asks and leaves unsaid—inviting listeners to reflect on their own roles in remembrance, language, and action.

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Transcript1 lines

[00:02]
A
My name is Padre Go Toma. And I'm always interested in what a poem says, but also what it says in what it doesn't say. Poems on the page have a line break or stanza breaks, lots of blank space on the page, perhaps. And recited poems also can have the intake of breath or a pause, and all of that can allow space for the imagination of anticipation. What's going to come next? What's the person going to say? You might guess. And then they turn it around in such a way that you're reflecting not only in what you've heard, but also in what was implied and the difference between what you anticipated and what came. And in that way, a poem can have a ghost of itself, the presence of an omission, perhaps, and the inference of everything that's coming to you. And I love what it is that a poem does in this way. It's like it's got echoes of all of its previous edits, of all of the ways in which the poem is trying to say something new, and all of the language that's present, but only implied through all of the unfilled space of the page. TDOR by Rachel Mann Will you, would you, would you please, would you please come? We know, we really do know how busy you must and it would be. And season, season of remembrance too only makes more powerful Amidst poppies and holy ones and time of shadow it only adds, adds to poignancy, remembering and the lads and saints and all dead and this year we want to make it extra special. So if you. And if not you, then could you suggest we would want words, let there be words, just the right amount Perhaps you could shape words and words and names we shall read names. Could you suggest how we read names? So many a day where sad and name and list mean same and some names, the pronunciation but they matter, don't they? And you will agree and each year the words and the names and the candles it's our privilege. A way to show we care for our community. Our users asked and we shall go outside or we shall be outside already we have names, we got names from website so many and we thought what do you think? In batches of 10 we have readers and we have you of course you could if you would read some Eleanor, El, Laurel, Bryce, Angel, Kyle, Angelica, Eleanor. Saints, souls such a season as this. St. Eleanor, St. Kyle. And you, would you perhaps you could say words about you, a story, say what it's like, what? Trans. What is trans? Is that the right word? And every year will you be present as Speaking. Eleanor, El, Laurel, Bryce, Angel, Kyle, Angelica, Eleanor, Jesus. And we know, we know names matter, matter to you and to us. And every year, Saint Eleanor, Saint L, Laurel, Saint Bryce, Saint Kyle, Martyr, and Ditch. They say ditch. That's where they found a ditch. We want you present. Please don't stop. There are candles and Ditch. Could you say words? TDR is an acronym for Trans Day Remembrance. This is an annual event, November 20, where the names of victims of transphobic violence are read out. There are events held in many different places all around the world. And as the poem describes, the list is long. So many names. This poem is in seven, four line stanzas. And while Rachel Mann is a trans woman, the voice that's speaking in the poem is not of a trans person. It seems to be a voice that's speaking to a trans person instead. So it's a voice perhaps a little bit like mine, you know, seeking the insight of a trans person in order to know how to mark this terrible day. The more I read this poem, the more I try to understand how this person who's speaking is being given character. The first line is, will you. Would you. Would you please. Would you please come? And then it goes on to say, we know. We really do know how busy you must. And it would be, you know, they're hesitant and continuing to interrupt themselves. In a certain sense, maybe the voice in this poem is an entire chorus of lots of people with good wishes and dreams trying to stumble their way towards trying to do something appropriate and as painless as possible on a terribly painful day. They're trying to know how to mark something awful. Rachel Mann is British, from England and in Britain and in Canada and in lots of other places. November is a month for remembering the war dead, hence the reference to wearing poppies. So the recognition of this broader month of remembrance, as well as the specificity of Trans Day remembrance occurring in November, is present in the poem and present in the speaker of the poem. The speaker says the following season, season of remembrance, to only makes more powerful amidst poppies and holy ones and time of shadow. So this voice that's speaking perhaps is attentive to the cycle of the year, the cycle of the commemorative year, or the liturgical year, if you're thinking about religions that choose November as a month for the dead. And the voice continues to ask the you of the