The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

1265: Gorgon Loves Googie's by Rebecca Morgan Frank Dec 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Gorgon Loves Googie's by Rebecca Morgan Frank. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Yet, how do we refresh and enfold long-standing tales, figures, and voices such that they hold special meaning for us tomorrow? Today’s poem intertwines a figure of the past and a vision of the future, expressing the difficulty of attaining desire, and the reality of unfulfilled longing.”

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1264: The Room is a Rectangle by Marianne Chan Dec 19, 2024

Today’s poem is The Room is a Rectangle by Marianne Chan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites discussion of the physical and emotional barriers that exist between family members when dealing with mental health issues, spotlighting feelings of confinement and helplessness.”

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1263: Film Theory by Xan Forest Phillips Dec 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Film Theory by Xan Forest Phillips. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me that artists exist in a culture of rejection. And over time, the little illusory nicks to your ego, and the weight of commitment to your art, either extinguishes your fire or has you recommit even more, driven by that sheer love of making.”

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1262: The Future of Terror / 1 by Matthea Harvey Dec 17, 2024

Today’s poem is The Future of Terror / 1 by Matthea Harvey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s haunting poem, an embedded abecedarian, gets at the bizarre alter-reality of violence, how it distorts and impacts everything.”

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1261: Immersive by Joseph Millar Dec 16, 2024

Today’s poem is Immersive by Joseph Millar. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry reorients me, does the work of humanizing, of not letting me devolve to despair. Its insistence on staying present, on paying attention, on speaking to the beauty in nature and the beauty in us, renews my faith.”

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1260: Fade Away by Amorak Huey Dec 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Fade Away by Amorak Huey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I cannot fully explain my renewed love for vinyl. All I know is that for eight weekends straight, I have found myself randomly walking into a record store. Although you might know me to be nostalgic, I do not uphold the golden days of analog and denigrate all things digital. Today’s poem insists our lives, like so many analog recordings, are raw, unadorned, layered, full of disruptions and distortions.”

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1259: When you have to kill everybody in the room by Niki Herd Dec 12, 2024

Today’s poem is When you have to kill everybody in the room by Niki Herd. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem presents a psychological portrait of a gun owner and the looming senses of danger and potential to harm that accompanies him.”

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1258: The Trees by Jericho Brown Dec 11, 2024

Today’s poem is The Trees by Jericho Brown. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I love the calls and trills of warblers and rose-breasted grosbeaks, the rushing sound of a brook over stone, the irrational belief, some might say, of connecting with something larger. I start off sometimes in a spiritual crisis, but walk out spiritually cleansed. For this reason, the natural world over the years has become my lifesaving talisman.”

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1257: Time || Immemorial by Daniel Simon Dec 10, 2024

Today’s poem is Time || Immemorial by Daniel Simon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Poems about public events offer reflection. They counter political and media rhetoric that aims to simplify. Writing poems gives citizens in a democracy a place at the table of ideas and grants us a way to engage that promotes justice and civic dialogue.”

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1256: A Dominican Poem by Danielle Legros Georges Dec 09, 2024

Today’s poem is A Dominican Poem by Danielle Legros Georges. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. I

n this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem problematizes easy notions of citizenship and arbitrary boundaries. It powerfully implores us to reflect on our advantages, to find a way to humility — and to connect with those whose freedom is not a given.”

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1255: The Presence in Absence by Linda Gregg Dec 06, 2024

Today’s poem is The Presence in Absence by Linda Gregg. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “As poet Elizabeth Alexander asks in one of my favorite poems, “Ars Poetica #100”: “and are we not of interest to each other?” While not its only function, for poetry also thrives beyond the affairs of societies, poetry deepens our appreciation for people. Their perspectives and life events take central stage. It’s as if they are with us, though not with us.”

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1254: That's My Heart Right There by Willie Perdomo Dec 05, 2024

Today’s poem is That's My Heart Right There by Willie Perdomo. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I did not appreciate the depth of emotions behind the songs my grandfather sang, until one morning when I arrived early to high school for track practice to see my crush holding hands with my best friend. Whew! I could have sung a hundred blues songs, and would have felt none the better. But I came to understand something about love; we are creatures with wild hearts.”

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1253: On the Death of a Young Lady Five Years of Age, a reinscription by Aracelis Girmay Dec 04, 2024

Today’s poem is On the Death of a Young Lady Five Years of Age, a reinscription by Aracelis Girmay. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Last year, a group of poets celebrated the 250th anniversary book publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) by Phillis Wheatley Peters. In honor of this important milestone editors Danielle Legros Georges and Artress Bethany White solicited Black female poets to write in the manner of Phillis Wheatley, or creatively reinscribe what is found in the text as some of her abiding images and important themes. The anthology, Wheatley at 250, from which today’s poem is taken, honors and celebrates the immense legacy of Phillis Wheatley Peters, whose work matters to all of us who cherish the possibilities of poems and poets to represent the highest ideals of literacy, and the miracle of language to free us.”

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1252: The Canonization by John Donne Dec 03, 2024

Today’s poem is The Canonization by John Donne. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s classic poem knows that loving hearts create possibilities for us to exist as full and whole human beings. We need as many examples as possible of sweet passion and friendship. It might be the key to our survival.”

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1251: On Living by Nâzim Hikmet, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk Dec 02, 2024

Today’s poem is On Living by Nazim Hikmet, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “My walk that morning brought forth the world in technicolor, piercing green trees, a blue sky screeching loud as a free jazz concert, a jogger’s passing smile, soft, otherworldly. The earth hummed and throbbed. At a stoplight, I was suddenly filled with an inexplicable joy. My day of explosive happiness was counterintuitive. My inner world was actually gray; a family member has been battling cancer, another a victim of hurricanes, and then there was myself, ever negotiating the psychic demands of being present in a world where kindness feels in short supply.”

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1250: 52 Blue by Sappho Stanley Nov 29, 2024

Today’s poem is 52 Blue by Sappho Stanley. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today's poem probes into the ocean within the self — the mysteries of love.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1249: Farmers' Market by Molly Fisk Nov 28, 2024

Today’s poem is Farmers’ Market by Molly Fisk. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “When I was younger, as an introverted kid, I did not value large family gatherings during holidays, especially not Thanksgiving. Now, I appreciate what I once shunned. Gather me among kinfolks. Let’s talk loudly with drinks in our hands. Let’s enjoy the bounty of family and rituals that fill us with connection and the purpose of loving each other. And when we sit down to dinner, let our blessings surround us. Let us relish joyful interactions.”

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1248: Listening to Monk's Misterioso I Remember Braiding My Sisters' Hair by Christopher Gilbert Nov 27, 2024

Today’s poem is Listening to Monk's Misterioso I Remember Braiding My Sisters' Hair by Christopher Gilbert. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “The phrase “take me away” sounds passive. But music requires work, requires paying attention to changes, knowing a passage is an improvisational homage to some legendary artist. I love keeping up with the fast thinking behind the notes like little sunbursts. The nuances, say, of a Thelonious Monk off-chord is an intentional discordant act which announces presence.”

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1247: A Garden and a Street by Teresa Cader Nov 26, 2024

Today’s poem is A Garden and a Street by Teresa Cader. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry holds that place of both awakening and frustration, of perseverance against unimaginable violence and the flight away from the pains of our fragile world. Someday the bombs will stop falling. Someday the rhetoric of hatred will not have an audience. Isn’t this something that we all should work toward? Until then, so says the speaker in today’s poem, we must find a way to restore ourselves to a place of harmonious connection with and belief in all life.”

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1246: Big Purple Peonies by Margaret Ross Nov 25, 2024

Today’s poem is Big Purple Peonies by Margaret Ross. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s deeply satisfying poem arrives from an exacting eye. The poet’s kinetic imagination and mental roaming feel gorgeously reportorial and cinematic, mapping self-reflection through their portrayal of vibrant landscapes.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1245: Telescope by Louise Glück Nov 22, 2024

Today’s poem is Telescope by Louise Glück. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “I live on a hill on the edge of a valley. I look out my window and watch cars creep by on the interstate that could take me a thousand miles to my birthplace if I so choose. This slice of Los Angeles – the one I look out over everyday – is odd to reconcile with the map that I see on my phone. So now, as I live in it, I try to find my own authentic knowledge of the earth I see and the earth I feel, some melding of technologies and body.”

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1244: Poem by Frank O'Hara Nov 21, 2024

Today’s poem is Poem (“Instant coffee with…”) by Frank O'Hara. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Loren was the person I knew in New York who was the same kind of lost as me. There is a magic to how we find each other when we need each other. It seems like our souls sort of… orbit until they reach out. They land. They find ground and we find a friend, even if it’s temporary.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1243: Waiting for the Annular Eclipse by Rhoni Blankenhorn Nov 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Waiting for the Annular Eclipse by Rhoni Blankenhorn. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Rock bottom is a funny place. If anyone has been there, then I suppose we all end up in our own rock bottom at some point. The truth about nothing ever ending, nothing ever being final, is that things will be the same again, too. Just not all at the same time, in the same way. You’ll find a new rock bottom. And, a new way out.”

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1242: Aleppo by Hala Alyan Nov 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Aleppo by Hala Alyan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Recently, I dreamt that my friend and I were moving into a big, old apartment. Once we got the couch in the living room, my grandmother appeared, sitting on it. I haven’t seen her in a decade. She died in 2015. I think my grandmother, a woman who witnessed and bore great suffering, a woman who was courageous and loving, came to me to remind me of the strength we need to carry each other.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1241: Brooklyn is for Breakups by Chen Chen Nov 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Brooklyn is for Breakups by Chen Chen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “I have experienced a whole lot of life, and romance only forms threads of that life, woven into all the other moments. The threads are often short. They have loose ends. What I struggle with – what I’ve struggled with for years – is naming the importance of the relationships I’ve had with people that don’t fit neatly into a category.”

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1240: Mother of the English Language by Nicole Arocho Hernández Nov 15, 2024

Today’s poem is Mother of the English Language by Nicole Arocho Hernández. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem has that kind of intimacy you only achieve by deciding to be weird together. When we forgo a tight grip on meaning, sometimes we get a little closer to the truth of feeling.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1239: My Father Flying by Jan Beatty Nov 14, 2024

Today’s poem is My Father Flying by Jan Beatty. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Grief feels, sometimes, like a burden. A heavy one. But it is also a practice. People we love leave this earth, but they don’t leave us. We can find lightness in small rituals, small memorials to share with the world the version of the person that we have folded up inside of ourselves.”

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1238: Forgiveness Rock Record by Tawanda Mulalu Nov 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Forgiveness Rock Record by Tawanda Mulalu. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem excavates the hard route to self-love, but it also shows us the trick: that self-love doesn’t happen all alone.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1237: Shadow Play by Jessica Fisher Nov 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Shadow Play by Jessica Fisher. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem speaks to someone who left marks on this earth hundreds of years ago. It asks what elemental — and metaphysical — forces moved through them, like wind playing the chimes. Just like those forces did then, and do today, and will tomorrow.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1236: Letter to a Young Poet by Megan Fernandes Nov 11, 2024

Today’s poem is Letter to a Young Poet by Megan Fernandes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem holds its epiphanies close. It lives in that space which grows from wholehearted obsession, specificity, and the knowledge that the act of returning is the kind of love that keeps us going.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1235: On Being by Ruben Quesada Nov 08, 2024

Today’s poem is On Being by Ruben Quesada. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem captures our complex relationship with nature, how we experience the sublime of the seasons, but also, the way it is often mediated through our modern and mechanized era.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1234: Mami Told Me to Put Water under the Bed by Peggy Robles-Alvarado Nov 07, 2024

Today’s poem is Mami Told Me to Put Water under the Bed by Peggy Robles-Alvarado. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem professes the healing properties of water and the restorative powers of language to renew our connection to each other.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1233: Trans Loneliness by Rickey Laurentiis Nov 06, 2024

Today’s poem is Trans Loneliness by Rickey Laurentiis. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Society’s debates around gender identity boils down to this simple fact: people want others to see them as they see themselves. This is a pure, human need for affirmation from friends, parents, and peers. It builds self-esteem and mental stability.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1232: A House Called Tomorrow by Alberto Ríos Nov 05, 2024

Today’s poem is A House Called Tomorrow by Alberto Ríos. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I loved watching the volunteers at my polling place. They were cheerful. They lovingly bantered, though they certainly could have belonged to different political parties. They gave me a vision of selfless coexistence that felt like this defined us more than our public debates. I thought of legions of people who volunteer to combat all manner of challenges to society, no matter their political affiliation.”

