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.