poem. Presumably the poem is addressed, or the internal addressee of the poem to speak technically, is a trans person who's being asked to give guidance and insight and boundaries and wisdom. And it's asking Them if they would be open. We have readers and we have you. Of course you could, if you would read some again. There's a doubling over and the emphasis, the volume perhaps of all of this adds to what feels like opening overwhelm. I am left reading this poem in a voice that could be just like mine and thinking, oh my God, how terrible this would be to receive this over and over again, perhaps from many different well meaning quarters every year. The word you is repeated the whole way throughout this poem. There's 22 of them and I'm going to read them because I think something powerful is built up when you just hear that word and the way that it's conjugated in small clauses. Will you, would you, would you please, would you please. Busy you must be if you, if not you could you perhaps you could you and you will agree what do you think we have you, you could if you would Saint Kyle and you would you, perhaps you could say words about you and every year Will you be present Names matter, matter to you could you say words. So when you look at the list of yous like this, I wonder who's being spoken to and what it's like to be spoken to. You know, it could be Rachel Mann, the poet, thinking of a whole list of things that she's heard regularly, or it could be a hypothesized character who's used to hearing this on an annual basis. Of the seven stanzas in this poem, there's only one that doesn't have the word you in it. It's the fourth stanza. There's an almost repetition of the word you. Your is in there, but you. Here's the line a way to show we care for your our community. Our users asked to the your our community. I think it's kind of trying to highlight something. And on the one hand, I think what you hear in this speaker is that they don't want to appropriate and I think that's wise. But in so doing, accidentally or deliberately or revealingly perhaps, they distanciate. They create some distance between the your our and then the anxiety of this perhaps evokes some of the very complexity and pain and difficulty and removal that they're trying to alleviate by participating in a trans Day of Remembrance service. Rachel Mann, the poet, is a good friend. I've known her for many years and worked with her in Britain and Ireland as well. I think I'm a huge fan of her writing and she is many things. A priest and a historian of literature, a scholar. She is the most Extraordinary heavy metal musician and obviously a poet. And the kind of things she. She writes veer from poetry to murder mysteries to Lenten devotionals. So she is also, amidst all of these things, a powerful and dedicated and patient in depth researcher. This poem comes from a whole book titled Eleanor among the Saints. And the way that Rachel Mann introduces this character of Eleanor is helpful. And this comes from the notes from the poetry book. Rachel, says Eleanor John Reichner, or John Eleanor Reichner was a 14th century seamstress, embroiderer and sex worker who has been claimed in recent medieval studies as an example of a trans person living in medieval England. So there is a historical character about whom there is some reference, but not a huge amount about whom Rachel Mann is writing. The name Eleanor means shining or bright or light in a whole variety of languages. Much of the earlier poems in the book have imaginative engagements with Eleanor. But Eleanor shows up here in the repeated names of the poem. Eleanor El Laurel or Laurel Bryce, Angel, Angel Kyle, Angelica, Angelica, Eleanor, Saints, souls, such a season as this. St. Eleanor, St. Kyle. And you. And then later on you begin to hear some other names too. Jesus or Jesus. And then it goes in as well and calls, calls more of them. Saints. Saint Eleanor, Saint L. Laurel, Saint Bryce, Saint Kyle, Martyr. The names of all of the people who've been murdered, particular people come to mind when you hear this list of names that have been in recent news and they're lifted up to a kind of a sanctification and the addition of Jesus. Or Jesus could be the name of an individual. It could be the name to try to invoke something theological, considering the possibility of seeing everybody as sacred, everybody as incarnation. The final repetition of the names concludes Saint L. Laurel, Saint Bryce, Saint Kyle, Martyr. And the inclusion of Martyr there again creates something like a mass, something like a liturgy for this poem of lifting up the ways within which somebody has been martyred. And of course you begin to ask by whom. I mentioned that one of the many things that Rachel Mann is, is she is a priest. And. And her first book of poetry, Eleanor among the Saints, is her second. Her first book of poetry contains a lot of poems that seem to be in the voice of a priest by a graveside. Of course, priests of all religions know so much about the words of poetic