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1231: Gala Noise by Diane Mehta Nov 04, 2024

Today’s poem is Gala Noise by Diane Mehta. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to contemplate how language is not just what is heard, but what is conveyed beneath the surface. Underneath, it sees that we are interconnected with nature, linked to an existential restlessness which leads us to the act of making sounds.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1230: Second Paradise by Chard deNiord Nov 01, 2024

Today’s poem is Second Paradise by Chard deNiord. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s shrewd poem ardently shows how time shreds memories into a dreamlike sequence of events, yet we are preserved in our stories.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1229: Refugia by Traci Brimhall Oct 31, 2024

Today’s poem is Refugia by Traci Brimhall. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem knows some environments awaken us daily to the wonders. Maybe that is paradise, a place of first permission to go on loving the world.” '

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1228: Shelf Life by Nathan Xavier Osorio Oct 30, 2024

Today’s poem is Shelf Life by Nathan Xavier Osorio. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “There’s something sad, sometimes, about taking in all of the country from the fringes. I used to view the highway as a symbol of escape and possibility. Now, I view the road as a complex portal to our great melancholy. Today’s poem exposes a thin veil of desolation on the surface of life. It’s as if we are all waiting for something magical to happen, to lift us out of our collective spiritual anguish.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1227: Genetics by Sinead Morrissey Oct 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Genetics by Sinead Morrissey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s poem professes an emotional and physical connection to parents who chose to go separate ways. Understanding the power of sacred love, the speaker in the poem invites a beloved to embark on a shared life together.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1226: The Devouring Economy of Nature by Daniel Borzutzky Oct 28, 2024

Today’s poem is The Devouring Economy of Nature by Daniel Borzutzky. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I know there is no easy solution to economic inequality. I do wish that we channeled greater energy into figuring out the wealth gap, how to provide sustainable wages to working people. One of the corrupting aspects of our economic system is that it forces us to accept conditions that reduce people and nature.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1225: After Vallejo by A.B. Spellman Oct 25, 2024

Today’s poem is After Vallejo by A.B. Spellman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Recently, I decided to be responsible and begin the process of creating a trust and establishing a will. I thought it morbid at first. Yet, planning the aftermath of my death empowered me. I don’t know when or where I will die. So having some say in that eventful day for me feels like a lavish gift to myself.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1224: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel Oct 24, 2024

Today’s poem is Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem begins from the idea that we yearn for connection and healing, but that our conflicts feel irreconcilable — to the point that we do not trust a future free of our trauma, grief, and suffering.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1223: Between You and You by Sham-e-Ali Nayeem Oct 23, 2024

Today’s poem is Between You and You by Sham-e-Ali Nayeem. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Writing can change the mind for the better. Poems shape our breathing, allow us to enter seas of consciousness that become part of the spontaneous energy of life. The improvised, spirited words in a poem are born out of a body free enough to let go.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1222: Post- by Corey Van Landingham Oct 22, 2024

Today’s poem is Post- by Corey Van Landingham. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me that life shapes us into authentic beings. Looking behind at our own journey can sometimes cause pain — but it can also liberate us.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1221: Home Movies: A Sort of Ode by Mary Jo Salter Oct 21, 2024

Today’s poem is Home Movies: A Sort of Ode by Mary Jo Salter. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “With so much of our treasured moments digitized on servers, it seems we’ve lost physical evidence of our lives. Yet, we own thousands more photos of ourselves than our parents and grandparents. Like many, I wonder what will happen to the virtual record of our existence once we depart the earth.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1220: Taking Stock by Elaine Equi Oct 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Taking Stock by Elaine Equi. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to find the balance between deepening our self-awareness and actually living life. Sometimes our journey means not letting that journey inhibit our sense of fun.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1219: from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell Oct 17, 2024

Today’s poem is from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “For stateless people, writing poems, taking pictures, composing songs is precarious, but making art happens, nonetheless. Often, it is a counter insistence of one’s presence on earth. Today’s poem is a humanizing statement of profound sorrow borne of conflict and exile.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1218: Vulture by Ted Kooser Oct 16, 2024

Today’s poem is Vulture by Ted Kooser. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to attune, to notice, to hear what’s communicated beneath our words and bodies, to read the signs, even if what is heard or seen or felt bears an ominous message.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1217: Abide by Jake Adam York Oct 15, 2024

Today’s poem is Abide by Jake Adam York. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem sees existence as a fleeting encounter of sublime immensity — one where we intertwine with the natural world, such that we have no other choice, but to awaken to all life around us.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1216: oracle by Duriel E. Harris Oct 14, 2024

Today’s poem is oracle by Duriel E. Harris. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem intrigues me for how it upholds the possibility of poetry as a terse, sacred voicing that emerges from within, where the inexpressible finds its way to the world as transcendent music, something far more compelling than the language of machines.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1215: The Clearing by Jane Kenyon Oct 11, 2024

Today’s poem is The Clearing by Jane Kenyon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Dogs have a lot to teach us. Learning to care about the land and people is to live daily in the fullness of existence, such that we come to cherish and love those close to us and beyond.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1214: Grading Rubric by Antonio de Jesús López Oct 10, 2024

Today’s poem is Grading Rubric by Antonio de Jesús López. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s brilliant poem speaks to the ordeal of enduring racial abuse and microaggressions in educational institutions. It slyly appropriates an academic assessment tool to point out that we are clearly failing in treating each other like whole humans.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1213: Pacific Power & Light by Michael Dickman Oct 09, 2024

Today’s poem is Pacific Power & Light by Michael Dickman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “The beauty of poetry is its diversity and how it gives us an opportunity to feel language, rather than the poem acting only as a substitute for a Hallmark card or occasion for a punchline.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1212: Eureka! by Jessica Abughattas Oct 08, 2024

Today’s poem is Eureka! by Jessica Abughattas. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “To borrow a phrase, love calls us to the things of this world. But as today’s brilliant poem reminds us, in our search for happiness, we find our worth in relation to our freedom and societal expectations. We learn to self-affirm in our search for joy.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1211: The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack Gilbert Oct 07, 2024

Today’s poem is The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack Gilbert. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Inadequacy is built into the enterprise of speaking; we struggle to say exactly what we need to say — if we even know what we need to say.“

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1210: Negro Hero (to Suggest Dorie Miller) by Gwendolyn Brooks Oct 04, 2024

Today’s poem is Negro Hero (to Suggest Dorie Miller) by Gwendolyn Brooks. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age.

In this episode, Major writes… “When I last taught this poem, I asked a student to recite it. A Southeast Asian-American student could not mouth the once acceptable word “Negro.” Instead, without warning, she replaced the word with human, so that the title was “Human Hero,” and the black newspapers were “human weeklies.” It was heartbreaking. She simply could not say the word that, to her ear, sounded too close to the racial epithet with which we are all familiar. The class then discussed the nature of language and how context and time alter the meaning of words.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1209: Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare Oct 03, 2024

Today’s poem is Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age.

In this episode, Major writes… “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is brilliant for how the speaker disproves the idea that his girlfriend could be compared to anything in nature. He takes aim at hyperbolic similes; he offers examples that deflate the notion of flawless physical perfection. Any poem either collapses or succeeds based on the originality of its vision. The substance of Shakespeare’s vision is that our imperfections are what make us truly beautiful and rare.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1208: Gravelly Run by A. R. Ammons Oct 02, 2024

Today’s poem is Gravelly Run by A. R. Ammons. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age.

In this episode, Major writes… “It is best if we come to know ourselves through its cycles and terrains, but without all the troublesome wrangling over questions of meaning. It is good simply to make peace with the rhythms of life and of death.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1207: from "Spring and All" by William Carlos Williams Oct 01, 2024

Today’s poem is from "Spring and All" by William Carlos Williams. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age.

In this episode, Major writes… “Time is the river that never dries up, that is always in motion. Yet, cycles of elections and global conflict appear as if we are going through the same debates and battles again. For sanity’s sake, it helps to remind myself that we are always moving forward, that change is real even if it seems elusive.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1206: Birches by Robert Frost Sep 30, 2024

Today’s poem is Birches by Robert Frost. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age.

\In this episode, Major writes… “I have long admired today’s poem by Robert Frost. “Birches” spotlights a young boy who makes his own fun in the outdoors. It’s a poem about self-reliant play. It is powerful for how it precisely describes a boy’s ascent up a tree then his launch onto solid ground. In that sense, the poem becomes an allegory for the speaker, who himself wishes to climb out of his adult world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1205: Leaving by Madeleine Cravens Sep 27, 2024

Today’s poem is Leaving by Madeleine Cravens.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem knows the world is enticing, seductive, full of possibilities. The hack is to consciously curate our pleasures — the slow, intentional cherishing of a life well-lived.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1204: The Joseph Cornell App by David Roderick Sep 26, 2024

Today’s poem is The Joseph Cornell App by David Roderick.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The great actor James Earl Jones departed this earth. His passing reminded me of a hilarious app idea I devised at a party. I called it the God App, where the great actor would simply recite the ten commandments. When I imagined a deity speaking, I thought of James Earl Jones, the rich baritone voice that gave us Darth Vader.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1203: This Living by Amber Tamblyn Sep 25, 2024

Today’s poem is This Living by Amber Tamblyn.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “In my mere five decades on earth, I’ve faced many challenges — thwarted dreams, failed friendships, career disappointments — that often left me feeling alone, stranded in the dry badlands, searing heat bearing down. And yet, of course, I wasn’t. A three-hour telephone conversation with a friend, an unexpected consoling note from a colleague, even a passing smile from that stranger who read signs of stress in my gait, all these could break down my self-involved isolation. Through a rich panoply of difficult moments, today’s poem names and confronts life’s consuming dramas.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1202: If only by Dawn Lundy Martin Sep 24, 2024

Today’s poem is If only by Dawn Lundy Martin.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem unapologetically claims psychic space. In order to be at peace and clear-eyed, the speaker forgoes decorative language that would obscure what their heart and mind believe is ethically true.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1201: Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh Sep 23, 2024

Today’s poem is Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “One of the great paradoxes in life is the presence of human suffering on the planet amidst prosperity. No religion can explain this other than point to some large cosmic plan. Sometimes it’s tough bearing witness and walking in a world where one feels debilitated, and silence around other people’s suffering feels like gaslighting.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1200: Lying My Head Off by Cate Marvin Sep 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Lying My Head Off by Cate Marvin.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “One of the great feelings of aging is coming clean about my shortcomings. That honesty is an illuminating relief, because, as today’s surrealist poem suggests, the masks we take on eventually make us an imposter to ourselves.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1199: Homo naledi by Sara Borjas Sep 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Homo naledi by Sara Borjas.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I see poems functioning in the way stones function, as protection, as foundation, even as weaponry. Today’s poem asserts those simple objects that manifest as testament of our durable existence in the face of opposing forces.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1198: The Big People by César Vallejo, translated by James Wright Sep 18, 2024

Today’s poem is The Big People by César Vallejo, translated by James Wright.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem strikes that note of fear of being cut off from the world and the impending feelings of abandonment.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1197: March, the Garden by Chera Hammons Sep 17, 2024

Today’s poem is March, the Garden by Chera Hammons

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “People often ask me: can poetry be taught? As if there is a playbook for writing poetry, guidelines, and steps. I believe writing poetry, like gardening, is a gradual accumulation of instinctive habits: observing, tending, and nourishing one’s talent and imagination. Today’s poem sees the garden as a barometer of our changing climate and of our inner lives.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1196: A Conversation between Women by Jennifer Chang Sep 16, 2024

Today’s poem is A Conversation between Women by Jennifer Chang.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “On any given day, I can call up one of a handful of friends to have tough conversations. Occasionally, I need someone who will challenge my assumptions, who will help me work through matters that are pressing, who will quickly go past the small talk to a deeper exchange, who will call me on my BS and earnest seriousness.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1165: Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama Sep 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on July 19, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “When lost, truth is, someone always rescued me from my disorientation. Today’s poem reminds me that we are a single body, reliant on each other to find our way.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1063: Love Poem by Sophie Cabot Black Sep 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Love Poem by Sophie Cabot Black.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on February 28, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me of the daunting and ongoing and heartrending work of preparing ourselves to love and to dare to receive it, if we can.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1138: Orientation by Cindy Juyoung Ok Sep 11, 2024

Today’s poem is Orientation by Cindy Juyoung Ok.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on June 12, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “Every poem is a bridge between nature and us, in that what lies hidden, what is below, is somehow familiar, and brought to consciousness.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 926: from "The Garden of Limbs" by Cristina Pérez Díaz Sep 10, 2024

Today’s poem is from "The Garden of Limbs" by Cristina Pérez Díaz.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on July 21, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, which alludes to the biblical story of Adam and Eve and the first garden, celebrates the carnal sweetness of those chill days with a beloved. The poem brazenly proclaims the power (and maybe even recklessness) of sensuous mating that is its own form of world-building, voyage, and cultivation.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1103: Chaos Theory by Clint Smith Sep 09, 2024

Today’s poem is Chaos Theory by Clint Smith.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on April 24, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “Occasionally, I try to follow the series of decisions that led me to this present, however triumphant or painful. My life wavers between fate and destiny. But then again, poetry brings me to the belief that some mysterious force is at work, below, that unveils a spiritually deeper meaning to it all.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1125: English by Janel Pineda Sep 06, 2024

Today’s poem is English by Janel Pineda.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on May 24, 2024.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem brilliantly figures the psychological complexities of adopting a new language, and a way of thinking, while losing another.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1097: Mercy, Mercy Me by Olatunde Osinaike Sep 05, 2024

Today’s poem is Mercy, Mercy Me by Olatunde Osinaike.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on April 16, 2024.

