Poetry Unbound: Sanah Ahsan — Ramadan’s Greeting

Date: February 16, 2026
Host: Pádraig Ó Tuama
Poet Featured: Sanah Ahsan
Poem: “Ramadan’s Greeting”

Episode Overview

In this episode of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama explores Sanah Ahsan’s poem “Ramadan’s Greeting,” a reflection on the communal, bodily, and spiritual dimensions of fasting during Ramadan. Ó Tuama unpacks the poem’s language, structure, themes of communal hunger and chosen restraint, and ties these insights to broader considerations about want, longing, and the psychology of desire.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Tradition of Fasting Across Cultures

[00:02–00:55]

• Ó Tuama opens with an anecdote about the Irish language’s names for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which incorporate the word for “fasting.” This serves to highlight the deep-rooted nature of fasting in many religious traditions globally.
• He notes, “It's an intriguing thing to think about how it is all across millennia and centuries, people have employed fasting for all kinds of purposes: to focus the mind, to focus the heart, to turn some kind of marking of solidarity, and to attune oneself to a deeper hunger.” (Pádraig Ó Tuama, 00:38)

2. Reading of “Ramadan’s Greeting” by Sanah Ahsan

[00:56–02:19]

• Ó Tuama reads the poem aloud, immersing listeners in Ahsan’s lyrical meditation on the months’ beginning, community dynamics, bodily experience, and spiritual searching.

3. The Communal “We” and the World of Ramadan

[02:20–03:36]

• The poem is described as a "celebration of we," invoking the plural throughout to convey the shared aspect of fasting—not just as an individual but as a participant in a vast, resonant community.
• “There's so many instances where the plural is evoked—a celebration of community in this poem, the immediate people you're speaking to or texting or talking to or making plans with, as well as people that you're sharing hunger with in your city or mosque or globally as well.” (Ó Tuama, 02:55)

4. The Symbolism of the New Moon

[03:37–04:25]

• The appearance of the new moon marks the start of Ramadan and symbolizes a turning from the ordinary toward the sacred.
• “What it is in the poem's intuition is that it's a turning away from what's right here and right now... to choose, to turn away from, and to turn to... turning towards family and turning towards a chosen hunger that is done with decision and with purpose and with solidarity.” (Ó Tuama, 03:50)

5. The Poem’s Exploration of Desire

[04:26–06:35]

• Ó Tuama identifies Ahsan’s background in psychology and highlights how the poem interrogates desire: “Can we wash ourselves of ourselves? Want to no longer want what we don't get?” (Ó Tuama quoting the poem, 05:30)
• He points out the motif of “want” and its many forms, arguing that the poem asks, “What is it that will satisfy me?”

6. Structure and Form: Couplets, Pauses, and Language

[06:36–07:58]

• The poem’s nine couplets and use of forward slashes slow the reader down, evoking the deliberate pauses of fasting itself.
• Ó Tuama notes, “The poem is filled with a lot of emptiness and a lot of pause, which... invites me when I read it, to also take deliberate pauses, which is, I suppose... like a micro experience of trying to do what it is that the deep psychology and spirituality of Ramadan invites: to reflect through a chosen pause on what it is that might be happening in the pause.” (07:14)

7. Embodied Experience and Sensuality

[07:59–09:05]

• Fasting is described through bodily imagery: stomachs, senses, sleep, mouths, skin, bite, and sweetness.
• Ó Tuama underlines the richness in “the stepping away from sensuality and the stepping away from the senses in it.” (08:45)

8. The Final Words and Underlying Message

[09:06–10:14]

• Ó Tuama reflects on reading just the final word of each line, suggesting it sketches the “dream of the poem.”
• He lists these words, deriving a summarized vision: “sky, gods, me, comes, empty, sexless, ourselves, want, witness, gratitude, is, wanting, to, meet, wrinkled, floods, dusk, light.” (09:43)

9. Chosen Hunger Versus Imposed Starvation

[10:15–12:20]

• The distinction is made between the choice of fasting (as in Ramadan) and hunger imposed by circumstance, referencing Ireland’s Great Hunger and ongoing crises.
• “This is a choice to follow the beautiful Muslim tradition of Ramadan... I think of those in Gaza or those in many other parts of the world who are going to be faced with terrible choices this upcoming Ramadan amidst the imposition of starvation, and I don't think this poem is addressing that. But it's important to say... that the idea of hunger in this way is entirely different from the idea of imposed starvation.” (Ó Tuama, 11:12)

10. The Poem’s Night Imagery and Concluding Reflections

[12:21–13:26]

• Ó Tuama appreciates the poem’s recurring references to night, dusk, and light: “I love all the references to night in the poem ... or the quiet dark of dusk, and then towards the end, shadowless, hungry eater of light.” (Ó Tuama, 12:44)
• He concludes by highlighting the poem’s vision of fasting as chosen attentiveness: “A fast like this is a turning toward the deepest things that will sustain us ... and call us to a continual sense of practice and attention and turning away from and turning towards.” (Ó Tuama, 13:12)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The question of satisfaction underneath that... applying physical pressure on the self in a chosen, safe, communal, public way to reflect on what is it that my want is doing in me.” (Ó Tuama, 06:06)
• “Can we wash ourselves of ourselves? Want to no longer want what we don't get?” (Ahsan via Ó Tuama, 05:30)
• "Mosques sealed so we meet in open mouths at the date's wrinkled skin bursting under bite. Sweetness floods into us like the quiet dark of dusk. Shadowless, hungry, eater of light." (Ahsan, 01:57)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:02–00:55: Irish fasting days/Religious tradition of fasting
• 00:56–02:19: Reading of “Ramadan’s Greeting” by Sanah Ahsan
• 02:20–03:36: Community and the “We” of the poem
• 03:37–04:25: The new moon as symbol, turning toward sacredness
• 04:26–06:35: The psychology of desire and fasting
• 06:36–07:58: Poem’s structure, couplets, and form mirroring fasting
• 07:59–09:05: Embodied imagery and sensuality in restraint
• 09:06–10:14: Final word technique; distilled message
• 10:15–12:20: Distinguishing chosen hunger from imposed starvation
• 12:21–13:26: Night and light imagery, concluding with attentiveness

Episode Tone and Style

Pádraig Ó Tuama’s narration is contemplative, gentle, and inclusive—inviting listeners into the poem’s worlds with warmth and curiosity. His tone balances reverence for tradition with a clear-eyed acknowledgment of difficult contemporary realities, offering a spacious reading of both poem and practice.

Further Reading

• “Ramadan’s Greeting” by Sanah Ahsan appears in I cannot be good until you say it (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024).

This summary captures the reflective and immersive journey through Sanah Ahsan’s poem as guided by Pádraig Ó Tuama in Poetry Unbound.