consolation or desolation that are given to those who officiate at the site of a grave. She's also a scholar of war poetry. Around the hundredth anniversary of the First World War, she released a book called Fierce Imaginings, which was looking at the Poems that these young men, boys really wrote beautiful, exquisite, terrifying poems about the war. And so one of the things that Rachel concerns herself with in so many of the different parts of her writing life is how it is that the living use language in conversation with death and dying. The final turn of the poem includes the word ditch. And ditch has a few meanings. A dug ditch, you know, for irrigation or draining in the atrocious narration detail of this poem, a place where a trans person's body was ditched, was dumped. It can mean crash land as well. Or skipping a class and discarded. That's another meaning of the word ditch. So this particular turn at the end and it says, and ditch, they say ditch. That's where they found a ditch. So in the highlighting of that, there's again another thing that is present by its absence in this poem, which is the word murder. Who could stop this? Murderers. Murderers could stop murdering. And that might take intervention and language and awkwardness and the difficult way of trying to reckon with speaking to people who are evoking violence against trans people. And so rather than the awkward, stumbling, self correcting language of going towards trans people to say, can you help in the commemoration of this? Part of me thinks that one of the urgings and urgencies of this poem is to direct awkward language towards those who are advocating violence of any kind towards trans people. The last four words of the poem are, could you say words? And that's what I'm left with. I feel like those last four words lift themselves out of the particular narration of the poem and direct themselves towards any of us, all of us, everyone who can do something to agitate stopping such violence, stopping the need for new names on trans day of remembrance. Hashtag TDOR by Rachel Mann Will you, would you, would you please, would you please come? We know, we really do know how busy you must and it would be. And season, season of remembrance too only makes more powerful. Amidst poppies and holy ones and time of shadow it only adds, adds to poignancy, remembering and the lads and saints and all dead. And this year we want to make it extra special. So if you. And if not you, then could you suggest we would want words. Let there be words, but just the right amount. Perhaps you could shape words and words and names. We shall read names. Could you suggest how we read names? So many a day where sad and name and list means same and some names, the pronunciation, but they matter, don't they? And you will agree. And each year the words and the names and the candles, it's our privilege. A way to show we care for your our community our users asked and we shall go outside or we shall be outside already we have names we got names from website so many and we thought what do you think? In batches of 10 we have readers and we have you of course you could if you would read some Eleanor, Elle, Laurel, Bryce, Angel, Kyle, Angelica Eleanor Saints souls such a season as this St. Eleanor, St. Kyle and you would you perhaps you could say words about you a story say what it's like what Trans? What is trans? Is that the right word? And every year will you be present as speaking Eleanor L. Laurel, Bryce, Angel, Kyle, Angelica, Eleanor, Jesus and we know, we know names matter matter to you and to us and every year Saint Eleanor, Saint L, Laurel, Saint Bryce, Saint Kyle, Martyr and ditch they say ditch that's where they found a ditch. We want you present Please don't stop There are candles and ditch could you say words. Tdor by Rachelmann appears in Eleanor among the sand, published in 2024 by Carcanett. Thanks to them for permission to use this poem and to Frederick Courtright of the Permissions Company. Poetry Unbound is Andrea Prevot, Carla Zanoni, Gerald Chen, Sparrow Murray, Chris Heagle, Bill Sigmund and me, Padre Gotooma. Our music is composed and provided by Gautam Srikishan and Blued out Sessions. These episodes were made in New York City on unceded Lenape land. Special thanks to Will Salwin, Nave Yan and Adam Morell at Digital Island Studios in Manhattan. Thanks as well to Frederick Courtright of the Permissions Company. Poetry Unbound is an independent non profit production of the On Being Project, founded and led by Christa Tippett. This season of Poetry Unbound is made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Our other funding partners include the Liana foundation, the Bedale foundation and Engaging the Census Foundation. Poetry Unbound would be nothing without the listening community. Thanks to all who listen, who read and give through our weekly Poetry Unbound substack or directly to On Being. For links to the substack and to find out more about Poetry Unbound books and events, visit poetryunbound.org.