In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s poem survives by an adherence to their values — but also by a willingness to adopt new codes, to risk new experiences, to take on new attitudes.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 932: Letter to my sister by Trapeta B. Mayson Sep 04, 2024

Today’s poem is Letter to my sister by Trapeta B. Mayson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on July 31, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “My mother did not live long enough to read my poems about her. I like to think that she would have appreciated how I processed our shared history and relationships, even the difficult moments. I like to think she’d have granted me the latitude to craft the poems I needed to write, and possibly understood that the practice of poetry is one of imagining and composing rather than simply reporting what happened.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1093: When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon Sep 03, 2024

Today’s poem is When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on April 10, 2024.

In this episode, Major writes… “I read all those articles that proclaim how lonely we are becoming; I believe there’s some truth to it. Here’s my fear: all my work is making me alien to myself and others. I’m happy people are in my life. I wish not to skirt over their humanity, nor my own. I do not want our relationship to devolve to obligation, or come off as transactional. But we naturally negotiate that space of difference between ourselves and others; how rewarding when we can really connect to others.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1117: I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti Sep 02, 2024

Today’s poem is I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on May 14, 2024.

In this episode, Major writes… “On a Saturday morning group Zoom call, I wore my Philadelphia Phillies cap. A friend almost choked on his coffee, confusing my red hat for a MAGA hat. It made for a funny exchange, where I unapologetically claimed my belief in the ideals of America, but, no . . . I am a different kind of patriot. America is defined by its belief in equality, freedom, liberty, opportunity, and justice, but maybe even more by its betrayal of those principles and then its struggle to recommit to values we hold self-evident.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1195: First Kiss by Rooja Mohassessy Aug 30, 2024

Today’s poem is First Kiss by Rooja Mohassessy.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds us that kissing is universal, but also something that is not taught, and so, we fumble our way through until we get it right.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1194: Theories of Influence by Anselm Berrigan Aug 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Theories of Influence by Anselm Berrigan

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Reading is like wandering through our dreams where the details blur once we awaken yet we are still changed throughout our day. Sometimes, we want to be lost, but what is to be gained when we find where we’re going? When we see what our subconsciouses are processing?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1193: Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, with special guest Jacques Pépin Aug 28, 2024

Today’s poem is Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, with special guest Jacques Pépin. He is a French chef, author, culinary educator, television personality, and artist who has appeared on American television, has written for The New York Times and Food & Wine and has authored more than 30 cookbooks. He has been honored with 24 James Beard Foundation Awards, five honorary doctoral degrees, the American Public Television's lifetime achievement award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019 and the Légion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit, in 2004. In 2016, with his daughter, Claudine Pépin and his son-in-law, Rollie Wesen, Pépin created the Jacques Pépin Foundation to support culinary education for adults with barriers to employment.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Jacques shares… “After the hot summer and before the hard winter, there is a certain — plenitude, you know, a certain tranquility to the fall which leads yourself to remembering and to thinking about the past and so forth.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1192: Narcissus and the Namesake River by Reginald Shepherd Aug 27, 2024

Today’s poem is Narcissus and the Namesake River by Reginald Shepherd.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem takes up the myth of Narcissus, the nymph who falls in love with his own image.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1191: For Mac Miller and 2009 by Kayleb Rae Candrilli Aug 26, 2024

Today’s poem is For Mac Miller and 2009 by Kayleb Rae Candrilli.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Because of my family’s addiction issues, I spoke out of fear to my children, and often rather harshly. I worried particularly that they would fall prey to the opioid epidemic that hit the state of Vermont, a fentanyl crisis as severe as the rest of the country. Several friends grieved the loss of children to overdose. I wish I had told my children of my casual experiment with drugs, moments that scared me so much I knew if I went further I would not survive. But it turns out I did not need to reference my journey. The music they listened to, and the rappers they admired spoke about a life they could only picture in their heads, which was ironic and a blessing. The music did not merely glorify drugs but mourned the demise of artists, storytellers, friends, and collaborators.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1190: At the Museum of Empress Livia’s Garden Room by Pimone Triplett Aug 23, 2024

Today’s poem is At the Museum of Empress Livia’s Garden Room by Pimone Triplett.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s lyric poem walks us through a villa garden painted on a fresco. Reading the poem, it is as though we eavesdrop on the speaker’s awe, but also how a rich, imagined replica of fruit, birds, trees leads us to thoughts about our own relationship to natural spaces.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1189: Nature Poem About Flowers by Matthew Rohrer Aug 22, 2024

Today’s poem is Nature Poem About Flowers by Matthew Rohrer.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “They say clothes make the man. Frequently though, clothes hide the person, particularly a person’s depth of feeling.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1188: In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown Aug 21, 2024

Today’s poem is In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown. Through her writing, which includes short- and long-form fiction, nonfiction, spells, tarot decks and poetry; her music, which includes songwriting, singing and immersive musical rituals; and her podcasts, including How to Survive the End of the World, Octavia’s Parables and The Emergent Strategy Podcast, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas, frameworks, networks and practices for transformation. Her work is informed by 25 years of social and environmental justice facilitation primarily supporting Black liberation, her path of teaching somatics, her love of Octavia E. Butler and visionary fiction, and her work as a doula.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, adrienne shares… “For me, poetry is how I get to be my whole human self in a given moment, and really, connect to that river — I always talk about [how] there's this river of love and justice that's flowing from the beginning of time to the end and it flows through us to different degrees. We're supposed to do that kind of work, but it has to be able to hold the whole complexity of a given moment. It has to be able to hold life and death — really life and death — over and over again in a variety of ways.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1187: Picking Favorites by George Franklin Aug 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Picking Favorites by George Franklin.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem finds a capacious way of existing that honors an entire life and everyone in it.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1186: Oh, y’know, just your standard Q&A by Alex Z. Salinas Aug 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Oh, y’know, just your standard Q&A by Alex Z. Salinas.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem is the kind of interview that I long to give, one full of non sequiturs and expansive evasions.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1185: Fragment 31 by Sappho, translated by Christopher Childers Aug 16, 2024

Today’s poem is Fragment 31 by Sappho, translated by Christopher Childers.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If you listen close enough to a poem, especially to the very best of them, you can hear on their surface, the poet’s breathing and silences shaped by the pace and noise of their age. You can hear a voice fastened to the page, the speech of the era in which the poem was written, along with images that float into our mind’s eye which are also of a period like red wheelbarrows, pool players, frigates, and 8-track cassettes.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1184: End of December by Ashjan Hendi, translated by Moneera Al-Ghadeer Aug 15, 2024

Today’s poem is End of December by Ashjan Hendi, translated by Moneera Al-Ghadeer.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Tests to long-term commitments are bound to happen. Expending too much affection can lead to exhaustion and the bruise of eventual disappointment. As today’s poem suggests, one of the secrets to a successful marriage is moderation and restraint.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1183: maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings, with special guest Eric Whitacre Aug 14, 2024

Today’s poem is maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings, with special guest Eric Whitacre. Whitacre is a Grammy Award-winning composer, conductor, and speaker. A graduate of The Juilliard School, his works are programmed worldwide, and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united well over 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries. Upcoming premieres include a new major work for choir, instrumentalists and electronics, Eternity in an Hour, at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Eric shares… “I could sit for hours and just look at sunlight reflecting off the top of the water. I'm not a religious person, but I'm convinced that if there's a God, that's the language that he speaks — light on the surface of the water. I'm mesmerized by it. And my wife even notices that every time I go swimming in the ocean, I come out a different person.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1182: from “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” by L. Lamar Wilson Aug 13, 2024

Today’s poem is from “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” by L. Lamar Wilson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Humans, it seems, are bound to feel adrift. So many times in my life, I have worked to muster a belief that all of it matters. I have made great efforts to not be lulled into amnesia nor medicate myself blind to the forces that harm — and to those that truly heal. Living a spiritual existence means developing strategies that keep us in possession of ourselves, ever aware that we share this fragile world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1181: Enlightenment by Vijay Seshadri Aug 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Enlightenment by Vijay Seshadri.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem points to how people’s sense of desolation and lack of meaning sometimes fuel a desire to save the world, work they go about with patronizing superiority and condescension.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1180: The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath Tagore Aug 09, 2024

Today’s poem is The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath Tagore.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry has a way of collapsing time, and by working the senses, having us experience an era. In the blues rhythms of Langston Hughes’ poetry, I hear early twentieth century New York, and going back, I hear the plurality of America and its citizens in the poetry of Walt Whitman who explicitly said he heard singing. In a way, poems are capsules from the past that open whenever we read them.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1179: Nude by James Kelly Quigley Aug 08, 2024

Today’s poem is Nude by James Kelly Quigley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I long to write poems of a mystical nature, where the wisdom of the ages is carried forth in new forms and phrases. Today’s brief poem, in its associative leaps, could be the seed to a new way of seeing, if we just let its words work their magic.”

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1178: America by Claude McKay, with special guest Tonya Mosley Aug 07, 2024

Today’s poem is America by Claude McKay, with special guest Tonya Mosley. Tonya is the host and creator of Truth Be Told and founder of TMI Productions. She is also a co-host of Fresh Air, and a correspondent and former host of Here & Now, the midday radio show co-produced by NPR and WBUR. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Tonya shares… “The Harlem Renaissance feels so current and so now, and the thing about it is it always has for me. From the time I was a little girl, it didn't feel historical, in fact, it felt like that is the place I want to be, and I yearned for it all of my life. I understand what that yearning is. What it is, is to be a part of something that is a freedom movement. But it's not just a movement. a collective freedom movement. It's an individual movement too, through the creation of art. Those artists were, through expressing themselves, understanding themselves, and learning about themselves, and their contribution to the world allowed us to see ourselves in their art.”

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1177: Machete: Look by Jasminne Mendez Aug 06, 2024

Today’s poem is Machete: Look by Jasminne Mendez.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds us of the tools that break the bonds of human connection and life, how we must go against rhetoric that strips us of our power to feel empathy and exercise grace.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1176: Fowl at Large by Sarah Giragosian Aug 05, 2024

Today’s poem is Fowl at Large by Sarah Giragosian.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Courage is at the heart of writing, and as today’s poem suggests, a wildness of being, that fires away from timidity and into realms of the self as glamorous and unpredictable, as if you had the whole world shook.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1175: Hunger by Kelli Russell Agodon Aug 02, 2024

Today’s poem is Hunger by Kelli Russell Agodon.

This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Jeannine from Washington. In this episode, Major writes… “What is it about this stage of dating that has us turn off the radar, render us blind to the red flags, to what we hope our instincts should catch? We become wild in our desperation to present ourselves as worthy of love. Our passionate hearts render us prey to the lost souls who present facades of well-being.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1174: Separation Wall by Naomi Shihab Nye Aug 01, 2024

Today’s poem is Separation Wall by Naomi Shihab Nye.

This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Meital from Washington, D.C. In this episode, Major writes… “Coexistence on the planet demands that we transcend reactionary treatment of each other. For this reason, we need poems to tease out our innocence, that part of us untouched by the callousness of the world, to bring us to a sanity beyond inherited hurts and old fears, away from the logic of ‘an eye for an eye.’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that this kind of violence ‘destroys communities and makes humanity impossible. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.’”

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1173: Sono by Suji Kwock Kim Jul 31, 2024

Today’s poem is Sono by Suji Kwock Kim.

This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem coordinates a masterful flow of language, simulating the journey of a child crossing into our time through another’s body. The poem reminds us, with sound and texture, to not lose our sense of marvel.”

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1172: From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee Jul 30, 2024

Today’s poem is From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee.

This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. Today’s selection was submitted by Candace from North Carolina. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exults in that bounty of spiritual abundance and celebrates the joy inside us yielded from the land.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1171: One Art by Elizabeth Bishop Jul 29, 2024

Today’s poem is One Art by Elizabeth Bishop.

This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Doug from Minnesota. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s iconic poem inflects so much psychological truth and honest emotion in the wake of a parting; the hard pain must be worked through.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1170: The Way by Cynthia Cruz Jul 26, 2024

Today’s poem is The Way by Cynthia Cruz.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This past spring like every spring many of my students graduated into the uncertainty of their futures. Their lives can take so many directions. I am curious as to what ultimately launches us as human beings with a purpose, or not. If ever we meet as new friends, I will likely ask what you do for a living. In some scenarios, my inquisitiveness can sound like prying. But what I am really asking is what makes you happy — to really live.”

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1169: from "American Analects" by Gary Young Jul 25, 2024

Today’s poem is from "American Analects" by Gary Young.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I find that poems emerge out of dialogues that I have either with myself, other works of art, or my friends. In this way, my poems are a collaboration of silences.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1168: Refusing Rilke's “You must change your life” by Remica Bingham-Risher Jul 24, 2024

Today’s poem is Refusing Rilke's “You must change your life” by Remica Bingham-Risher.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I live with Rilke’s famous line, “You must change your life,” in my ear on repeat, an earworm, as if something is less than stellar about who I am today. I move instinctively towards myself as though I were a massive project, believing I will someday, again in Rilke’s words, “burst like a star.” That this is how to be seen, to be loved, to be cherished. This quest has distorted my sense of what is important, sown constant dissatisfaction, and emotional states of being that pose health risks. Pursuing perfection has, at times, alienated me from those I hold dear. Not that I don’t love them or they me —- but that I get tunnel vision in seeking some heroic terminus.”

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1167: Transfusion by Shara Lessley Jul 23, 2024

Today’s poem is Transfusion by Shara Lessley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s fine poem creates the feeling of a medically induced slumber, but, by working layers of sound, a gorgeous aesthetic tension enlivens my ears.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1166: Wind Poem by Song Yu, translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts Jul 22, 2024

Today’s poem is Wind Poem by Song Yu, translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “During moments of political crises, I think of wind, how conflicts arise and unfold. Today’s poem, written some 17 centuries ago, effectuates a storm. In the very structure of its sentences, the poem enacts the motion of a mighty gust and its aftermath — a murmuring calm and quiet that claims our being.”

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1165: Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama Jul 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When lost, truth is, someone always rescued me from my disorientation. Today’s poem reminds me that we are a single body, reliant on each other to find our way.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1164: Act of Gratitude by Cyrus Cassells Jul 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Act of Gratitude by Cyrus Cassells.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Reading poems that strike big-hearted notes of the ecstatic have me celebrate my own victories and joys, small things in life that are meaningful, yet unnoticeable to the distracted eye: a child’s hug at the end of bedtime, first sip of steaming soup on a frigid day that fogs your face, the way a friend smiles at a corny joke. Today’s poem deftly catalogs those unexpected moments and still advances positivity as a social emotion that is beneficial to all.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1163: Voice Clear As by Kemi Alabi Jul 17, 2024

Today’s poem is Voice Clear As by Kemi Alabi.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Long ago, I knew I needed a new conception of heaven. The one with pearly white gates and winged angels from my youth in church just wasn’t working for me. I mean, I get clouds and blue skies as symbols of ascension from earthly plains. And it wasn’t just in church — heaven was everywhere, in museums and in movies, too. But those early images, lodged into my subconscious, weren’t inclusive or realistic, except for the 1936 Hollywood classic Green Pastures.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1162: But Beautiful by Rodney Terich Leonard Jul 16, 2024

Today’s poem is But Beautiful by Rodney Terich Leonard.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Some poets aim for meaning and clarity of emotion. And then, the best does that and more. They also play language as though words were comprised of tones and notes, as though the poem were a musical composition. They treat language as a resource by creating echoes through rhyme or cadence or incantation. Others give language a skin by utilizing words that have a roughness to them. Then other poets map a route to individuality by capturing words, and phrases and heard speech only particular to a region or group of people. I like language that is connected to family and kin, idiomatic and vernacular speech.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1161: Each Morning Again by Rose McLarney Jul 15, 2024

Today’s poem is Each Morning Again by Rose McLarney.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My daily routines present no surprises; they keep the beat of my life. The foreseeable brings me comfort. I typically stick to the script of the previous day. But writing poetry is something that disrupts my set pattern. Composing language into a meaningful act of artful feeling provides necessary pause to meditate on the purpose of my life and its possibilities.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1160: Naïve by Tim Seibles Jul 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Naïve by Tim Seibles.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s deeply reflective poem encourages a return to ourselves as open and loving, even at the risk of seeming dewy-eyed and idealistic.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1159: We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers by Diannely Antigua Jul 11, 2024

Today’s poem is We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers by Diannely Antigua.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I treasure the elder women in my life for their conscious, yet easy-going transference of soul-nourishing values. Matriarchs mediated conflicts among family members. They put into play care and cohesion. They lovingly told stories, recalled important family members, and carried on cultural traditions, passed down like charms.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1158: A Blessing by Samyak Shertok Jul 10, 2024

Today’s poem is A Blessing by Samyak Shertok.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s remarkable poem exalts in the cultural rite of eating a meal prepared by an elder. Its sumptuous language and lush syntax are markers of the summer’s abundance.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1157: from “Requiem 1935-1940” by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward Jul 09, 2024

Today’s poem is from “Requiem 1935-1940” by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “What is the role of poetry during war? Does it have a function? Then and now, poets and readers of poetry see language as the terrain where we find ourselves heard and affirmed in our beliefs. Poets protest, bear witness, and mourn.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1156: In Love by Chloe Martinez Jul 08, 2024

Today’s poem is In Love by Chloe Martinez.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The first time I was in love, I started missing baseball practice. Instead, I went to the library. Cherie spent afternoons doing her homework there. I could barely think about anything but her. What an immense feeling, to live with a perennial lump in my chest!”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1155: A Toast by Oksana Zabuzhko Jul 05, 2024

Today’s poem is A Toast by Oksana Zabuzhko.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem honors the immense feelings of connection art and poetry offer us. It notes what care is possible when we listen to each other and co-create a world where decency and regard are the order of the day.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1154: Selfsame River Thrice by Alicia Mountain Jul 04, 2024

Today’s poem is Selfsame River Thrice by Alicia Mountain.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Writing poems can be a lot like shopping in a thrift store where all the forgotten items are yours, and the act of finding language is a form of discovery and recovery. Today’s poem reminds me how emotionally difficult it is to retrieve the past, even for the purpose of art.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1153: Illumination by Natasha Trethewey Jul 03, 2024

Today’s poem is Illumination by Natasha Trethewey.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s elegant poem reads like a manifesto for those who rigorously annotate. For those who know that marking a book renders visible silent conversations.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1152: from "The Crystal Text" by Clark Coolidge Jul 02, 2024

Today’s poem is from "The Crystal Text" by Clark Coolidge.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry negotiates that space between our inner life and the relational world we share with others. Magically, we make plain what we feel and observe to convey what some might call a soul. I often describe poetry as a mirror that reflects back our interiority. But today’s poem wonders if such perspective is even possible, given that we barely know who we are — making the enterprise of connection through art deeply indeterminate and delicate.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1151: I Tune My Body and My Brain to the Music of the Land by Natalie Shapero Jul 01, 2024

Today’s poem is I Tune My Body and My Brain to the Music of the Land by Natalie Shapero.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I wonder how much of our authentic selves are lost in the belief that we are stronger collectively, when we adhere this way, to a set of civic virtues that may not fully align with our worldview. Is there a part of us that wishes to express something different? How might we look within, and no longer seek social affirmation?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1150: Fuji, Ararat by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, translated by Eduardo Aparicio Jun 28, 2024

Today’s poem is Fuji, Ararat by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, translated by Eduardo Aparicio.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s exquisite poem infuses the Petrarchan sonnet with playful existentialism and self-soothing. It’s Nietzsche meets Anti-Eat, Pray, Love—and as a work of translation, it defies impossibility.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1149: Agony's Rasp by Garous Abdolmalekian, translated by Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra Novey Jun 27, 2024

Today’s poem is Agony's Rasp by Garous Abdolmalekian, translated by Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra Novey.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem simultaneously inhabits the planes of presence and absence, conveying the suffering of avoidance from multiple perspectives. With restraint and disorienting beauty, we are at the mercy of the dying voice, the reviving voice, and the surviving voice.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1148: Urine Season by Niina Pollari Jun 26, 2024

Today’s poem is Urine Season by Niina Pollari.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “When someone in my life—an acquaintance, a coworker, a friend or beloved—experiences a tremendous loss, I am acutely reminded of how language fails us. We give out heartfelt condolences such as “I’m sorry for your loss,” “My deepest sympathy,” or “Thinking of you during these difficult times.” But they do not resurrect the dead and rarely comfort the living.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1147: A Book of Music by Jack Spicer Jun 25, 2024

Today’s poem is A Book of Music by Jack Spicer.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s nimble poem inspires me to think about rope idioms in the context of romantic relationships. When did you show your lover the ropes? Have you given your lover enough rope from which to dangle?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1146: Lonely Women by Choi Seungja, translated by Won-Chung Kim and Cathy Park Hong Jun 24, 2024

Today’s poem is Lonely Women by Choi Seungja, translated by Won-Chung Kim and Cathy Park Hong.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… "I learned how to enjoy my own company while living in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. One evening, I decided to enter the Campus Theatre, an art-deco movie house known for showing a captivating mix of new releases, classics, and indie films. And it was there, sitting comfortably in a dark room, while staring at an anachronistically large screen, that my loneliness peeled off me in layers, alongside strangers coupled and lonely all the same."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1145: Love Poem by the Light of the Refrigerator by Alisha Dietzman Jun 21, 2024

Today’s poem is Love Poem by the Light of the Refrigerator by Alisha Dietzman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem, with its phantom-like repetition and delicate renderings of stereotypically gendered décor, demands our aesthetic attention. It is at once domestic and elemental, modest and suggestive, buoyant and exacting.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1144: Horse by TR Brady Jun 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Horse by TR Brady.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s deceptively simple poem is as provoking as it is spare. With parallel syntax and capacious anticipation, we witness the unbridgeable silences that exist between man and beast, man and earth, and, most immediately, between each other.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1143: Screenplay by Harryette Mullen Jun 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Screenplay by Harryette Mullen.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem performs the mundane in cinematic fashion. Through sharp auditory imagery, deliberate juxtaposition, and the suggestion of ritual, it reminds us that, though the musical scores of our lives are never not playing and not always pleasant, our job is, always, to listen.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1142: Hyperacusis by Santee Frazier Jun 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Hyperacusis by Santee Frazier.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “I find that I’m especially sensitive to sound. I also find that sonics drive my poetics. In my role as an editor, I gravitate towards writing that prioritizes rhythm, be it harmonious or unsettling, and I believe phonetics alone has the power to both eschew narrative meaning and dictate it.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1141: When I Was in My Early Thirties I Saw Elton John in a Nightclub in Atlanta Called Tongue and Groove by Khadijah Queen Jun 17, 2024

Today’s poem is When I Was in My Early Thirties I Saw Elton John in a Nightclub in Atlanta Called Tongue and Groove by Khadijah Queen.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem transports us to a night out worth remembering, not for its intoxicating music or the surprise of a celebrity sighting, but because our response to disappointment can function as a measure of individual growth.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1140: Fish, Serpent, Egg, Scorpion by Kwame Dawes Jun 14, 2024

Today’s poem is Fish, Serpent, Egg, Scorpion by Kwame Dawes.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem highlights that cycle of hard truths and compassion passed between fathers and sons.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1139: Dolly Would by Julie E. Bloemeke Jun 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Dolly Would by Julie E. Bloemeke.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “To build an image and reputation from dreams requires herculean efforts that often involve doubts, failures, and sacrifices, but as we hear in today’s poem, a devotedness to one’s art that transforms a passion into a stratospheric journey into the self. ”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1138: Orientation by Cindy Juyoung Ok Jun 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Orientation by Cindy Juyoung Ok.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Every poem is a bridge between nature and us, in that what lies hidden, what is below, is somehow familiar, and brought to consciousness.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1137: i have an irrational fear of spiders by Charlie Getter Jun 11, 2024

Today’s poem is i have an irrational fear of spiders by Charlie Getter.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem smartly interrogates the role of fears and how they might unreasonably control our lives.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1136: Visible Light by Heidi Seaborn Jun 10, 2024

Today’s poem is Visible Light by Heidi Seaborn.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “As a child, on summer evenings, my friends and I ran through the neighborhood collecting lightning bugs. They were most visible in vacant lots, but we feared those dark places we sometimes entered. So, the hunt for them as ten-year-olds also felt like an adventure. We gently coaxed them into glass mason jars then sat on the stoop counting their lights to see who had the most. Their underbellies lit up and cast a glow onto our faces. Later, beneath a sheet in bed, I stared into the jar as the fireflies crawled the glass and emitted their light.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1135: At the Rainbow Cattle Company by Bruce Snider Jun 07, 2024

Today’s poem is At the Rainbow Cattle Company by Bruce Snider.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem names the silent syncopated talk of the body that occurs when two people are in sync, in graceful movements, when they let each other lead.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1134: Americans by Katie Peterson Jun 06, 2024

Today’s poem is Americans by Katie Peterson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Whenever I hear a person refer to people by their geographic or cultural or national association, I wince. In doing so, we falsely implicate everything from intelligence levels to physical appearances. This strikes me as crude, reductive, unintentionally demeaning.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1133: The Alien by Greg Delanty Jun 05, 2024

Today’s poem is The Alien by Greg Delanty.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “However tight the team of parents, and family and community beyond that, supporting a child in utero, that baby is carried by one body alone. Their body is not only one of creation, of labor, of internal mystery, but one of a singular emotional gravity.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1132: Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod Avant Jun 04, 2024

Today’s poem is Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod Avant.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I am drawn to poets who, like the author of today’s poem, bring imagination and attention to sonic idioms of a poem. They make reading aloud fun.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1131: How It Will End by Denise Duhamel Jun 03, 2024

Today’s poem is How It Will End by Denise Duhamel.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem illustrates how difficult it is to plot the fate of a couple, especially one whose ups and downs are played out publicly.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1130: Cy Twombly's Untitled (Say Goodbye Catullus, to the shores of Asia Minor) by Javier O. Huerta May 31, 2024

Today’s poem is Cy Twombly's Untitled (Say Goodbye Catullus, to the shores of Asia Minor) by Javier O. Huerta.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Ekphrastic poetry sometimes pushes back against the idea of simple art made complicated in idea, born from an eccentric personality. Inspired by another famous Twombly painting, one that itself is inspired partly by a poem, today’s poem realizes the frenetic sense of the artist’s canvas is a conceptual product of a sophisticated and sometimes frustrating mind.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1129: Hagar in the Wilderness by Tyehimba Jess May 30, 2024

Today’s poem is Hagar in the Wilderness by Tyehimba Jess.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Today’s poet pays homage to an artist who, with her own hands, made art out of heroic, mythical, and biblical figures, whose visions were worthy of the substance of stone.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1128: Post-Industrial Society Has Arrived by Vidhu Aggarwal May 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Post-Industrial Society Has Arrived by Vidhu Aggarwal.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Poets possess an expansive intuition, a proclivity towards image-making that meets head-on the most difficult of artists. In responding to works of art, poets perform the gift of interpretation. By turning language into a critical practice, they find pathways into paintings and teach us how to see what they see. They make the paintings speak.”

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1127: Two Paintings Seen Again by Rachel Hadas May 28, 2024

Today’s poem is Two Paintings Seen Again by Rachel Hadas.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Today’s ekphrastic poem makes a compelling assertion that to fully register the power of art, we must take our time to take it in.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1126: Not So Much an End as an Entangling by Linda Gregerson May 27, 2024

Today’s poem is Not So Much an End as an Entangling by Linda Gregerson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. The vision of birds stilled in motion at the center of Tom Uttech’s paintings invite similar speculations. Today’s poem reads an exodus of earth’s species as an ominous commentary, I surmise, on the decimation of the environment.”

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1125: English by Janel Pineda May 24, 2024

Today’s poem is English by Janel Pineda.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem brilliantly figures the psychological complexities of adopting a new language, and a way of thinking, while losing another.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1124: What Good Is A Castle by Linda Susan Jackson May 23, 2024

Today’s poem is What Good Is A Castle by Linda Susan Jackson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Those signs are back; a favorite restaurant near campus suddenly closed. My network news show has a new host; my local bagel shop removed the best breakfast sandwich this side of cream cheese from its menu board. These are reminders that nothing is permanent. Is anything sacred? Of course not. The only constant in life is change.”

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1123: In the House With No Doors by Sarah Kay May 22, 2024

Today’s poem is In the House With No Doors by Sarah Kay.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem speaks to the intimacy roommates share, how sometimes we start off as strangers then, as we enter into each other’s routines, become the best of friends.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1122: Childhood by David Baker May 21, 2024

Today’s poem is Childhood by David Baker.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I enjoy today’s poem immensely for how it makes its opening comparison, then leads us to the sweet conclusion, one about an experience we all share. Yet, it individualizes through the power of metaphor.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1121: The Empire of Light by Michael Dumanis May 20, 2024

Today’s poem is The Empire of Light by Michael Dumanis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reveals how poets distinctly process the world. A fragmented mix of images might reflect how we naturally think. Spontaneity defines our lyricism, and its pleasure is its speed.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1120: Monet Refuses the Operation by Lisel Mueller May 17, 2024

Today’s poem is Monet Refuses the Operation by Lisel Mueller.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poets and visual artists work to give representation to the world which shimmers and blurs. Sometimes only impressions are available. Rather than a fidelity to things as they are, we desire to represent those very distortions. Today’s dramatic monologue is a gem of a poem, one that reminds how everything around us is divined with light, even our imperfections.”

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1119: A Black Doe in the Anthropocene by Artress Bethany White May 16, 2024

Today’s poem is A Black Doe in the Anthropocene by Artress Bethany White.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Here is my ignorance; I thought we settled the matter of the “Anthropocene” a long time ago. Isn’t there enough conclusive evidence? Wars, loss of biodiversity, overpopulation, endangered species, deforestation, earth warming, greenhouse gasses, the production of nonbiodegradable materials, nuclear waste that further threatens wildlife, human beings, and agricultural lands. But, as one scientist noted, “Human impact goes much deeper into geological time.””

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1118: At My Funeral by Hélène Cardona May 15, 2024

Today’s poem is At My Funeral by Hélène Cardona.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Ultimately, we do not know the experience of dying. We can only imagine. Artists, though, have fun playing with the mystery of what happens when we transition to no longer walking the earth in the flesh. From the Jerry Zucker movie “Ghost” to Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” I have found special comfort in works that find a boldness in facing the inevitable.”

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1117: I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti May 14, 2024

Today’s poem is I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “On a Saturday morning group Zoom call, I wore my Philadelphia Phillies cap. A friend almost choked on his coffee, confusing my red hat for a MAGA hat. It made for a funny exchange, where I unapologetically claimed my belief in the ideals of America, but, no . . . I am a different kind of patriot. America is defined by its belief in equality, freedom, liberty, opportunity, and justice, but maybe even more by its betrayal of those principles and then its struggle to recommit to values we hold self-evident.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1116: Mercy by Dessa May 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Mercy by Dessa.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I never took to the attitude of I’ll show them. It concedes that those people, people who did not think enough of me to take care of my feelings, are still in my life, in an unhealthy manner, subconsciously controlling my actions. My success is not going to suddenly prove me worthy of love in their eyes. Will they have thought better of that moment when they scarred me? Maybe. Will they think me more intelligent than they initially granted? Possibly. But, truth is, I am healed when I no longer care to have their acceptance or validation.”

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1115: Frame Six by Cheswayo Mphanza May 10, 2024

Today’s poem is Frame Six by Cheswayo Mphanza.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Occasionally, I experience a psychological disconnection between my work, my life, and the world. Finding myself not home, again, my spirit was trending a Willy Loman aesthetic. A ‘disassociation of self’ often reminds me I am due for a reboot.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1114: The Mothers by Jill Bialosky May 09, 2024

Today’s poem is The Mothers by Jill Bialosky.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem beautifully captures those complex emotions of watching our children emerge into themselves — and its threat to our identity.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1113: Egrets, While War by Tishani Doshi May 08, 2024

Today’s poem is Egrets, While War by Tishani Doshi.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s compelling poem honors the ancient and indomitable essence of human beings who continue on even in the face of tragedy, who crossover into the perfect fullness of their truth and emotions.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1112: Sl(e)ight by Alice White May 07, 2024

Today’s poem is Sl(e)ight by Alice White.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “We recognize the vulnerability in children. Our natural impulse is to protect them from the troubles and potential harms that will come their way, knowing that suffering is an inevitable part of their journey. For this reason, the speaker in today’s poem is on alert, like any parent, knowing that the tricks of the world, and of people, disguise the most horrid possibilities.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1111: The Nation by Roy Fisher May 06, 2024

Today’s poem is The Nation by Roy Fisher.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “It’s important for us to avoid what Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka once phrased as “saline consciousness,” that is, the belief that only what lies within our boundaries is worth noticing. We can roam beyond our familiar provinces. Today’s poem satirizes a vision of nationhood that only sees itself in relation to the known and all that has been sanctioned.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1110: Blue Hour by Chanda Feldman May 03, 2024

Today’s poem is Blue Hour by Chanda Feldman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Although about the birth of a child, what I love about today’s poem is how it parallels my growing sense of care for natural environments. When my children were born, their bodies demanded a softness from my body, not to mention a constant attention.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1109: Never Did Say So by Caridad Moro-Gronlier May 02, 2024

Today’s poem is Never Did Say So by Caridad Moro-Gronlier.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem explores the depths of its speaker by applying the lyrics of an iconic artist who gets that indomitable spirit of smart, independent women.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1108: Life on Earth by Dorianne Laux May 01, 2024

Today’s poem is Life on Earth by Dorianne Laux.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poems buttress me against the hurt and the harm and the uncertainty of life itself. I fear that the global conflicts we’re witnessing are negatively impacting the health and mental wellbeing of people who are susceptible to the frailty of this moment. I read poetry profusely during times like these.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1107: Accessory to War by Kim Stafford Apr 30, 2024

Today’s poem is Accessory to War by Kim Stafford.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s sobering poem lands a powerful reminder: that even when we adhere to a belief against war, even when we wish not to collude in acts of aggression, in a powerful nation as ours, mere citizenship implicates us.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1106: Life In The Gush Of Boasts by Elijah Burrell Apr 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Life In The Gush Of Boasts by Elijah Burrell.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Most writers are not “All eyes on me,” but the psychology of the social media “like” and “follower” becomes validation, it seems, between books.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1105: Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso by Eduardo C. Corral Apr 26, 2024

Today’s poem is Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso by Eduardo C. Corral.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "These days, we are loving reading and writing self-portrait poems, what I call the “verbal selfie.” It allows the author to be the runway, to elevate themselves into the frame of language. In so doing, the poet, like the author of today’s poem, experiments with perceptions of the self. I like how the poet in Rembrandt-fashion mythologizes himself in the lyric.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1104: Black Book of Creation by Shanta Lee Gander Apr 25, 2024

Today’s poem is Black Book of Creation by Shanta Lee Gander.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem builds on the belief that imagining is a kind of magic and time travel, that listening to the soil and all the voices within is a monumental way into both history, and our future.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1103: Chaos Theory by Clint Smith Apr 24, 2024

Today’s poem is Chaos Theory by Clint Smith.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Occasionally, I try to follow the series of decisions that led me to this present, however triumphant or painful. My life wavers between fate and destiny. But then again, poetry brings me to the belief that some mysterious force is at work, below, that unveils a spiritually deeper meaning to it all."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1102: How to Be a Good Savage by Mikeas Sánchez, translated by Wendy Call and Shook Apr 23, 2024

Today’s poem is How to Be a Good Savage by Mikeas Sánchez, translated by Wendy Call and Shook.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem ironizes the lens through which the colonizer sees Indigenous peoples as uncivilized. It is a horrible term that diminishes a people’s humanity and ascribes assimilation as the cure of a presumed inferiority. It is an example of a poem that my friend Willie Perdomo describes as a poetry of “decolonial practice.”"

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1101: 1971 Pontiac LeMans by Thomas Bolt Apr 22, 2024

Today’s poem is 1971 Pontiac LeMans by Thomas Bolt.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem reminds me how, in some instances, automobiles are charged with a certain kind of masculinity that can be beautiful and destructive at the same time."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1100: Ode to The Lone Star State by Jubi Arriola-Headley Apr 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Ode to The Lone Star State by Jubi Arriola-Headley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "On a flight to Kansas City just before the most recent Super Bowl, the pilot taunted Chiefs football fans. Just before takeoff, he donned his Dallas Cowboys baseball cap. In jest, he claimed, despite not having made it to the Superbowl, his team still carried the banner as “America’s Team.” Half the plane booed. He announced those who booed could remove their seat cushions and sit on iron the entire flight. The whole cabin laughed. Texas often takes it on the chin. I, too, once decried the second largest American state maybe because my Eagles often lost big games to the Cowboys. Yet, my appreciation for Texas has grown over the years.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1099: Something by Andrea Cohen Apr 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Something by Andrea Cohen.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "On a long drive through upstate New York, I ran out of podcasts, six hours in. So, I asked Siri to tell me a joke. She said, “Why did the meatball tell the spaghetti to go to sleep,” then answered, “It was pasta bedtime.” I thanked Siri for keeping me company… then became self-conscious about speaking to an artificial being.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1098: Rant by Nathalie Anderson Apr 17, 2024

Today’s poem is Rant by Nathalie Anderson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "It feels like many people are passing from our lives. Not that the death of a poet is any more devastating, but when a poet dies, my grief is heavier. The year 2023 saw the loss of many poets I admire, including Benjamin Zephaniah and Louise Glück. When poet Donald Hall died in 2018, I noticed a great shift of voices, one generation exiting as another emerged. We will no longer hear their music in language. Maybe, this has always been the case.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1097: Mercy, Mercy Me by Olatunde Osinaike Apr 16, 2024

Today’s poem is Mercy, Mercy Me by Olatunde Osinaike.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "The speaker in today’s poem survives by an adherence to their values — but also by a willingness to adopt new codes, to risk new experiences, to take on new attitudes.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1096: Gacela of the Dark Death by Federico García Lorca, translated by Merryn Williams Apr 15, 2024

Today’s poem is Gacela of the Dark Death by Federico García Lorca, translated by Merryn Williams.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem has me recall a pilgrimage to the home of a cherished poet, whose mystery is the very fire that channels my faith in poetry as nothing less than pure feeling.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1095: Nameless Places by Tony Petrosky Apr 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Nameless Places by Tony Petrosky.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "This summer, I get to write in a castle in Italy at an artist retreat. I am hoping my assigned room is in a dungeon. Otherwise, I am afraid high ceilings will mean high windows, which will mean a room flooded with light. I wish to arrive at light like a burst that suddenly suffuses my eyelids; I want the page to contain inexpressible awe at our existence, to enact a calamitous and beautiful journey. Today’s short poem honors the unseen, formidable spaces that define us as much as our existence in the light."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1094: 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch Apr 11, 2024

Today’s poem is 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem disentangles the quest for money, transactional desire, and lyric subjectivity. Its teasing interplay of language brings into close proximity art, social class, and manners of currency.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1093: When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon Apr 10, 2024

Today’s poem is When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… "I read all those articles that proclaim how lonely we are becoming; I believe there’s some truth to it. Here’s my fear: all my work is making me alien to myself and others. I’m happy people are in my life. I wish not to skirt over their humanity, nor my own. I do not want our relationship to devolve to obligation, or come off as transactional. But we naturally negotiate that space of difference between ourselves and others; how rewarding when we can really connect to others.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1092: Eid Mubarak by Fady Joudah Apr 09, 2024

Today’s poem is Eid Mubarak by Fady Joudah.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem makes a profound commitment to carry the living and the dead in language forward into time, to record our presence, to meld the collectivity and richness of humanity into a singular vision that feels like love.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1091: To Find Stars in Another Language by Elizabeth Bradfield Apr 08, 2024

Today’s poem is To Find Stars in Another Language by Elizabeth Bradfield.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Sometimes it is necessary to create our own stories and poems that account for our reality, for who we are, presently, in the 21st century. Our dreams and imagination serve as a bridge in expanding conceptions of the self. One of my favorite poets once declared “The dream of every poem is to be a myth.” I like this idea, that poems can order our world, give agency and permission, cultivate, and open our collective unconscious.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1090: My Life by Water by Lorine Niedecker Apr 05, 2024

Today’s poem is My Life by Water by Lorine Niedecker.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… "I admit, I spent much of my childhood imagining my future away from Michigan. But now, I only have positive memories of my childhood landscape. The Michigan landscape is my country. We are all always living and writing from somewhere, and thus we are being defined by our landscapes. We wouldn’t be someone without a somewhere."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1089: The Loquat Trees & The Boy Next Door by Saúl Hernández Apr 04, 2024

Today’s poem is The Loquat Trees & The Boy Next Door by Saúl Hernández.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… "Today’s poem reminds me of how, under every tree that bears fruit, there are secret stories of desire, of loss, and of love."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1088: Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo Apr 03, 2024

Today’s poem is Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… "Today’s poem is an ode to the kitchen table and all the ways that a table holds everything in our lives — all the pain of the world, its history, and all the beauty at once."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1087: After She Died by Mary Szybist Apr 02, 2024

Today’s poem is After She Died by Mary Szybist.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… "As the years have gone by since my mother’s passing, since my father’s passing, something else has bloomed unexpectedly, which is a connection with others who have experienced deep loss. The details of other people’s losses are always different, but the feelings are familiar. These shared experiences are the things that tie us to each other. I’ve learned that to see and share our experiences with others is to be alive and in the world."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1086: It's This Way by Nâzim Hikmet Apr 01, 2024

Today’s poem is It's This Way by Nâzim Hikmet, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… "I have begun to think that hope is a presentness, that perhaps hope is within the present, not the future, not in the subjunctive, the what if? For there is beauty all around us all the time. To have hope is to wake up and perceive in the now, instead of spending the little mindspace we have caught up in the future and possibility."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1085: Spring View by Du Fu, translated by Arthur Sze Mar 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Spring View by Du Fu, translated by Arthur Sze. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… “I have always loved imagining how people lived a long time ago, what they thought about, how they dressed, what they ate. One of the best ways to see how people really lived is through poems, really old poems. Du Fu is a poet who lived during the Tang Dynasty in China from 721 to 770, A.D. He was one of the three most prominent poets in the Tang era, along with Wang Wei and Li Bai. Du Fu lived during turbulent war times, which feels like every era of history, including our present times.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1084: Mahmoud by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Fady Joudah Mar 28, 2024

Today’s poem is Mahmoud by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Fady Joudah. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… “As an adult, one of the things I’ve always wondered about was the baby boy we lost to a miscarriage. He was almost three months old by the time he passed away. I still carry the hospital bracelet in my wallet, the one that says simply, “baby boy.” Some days, I still wonder about him — what he would have looked like as a teenager. He would have been sixteen years old this year. I imagine him having just received his driver’s license, the loud sound of the door opening, his backpack with all of the little tchotchkes and keychains hanging from them rattling and hitting the door. I can almost hear his voice as he enters the house. Almost.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1083: first person by Ed Roberson Mar 27, 2024

Today’s poem is first person by Ed Roberson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… “How can we learn if no one helps us to learn? How can we help each other learn if we don’t speak up, if we don’t talk to each other honestly? How can we learn if we don’t look harder at ourselves and the things we do or don’t do, know or don’t know, every single day?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1082: A Certain Light by Marie Howe Mar 26, 2024

Today’s poem is A Certain Light by Marie Howe. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… “Today’s poem always moves me. I love the way this poem so lyrically depicts the surprising beauty and connection that can emerge amidst the deepest darkest moments of illness.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1081: The Leaving by Brigit Pegeen Kelly Mar 25, 2024

Today’s poem is The Leaving by Brigit Pegeen Kelly. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… “This is a poem that seems so easy to describe, yet it’s so hard to pin down–my favorite kind of poem–both clear and mysterious. It’s dreamlike, mystical, biblical, and so much more. It magically depicts what it’s like to be a child on the cusp of something, in the face of the largeness of the world.”

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1080: Dream Song 14 by John Berryman Mar 22, 2024

Today’s poem is Dream Song 14 by John Berryman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I miss being bored. I miss idly sitting in a chair, looking out a window, wondering what next to do with myself. I want the feeling of time as an endless desert — nothing in sight, nothing on the horizon.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1079: Cassandra by Sasha West Mar 21, 2024

Today’s poem is Cassandra by Sasha West.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s poem, taken from Greek mythology, has sight beyond the veil. Their relationship to objects points to the kind of clairvoyance that artists exercise, connecting our physical, emotional, and spiritual worlds.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1078: Ferment by Monica Rico Mar 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Ferment by Monica Rico.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “As a person who sticks to the recipe, step by step, exact measurements and all, I appreciate how today’s poem lifts up the magic of feeling and improvisation, of putting one’s whole body into a task.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1077: “Something About…” by Peter Kahn Mar 19, 2024

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Why is it so hard to write a love poem? Well, I think sentimentality is often the culprit. Today’s poem, by contrast, avoids sentimentality by showing how our perceptions change when we fall in love, how the inner and outer worlds come to reflect each other.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1076: a story from the eighties by Debra Marquart Mar 18, 2024

Today’s poem is a story from the eighties by Debra Marquart.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Occasionally, I pretend to resist feelings of nostalgia. Somehow, I got it in my mind that remembrances of things past prevented me from standing fully in the here and now — that musings about foregone events would eclipse any potential value I placed in the present."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1075: Translation by Anne Spencer Mar 15, 2024

Today’s poem is Translation by Anne Spencer.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The last time I camped, a wolf’s howl gave me chills; it brought me closer to some primitive ancestor. I fell asleep to fantasies of leading a pack through boreal forest. The last time I camped, I gazed on evening stars blinking their wondrous code, jeweling the dark sky.”

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1074: My Father and I Drive to St. Louis for His Mother's Funeral and the Wildflowers by Chaun Ballard Mar 14, 2024

Today’s poem is My Father and I Drive to St. Louis for His Mother's Funeral and the Wildflowers by Chaun Ballard.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Current global conflicts and discussions of borders spotlight the privilege of mobility. An American passport admits entry into 184 countries. Yet, even movement within the United States, for some people, is unsafe. Race and other identity markers, even today, circumscribe where people can travel and live with ease.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1073: Great Question by Lisa Olstein Mar 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Great Question by Lisa Olstein.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Why do we lean on love so much for sustenance? When passion dwindles to a set of burned twigs, where once there was a raging fire; it’s as though a theft has occurred, the result of which makes us homesick for ourselves.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1072: Under the Bed by Kirun Kapur Mar 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Under the Bed by Kirun Kapur.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “While not the equivalent of glimpsing the spirit world cleave the air, the insight of poets amounts to a kind of clairvoyance. They make connections that close the gap between the known and the unknown.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1071: Ode to the Idea of France by Dan Alter Mar 11, 2024

Today’s poem is Ode to the Idea of France by Dan Alter.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “At parties, I jokingly discuss with friends about collectively purchasing property, maybe even a castle. I want us to live out our days together, to communally enact our shared values. They… are not convinced. I romanticize social utopias, especially those that, guided by equity and love, espouse alternative ways of coexisting with each other and the land.”

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1070: Thirteen by Anna V.Q. Ross Mar 08, 2024

Today’s poem is Thirteen by Anna V.Q. Ross.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem celebrates the glow and growth of daughters, their energy and curiosity, their intuition and vulnerability.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1069: An Exchange by Corey Marks Mar 07, 2024

Today’s poem is An Exchange by Corey Marks.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “After a decade and a half of living in Vermont, one morning I thought, “Road signs all over the state and still no sighting of a moose?” Then, one morning, a large four-legged bulk of an animal appeared at the edge of a clearing along the road. I saw it from a distance as I rounded an ascending curve on Route 125. I slowed to a stop, and looked it over. We were eye-to-eye. It was massive and serene. For a long while, I thought the encounter improbable, but here I was: suspended in the moment, expecting transcendence of some kind, some boundless wisdom on a forested path to myself.”

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1068: Fish Pier, Santa Monica by Vernon Duke Mar 06, 2024

Today’s poem is Fish Pier, Santa Monica by Vernon Duke, translated by Boris Dralyuk.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem taps into the beauty and spirit of California seaside beaches, whose amassed mythology and symbolism feeds so much of how we imagine and hear America.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1067: blues-elegy for cheryl by Evie Shockley Mar 05, 2024

Today’s poem is blues-elegy for cheryl by Evie Shockley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Despite the attacks on academic institutions, despite the diminishing power of free inquiry, scholarly work benefits us all. So much critical inquiry is born out of wonder and curiosity, like a crackling in the soul. Curiosity leads to exploration and research.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1066: Casual Labor by Sandy Solomon Mar 04, 2024

Today’s poem is Casual Labor by Sandy Solomon.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s wonderful poem models a courageous leap beyond fear into a wholehearted kindness. The poem invites us to lean into each other with generosity so that we no longer flinch at the messy richness of our humanity.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1065: First of March by Stacie Cassarino Mar 01, 2024

Today’s poem is First of March by Stacie Cassarino.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I learned from all those mornings of weekly commuting — living in Burlington, Vermont and teaching in New York City — that my passions run in every direction. To the critique and dismay of friends, I would simply say, travel fulfills the country-mouse-city-mouse in me.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1064: Dry Spell by Lisa Sewell Feb 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Dry Spell by Lisa Sewell.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Like so much of what our teachers share as advice about our writing, today’s poem can also be applied to our life off the page.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1063: Love Poem by Sophie Cabot Black Feb 28, 2024

Today’s poem is Love Poem by Sophie Cabot Black.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me of the daunting and ongoing and heartrending work of preparing ourselves to love and to dare to receive it, if we can.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1062: A Response to the Misguided Student by Wesley Rothman Feb 27, 2024

Today’s poem is A Response to the Misguided Student by Wesley Rothman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I gain as much, if not more, from my students as I believe they receive from me. Sometimes, a truly breathtaking poem lands on my desk, and I am utterly grateful for the miracle of language: a student writing about her developmentally disabled uncle and his heartbreaking kindness, a mother who emotionally wrestles with the challenges and joys of raising a transgender daughter.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1061: Mirror, Mirror by Tom Healy Feb 26, 2024

Today’s poem is Mirror, Mirror by Tom Healy.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s fine poem balances humor with hard truth-telling. It revives in me the bravery of boldly saying that which dignifies our existence with clarity. ”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 996: Portable Paradise Feb 23, 2024

Today’s poem is Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re running some of our favorite episodes from this season so far. This episode was originally released on 11/10/2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “As so much poetry reminds us, suffering is at the core of being human. Yes, we fumble along. We live a melancholic existence. Some of us protest, confess, and bring the news in our works. Yet, today’s poem wisely announces that we should always keep that place which feels like heaven within sight. We should maintain an inner utopia, even if hidden from others. It, too, is worthy of mapping in literature.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1008: Kinds of Silence Feb 22, 2024

Today’s poem is Kinds of Silence by Elisabeth Murawski.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re running some of our favorite episodes from this season so far. This episode was originally released on 11/28/2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem captures that feeling of expectancy and uncertainty, a feeling that resonates lately, as I find myself wondering about the future — with so much of the earth and its inhabitants hurting, yet also, working towards a peaceful vision of our humanity.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 923: A Funeral Ending with Beyoncé Feb 21, 2024

Today’s poem is A Funeral Ending with Beyoncé by Karisma Price.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re running some of our favorite episodes from this season so far. This episode was originally released on 07/18/2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “When speaking about the dead, my uncle makes sure to hit his fisted hand on any object that looks grainy and some shade of brown. One theory is that the practice of touching wood has its roots in the medieval belief that trees contained spirits that positively intervened when summoned. Today’s poem continues this faith, that we can somehow protect ourselves, by acting out instinctive customs against bad news or fateful tragedy.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 990: Feeding the Koi Feb 20, 2024

Today’s poem is Feeding the Koi by Rosanna Young Oh.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re running some of our favorite episodes from this season so far. This episode was originally released on 11/02/2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exemplifies those moments when sometimes we cannot speak or act on our truth because of debilitating fears. And on occasion, art is what provides clarity when we seek signs beyond the surface of our worlds.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 929: this is a library Feb 19, 2024

Today’s poem is this is a library by Asiya Wadud.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re running some of our favorite episodes from this season so far. This episode was originally released on 07/26/2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s empathetic poem, which takes the tone of an elementary school primer, encourages a greater noticing of those who are leastwise among us, who fall outside the social fabric of our care. In doing so, hopefully, we might reverse prevailing attitudes toward the unhoused, who often are the target of violence and intolerance.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 966: Love Poem, with Birds Feb 16, 2024

Today’s poem is Love Poem, with Birds by Barbara Kingsolver.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes on love. This episode was originally released on September 15, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem gives voice to the intimidating feeling of competing with a partner’s personal passion. However begrudgingly we come around to their idiosyncratic awarenesses, such an intense engagement is exactly what attracts us in the end.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 955: Love Sits by My Father Feb 15, 2024

Today’s poem is Love Sits by My Father by Qutouf Elobaid.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes on love. This episode was originally released on August 31, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “People in love are complicated; no one knows this more than the children, who get a front row seat to how affection plays itself out in the home, or not. Which influences how they interact and understand intimacy operating, or not, around them. Many psychological experts suggest making affection and tenderness appropriately visible in the lives of children. It goes far to ensure emotional stability. What children observe may drive them as adults to positively replicate their parent’s model, attempt to fulfill their parents' lack , or avoid intimacy altogether. A kiss, a hug, any physical expression of fondness is an active possibility of healing that radiates out into the world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 807: Short Essay on Love Feb 14, 2024

Today’s poem is Short Essay on Love by Sarah Manguso.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes on love. This episode was originally released on February 6, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem understands to the core that love requires, even anticipates failure. But maybe, even too, that a commitment to finding happiness and joy with someone requires failing and doing it again.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1003: Without Name Feb 13, 2024

Today’s poem is Without Name by Pauli Murray.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes on love. This episode was originally released on November 21, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today, words lead me to pockets of understanding, which I've carefully cultivated through writing poetry. The journey to insights and those momentary stays against confusion are often filled with inarticulate, wayward wanderings and long stretches of speechlessness. Part of my love of poetry is owed to how it stages eloquence and puts a finishing touch on the thing that I finally needed to say. But, on occasion, we find silence as a vessel of our innermost feelings. Today’s poem illustrates how, when language is muted, strong emotions such as love and desire are amplified — and echo into a future without end.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 917: Love and the Deli Counter Feb 12, 2024

Today’s poem is Love and the Deli Counter by Jill McDonough.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes on love. This episode was originally released on July 10, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “I love the spaces we enter, in which we feel a rich sense of our differences, of our collective humanity, and a lightness of being. Today’s poem exhibits the kind of love and care and humor that passes through us out in the world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1060: Perhaps Feb 09, 2024

Today’s poem is Perhaps by Wen Yiduo, translated by Arthur Sze.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem takes me to the ancient grounds of the imagination, and a cultivated wonder that brings us closer to its magic and possibility.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1059: Love and the Moon Feb 08, 2024

Today’s poem is Love and the Moon by Nan Cohen.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Sometimes, every which way we turn, the world reminds us that we carry a wounded heart. Love is beautiful until it is not, and then we are handed a chainmail of armor along with our insecurities. When we stumble out of those woods, we bring along burrs and nettles, but also, too, faded reminiscences of favorite activities, gestures, habits, and memories that once bonded us to a person – all the hurt joy. Today’s poem calls attention to how the past is resurrected, how the lingering presence of people we used to know — can haunt the loveliest of things.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1058: The Dangers of Contemplation Feb 07, 2024

Today’s poem is The Dangers of Contemplation by Ron Slate.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Every poem is a map, a transcription of a contemplative and roaming mind. I am curious about the images that arise out of the poet’s subconscious and the associative thoughts that follow. I particularly delight in the poet whose brain works at scale, a mind that soars from the granular level to expansive ideas, and hovers in between.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1057: Facebook Status Feb 06, 2024

Today’s poem is Facebook Status by Adrian Blevins.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “It is human to be curious about each other’s lives, to celebrate our friends’ wins and mourn, along with them, their losses. To acknowledge our inevitable changes. Today’s poem hilariously explains why our internet connections are like electrical wires that thread the night, connecting all of our lives.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1056: Ghazal for Mothers & Tongues Feb 05, 2024

Today’s poem is Ghazal for Mothers & Tongues by Sahar Muradi.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s fine poem is gorgeous for many reasons, but one is the way the poet enriches our ears with the sounds of words. Poems that are designed like today’s poem turn language into more than just a tool of communication — and into a ceremonial and opulent form of human address.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1055: Dancing at The Get Down by Cat Wei Feb 02, 2024

Today’s poem is Dancing at The Get Down by Cat Wei.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Recently, my seventy-three-year-old father called to tell me how much fun he had at a local dance club. I was envious. He used to swim daily, but after health challenges, getting on the dancefloor, beneath swirling lights among deep shadows, is his preferred workout. Physical benefits aside, I think he also likes the attention of younger people at his moves. At weddings, family surround him and marvel. Today’s poem exquisitely examines the healing space of the dancefloor, where a purifying circle of joy awaits us.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1054: Hunger Feb 01, 2024

Today’s poem is Hunger by Ryler Dustin.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reveals how our appetites take us beyond considerations of the earth and its resources. What we leave in our wake is a record of our cravings and our misguided sense of a limitless world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1053: Why Write Love Poetry in a Burning World Jan 31, 2024

Today’s poem is Why Write Love Poetry in a Burning World by Katie Farris.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Art is unequivocal evidence of our sanctity, of our ability to feel, to go beyond forbidden precincts into the depth of our emotions. I wish we would put a moratorium on questions of relevance of the arts and realize the gift of beauty that artists grant. One need not listen to a lecture on the philosophy of glass by a glassblower to know that its functionality and purpose are everywhere, writ on its surface.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1052: Body's Ken Jan 30, 2024

Today’s poem is Body's Ken by Simon West.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poets thrive in that energy between knowing and not knowing. They attempt to convey a sense of awakening by marking language and their experiences and thoughts as memorable, as sacred, while honoring the conditions that urged them into song.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1051: Venus's Flytraps Jan 29, 2024

Today’s poem is Venus's Flytraps by Yusef Komunyakaa.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Some poems have a hold on us, their lines haunt, like the chorus from a favorite song. They cling to the mind like burrs. I’ve said them to myself lying motionless in bed at night, and while tying my shoes in the morning. They keep giving; they console when I need them to and anchor me in the familiar when all feels adrift. In music, we call them earworms.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1050: To The Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall Jan 26, 2024

Today’s poem is To The Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall by Kim Addonizio.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, we’re sharing listener stories from the Twin Cities Book Festival. In this episode, our producer, Myka Kielbon, writes… “I think some poets will come at me for this, but for a lot of reasons, poetry is like the original meme. Memes are by definition a form, much like a poetic form. You can put different text upon the same picture, and the picture invites a certain read, much like using a sonnet or sestina. Maybe the proliferation of memes has… simplified our expressions of some experiences. But this expansive vocabulary of internet shorthand has also helped me commune and commiserate and connect with the people in my life over the things we feel and see every day. As our listener A. Rafael told us, those poems which really connect are much the same — they put language to a bit of life that feels large and unwieldy inside of us.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1049: [I wandered lonely as a Cloud] or Daffodils Jan 25, 2024

Today’s poem is [I wandered lonely as a Cloud] or Daffodils by William Wordsworth.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, we’re sharing listener stories from the Twin Cities Book Festival. In this episode, our producer, Myka Kielbon, writes… “Today’s poem is by a poet famous, in his time, for using what was called “plain language.” It still sounds a bit… formal today, but the images ring timeless and true, personifying nature as full of joy in a way that pulls the speaker, and the reader, out of their own heads.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1048: You & the Donkey Cart Jan 24, 2024

Today’s poem is You & the Donkey Cart by Rosa Alcalá.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, we’re sharing listener stories from the Twin Cities Book Festival. In this episode, our producer, Myka Kielbon, writes… “We carry stories across our individual realities. And, like our listener, Margaret said, we carry our family stories, our habits and practices. They live across generations, across borders and across seas. What we carry is often what brings us to poetry, what makes up our poems.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1047: To The Stone-Cutters Jan 23, 2024

Today’s poem is To The Stone-Cutters by Robinson Jeffers.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, we’re sharing listener stories from the Twin Cities Book Festival. In this episode, our producer, Myka Kielbon, writes… “Our listener, Morgan, found writing poetry to be a tool to connect not only with her father’s homeland, but to connect with the people in her life, with her poetic lineages, with the body, and with nature. By focusing on the way poetry feels in the body, Morgan reminds me of a route to access language that sometimes feels insurmountable. Today’s poem, at first, leans into the cynicism of the Romantics, into the truth of mortality. But as it turns, it finds solace in what we create.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1046: After, We Try to Switch Our Hearts Back On Jan 22, 2024

Today’s poem is After, We Try to Switch Our Hearts Back On by Joy Sullivan.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. This week, we’re sharing listener stories from the Twin Cities Book Festival. In this episode, our producer, Myka Kielbon, writes… “Today’s poem reads almost like a bullet journal, a rapid log of experiences in a day. Through that we hear the speaker take hold of small pleasures. And in the noise of what once was ordinary, it makes space for questions about how different so many of us still feel.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1045: Sonnet for Ochún Jan 19, 2024

Today’s poem is Sonnet for Ochún by Leslie Sainz.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “In today’s poem, I hear a shared melancholy, a world-weariness where the edges of life fail to offer answers. Yet, I detect, too, in the presence of a deity, the transits and rituals of hope and renewal.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1044: Mixed Marriage Jan 18, 2024

Today’s poem is Mixed Marriage by Nick Laird.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Some days, we bicker, nothing major (pun intended). Often, it’s minor: control of the thermostat, recycling duty, my general proclivity to forget. On very rare occasions, we hit upon a disagreement that requires work — where we need to figure out why we react so strongly. I have not been in a romantic relationship that did not require work. I mean come-to-your-maker kind of work. I’m talking emotional work that has you question every decision you have made up till that moment and every decision you will make thereafter. Faint of heart? Don’t even go there. Too awed by your own existence? You might be better off alone. Allergic to change? Incapable of adapting? Only the rotation of the sun is a constant; all else is subject to life’s mutability and human fallibility. The most stable of relationships account for this fact.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1043: from “Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return” by CAConrad Jan 17, 2024

Today’s poem is from “Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return” by CAConrad.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem inhabits the breathlessness and press of love, that is creatively generative, that is organic in its speed and purpose, that is feverish and holy in its corporeal intensity.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1042: Ode to Badminton Jan 16, 2024

Today’s poem is Ode to Badminton by Prageeta Sharma.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If it were up to me, everything I love would have a poem in praise of it. I mean everything: homemade chocolate cookies, park benches, sinuous roads beside city rivers — even to that clear plastic cap on a newly purchased deodorant stick, that this morning I only figured out the best way to remove. Turn the dial.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1041: By Then Jan 15, 2024

Today’s poem is By Then by David Rivard.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I love the clarity in today’s poem, in how it nurtures self-awareness in the wake of emotional turmoil and growth.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1040: The Idea of Order at Key West Jan 12, 2024

Today’s poem is The Idea of Order at Key West by Wallace Stevens.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When a performer brings their whole self the planets align. Life magically makes sense. Today’s famous poem ponders one of those moments in which, through another’s expression, all agonies and confusions give way to a dignified stasis.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1039: What Good Is Silence Jan 11, 2024

Today’s poem is What Good Is Silence by Phuong T. Vuong.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem illustrates returning to listening as a ventilation of the soul, sublimating the ego in the interest of interacting with more than just our thoughts.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 877: The Lifeline Jan 10, 2024

Today’s poem is The Lifeline by Pádraig Ó Tuama.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When natural disaster occurs, when catastrophe falls upon us, we humans lean into life. We need the counterbalancing force of creation and renewal to tilt the world back toward meaning and light. We pursue activities that resist a chaos of the mind and spirit, some endeavor that gives us a foothold on the unthinkable, an anchor, a reminder of the eternal nature of existence.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1038: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings Jan 09, 2024

Today’s poem is The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Ailish Hopper.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “With great courage, writers, activists, and poets choose to speak for peace and the value of human life; yet they face being ostracized and harassed for their views. Today’s poem reminds me of the value of ethical resistance and the valor of asserting a fundamental belief in life.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1037: An Open Call to Single Daughters of Single Mothers Jan 08, 2024

Today’s poem is An Open Call to Single Daughters of Single Mothers by Katie Marya.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem broadcasts a necessary remembrance and mapping of our mother’s physical selves, bodies that perhaps not only gave us life, but in all their manifestations served as the source of our stability and gains."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1036: Pleasure Jan 05, 2024

Today’s poem is Pleasure by Victoria Redel.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem celebrates that maturing sensibility of being present and open, especially when your pleasures go beyond the pursuits of desire and the body.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1035: The Darkling Thrush Jan 04, 2024

Today’s poem is The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The late poet Donald Hall said that “A poem is one inside talking to another inside.” We live chiefly in our own minds, but poetry allows us to make public our most intimate thoughts. Our true feelings struggle to find expression; our dreams are a valve. But poetry, too, acts as a channel by which we begin to hear ourselves and hear others. ”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1034: Cliché Jan 03, 2024

Today’s poem is Cliché by V. Penelope Pelizzon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem makes use of the ocean as a paradoxical symbol of healing and regeneration yet, too, a site of debris and decay.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1033: On Meeting My Biological Father Jan 02, 2024

Today’s poem is On Meeting My Biological Father by Sarah Audsley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “No adoptee’s experience is the same. Today’s poem portrays a meeting with a birth parent — the kind of encounter we seek to gain new information, but, it often does more to help us live, every day, with what we already knew.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1032: Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me Jan 01, 2024

Today’s poem is Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me by Jane Hirshfield. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “The clocks have struck another year. Soon, I will box up and archive 2023 in the mental basement of my mind, although I'm sure certain events of the past 365 days will reverberate in both predictable and not-so-predictable ways into the future. Today’s poem makes a powerful assertion that maybe what we bring to the problems of the world, to our sense of survival, is our attention—and our joy.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1031: Objects in the Mirror are Closer Than They Appear Dec 29, 2023

Today’s poem is Objects in the Mirror are Closer Than They Appear by Alleliah Nuguid. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me of wildlife and humans who exist in our imagination as dangerous, how we eradicate or disappear those we fear, in our efforts to control our environments. Yet, their presence is magic, and can be irrepressible joy. ”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1030: Fourth Wall Arpeggio Dec 28, 2023

Today’s poem is Fourth Wall Arpeggio by A. Van Jordan.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Sometimes, a speaker in a poem will acknowledge its own artificiality by addressing the reader directly or by making a self-referential remark, all to say, Hey, reader; I know you’re there, listening in. Breaking the fourth wall in poetry removes pretense and lays bare a vulnerability that creates an intimacy and collapses distance.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1029: If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso Dec 27, 2023

Today’s poem is If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso by Gertrude Stein. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem is a touchstone example of art that altered how we hear words, but also, how we perform language to transform words into elements of our yielding and will.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1028: Yet, the Loveliness Dec 26, 2023

Today’s poem is Yet, the Loveliness by Michelle Bitting.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me of the power of granting forgiveness, of liberating each other from the confines of guilt, and of surrendering ourselves to each other’s humanity. That is its own ceremony of renewal and supplication.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1027: The Memory of the Young Dec 25, 2023

Today’s poem is The Memory of the Young by Maria Hummel.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “With enough concentration, I can vividly recall my youth while writing. But lately, that mental time travel occurs even when I’m not at my desk. While performing the most mundane of duties, images overlay onto the present, like a form of augmented reality. Poems contain time, time which we feel palpably in its cadences and imagery.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1026: Ode to Bones Dec 22, 2023

Today’s poem is Ode to Bones by Lynne Thompson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem riffs off a childhood name, to caravan us to all the possibilities of association which brings the speaker back to the uniqueness and individual nature of their being.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1025: I Am Trying to Love the Whole World Dec 21, 2023

Today’s poem is I Am Trying to Love the Whole World by Jenny Browne.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If only we viewed observations of the natural world and meditations on birds, mammals, and plant life as equally, critically urgent, we might awaken to the necessity of caretaking of our planet and each other. Birdwatching does not have to be a form of looking away, it can be an antidote for our spirit.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1024: Ashes Dec 20, 2023

Today’s poem is Ashes by Rahma O. Jimoh. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “As a poet, how can you write into that catastrophe? How can a poem artfully contain the struggle between the sanctity of nature and the unfettered business practices of corporations that put humans and the environment in harm’s way?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1023: Hurrying Toward the Present Dec 19, 2023

Today’s poem is Hurrying Toward the Present by Suzanne Lummis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “At a young age, I saw that the pain of rage and resentment is not just in your body. It can course through your actions, and send askew the course of your life. I’ve experienced my fair share of slings and arrows, wrongs done to me. As much as they hurt in the moment, I know they do not belong on the back of my future self.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1022: Two Shadows Dec 18, 2023

Today’s poem is Two Shadows by Maurice Manning.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I want someone in my daughter’s life who will sing to her when she is most full of doubts and uncertainties, when storms inevitably arrive. Today’s poem gorgeously anticipates the day ahead when our children will pursue their own loves, and what magic we might model for them.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1021: Making Things Dec 15, 2023

Today’s poem is Making Things by Major Jackson. This moment of pause is a shortened version of an interview with Minnesota Public Radio’s Kerri Miller. The full version of this interview is available in the Big Books & Bold Ideas podcast feed, and as a video on our YouTube channel.

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1020: Ithaka Dec 14, 2023

Today’s poem is Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Harvard, Illinois is among a host of American cities and towns named for locales with more illustrious histories and associations: Paris, Texas; Rome, Maine; Athens, Georgia; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Today’s poem makes me think, first, of the city in upstate New York where some of my favorite poets reside. But it takes me next to that birthplace of Odysseus and that symbol of home, an emblematic journey by which we all must psychologically return.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1019: Ambition Dec 13, 2023

Today’s poem is Ambition by Sarah Wetzel.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem illustrates the extent to which people will fabricate narratives to come off more gallant, more caring, more whatever, or simply not what they actually are. And yet, it unearths the human desires that show us why we lie.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1018: Cuffing Season Dec 12, 2023

Today’s poem is Cuffing Season by Lisa Fay Coutley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Love is a force that reconciles what is, in contradistinction, wrong in the world. Because I know that love is real, and that love is right. But sometimes finding love is a journey that takes longer than some but is worth it. Today’s poem wrestles with the tentativeness by which relationships are pursued, given the scariness of their potential outcomes.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1017: Parallel Worlds Dec 11, 2023

Today’s poem is Parallel Worlds by Lester Graves Lennon.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “In today’s poem, a harrowing car ride spawns questions of meaning and purpose, and the possibilities of our cosmic connections in the face of that which is unknown.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1016: In the Seam of Life Dec 08, 2023

Today’s poem is In the Seam of Life by Rachel Galvin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “A recent YouTube search for something else led me to an how-to video on land transference and group deeds . . . in the virtual world known as Second Life. Turns out, one can purchase everything from biscuits for their avatar dog, to a virtual silver-studded leather jacket, to a renovated kitchen for one’s imaginary urban loft. The virtual world turned twenty years old this summer, enough time for users to program a free market parallel to our own. Frankly, I’m struggling with the realities of our offline economy, and lately, the seemingly insurmountable issues we face IRL: war, political discord, mass shootings. But that’s just the thing with roleplaying communities: they grant reprieve from our very human and very startling challenges. They permit entry into worlds where we can pursue an existence much different than our current reality, with all of its missed opportunities and deferred dreams. What we cannot have in this life—say, peace—we can render in another.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1015: Death Letter #2 Dec 07, 2023

Today’s poem is Death Letter #2 by Sean Thomas Dougherty. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “We are lucky to hear in a poem one piece of wisdom to carry into our day. Today's poem yields so many, spoken from the protective spirit and love of a father and husband. It is a poem that is relentless in its simple truths, and thus, life-affirming at every turn.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1014: Date Dec 06, 2023

Today’s poem is Date by Taneum Bambrick. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “There’s nothing wrong with being attracted to people, but there is something wrong with acting on that attraction in a way that reduces them. Today’s poem invokes that captive feeling, and asks what it leaves just under the surface.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1013: Reading Poetry in Illness Dec 05, 2023

Today’s poem is Reading Poetry in Illness by Anya Krugovoy Silver. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “These are poems that are meant to enter the body at the right time, to exist there, to do their healing and be on their way; they are not for close reading or exegesis. They protect the threshold between the living and the dead. They remind one of old roads. They return the frog to his kingdom.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1012: Morning Glory Dec 04, 2023

Today’s poem is Morning Glory by Patricia Spears Jones. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem highlights the fierce omnipresence of nature, even in environments where we are trained not to notice, or are too busy to do so.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1011: Bloodroot Dec 01, 2023

Today’s poem is Bloodroot by Mary-Alice Daniel. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Bluegrass conjures up the past in ways that feel both celebratory and painful. They call it mountain music, and some believe the creeks, rivers, valleys, and woods carry a hurt that one hears in all that fiddling, a sentimental history of Appalachia, but also a palpable history of poverty, subjugation, bondage, and musical ingenuity. That haunting, for me, is embedded in the folklore and spirit of the South, which I am just beginning to feel in my body.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1010: Self-care Bucket List Nov 30, 2023

Today’s poem is Self-care Bucket List by Nancy K. Pearson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Bucket lists orient people toward the future, true. They can sweep one ahead into a momentum of deserved recognition. Yet, how powerful to live without the aid, or, the loom, of an imagined inventory of milestones.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1009: Teleology Nov 29, 2023

Today’s poem is Teleology by Willie Lin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “We’ve so much between us: awards shows, music, art, weather, and a final breath we do not know when will befall us. And yet, some remain alien and indifferent to others, incurious—sometimes for money, but sometimes, by choice. How we cherish our isolation.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1008: Kinds of Silence Nov 28, 2023

Today’s poem is Kinds of Silence by Elisabeth Murawski. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem captures that feeling of expectancy and uncertainty, a feeling that resonates lately, as I find myself wondering about the future — with so much of the earth and its inhabitants hurting, yet also, working towards a peaceful vision of our humanity."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1007: To Do: Write Cephalopod Poem Nov 27, 2023

Today’s poem is To Do: Write Cephalopod Poem by Eleni Sikelianos. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem beautifully speaks to the notion of writing toward a future self, and understands that the echoes, even, of one’s breathing, are found in patterns of our thinking.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1006: Something Sweet Nov 24, 2023

Today’s poem is Something Sweet by Hannah Lowe. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, a sonnet, holds the truth that the world is capable of awakening us out of our petrified states. We can be charmed back into our bodies and repaired, so that we feel again, sometimes acutely, the sweetness of our existence more than the hostile and profane.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1005: eco-hood Nov 23, 2023

Today’s poem is eco-hood by Melania Luisa Marte. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem dignifies the lives of people in low-income neighborhoods whose early practices of thrift and ingenuity created intrinsic values of sustainability, personal style, and care for human habitats.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1004: What to Do With the Hedges Nov 22, 2023

Today’s poem is What to Do With the Hedges by Bernard Ferguson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem acknowledges the complex task of committing to the earth, which means committing to a sustainable future but also, identifying the entangled histories of colonization — of both people and of natural habitats.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1003: Without Name Nov 21, 2023

Today’s poem is Without Name by Pauli Murray. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today, words lead me to pockets of understanding, which I've carefully cultivated through writing poetry. The journey to insights and those momentary stays against confusion are often filled with inarticulate, wayward wanderings and long stretches of speechlessness. Part of my love of poetry is owed to how it stages eloquence and puts a finishing touch on the thing that I finally needed to say. But, on occasion, we find silence as a vessel of our innermost feelings. Today’s poem illustrates how, when language is muted, strong emotions such as love and desire are amplified — and echo into a future without end.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1002: Secular and Inconsolable Nov 20, 2023

Today’s poem is Secular and Inconsolable by Noah Blaustein. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Some mornings I wake and say, “Today is the day I will turn off the phone. I will ignore alerts to meetings. I will not open the laptop. Today I’ll disregard all that beckons — coworkers, friends, family, pets too.” But of course… I hop up, brew coffee, feed the dog, sharpen some pencils, and get to work answering emails. For those, like me, like most everyone, I’d guess, who struggle to achieve work-life balance, playing hooky should be a national holiday. Just picture it: scores of us abandoning our desks, heading to nearby parks or movie theaters, beaches, or libraries. Can you see it, a nation basking in a self-contained bubble of condoned indolence?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1001: To the bartender who tends to more than just the bar Nov 17, 2023

Today’s poem is To the bartender who tends to more than just the bar by Annie Marhefka. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem celebrates one of the quiet purveyors of our sometimes much-needed fun, the bartender who knows our name, who listens to our lives, and brings more than just a smile to our day.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1000: I Hear America Singing Nov 16, 2023

Today’s poem is I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… "We, here, at the Slowdown are celebrating our 1000th episode. This is a milestone deserving of its own reflection. I’ve three observations before we raise our public media coffee mugs or flutes of sparkling cider for a communal toast.

1. One thousand poems are in circulation with opening remarks in what effectively is an audio anthology on our website. For teachers, parents, and lovers of the written word, what an invaluable resource! The commentaries by our hosts and guest hosts make an irrefutable argument about the place of poetry in our lives. We invite you to return to your favorite poets and poems. Or choose a significant date, such as your birthday, and treat yourself to the immense talent we’ve featured on that day over the past five years.

2. Personally, I am swallowed up by so much in my day-to-day life. As a member of a caring community, I also experience the sweep of history and its conflicts which make themselves present everyday. I ponder the struggle to enact laws and policies that uphold our freedom; and I contemplate the reach of global conflicts. In my opinion, nothing dignifies our existence like the poem which, in the midst of that swirl, comes forth as the voice of a human soul, as an individual speaking, testifying, witnessing it all.

When I encounter the poem on the page, I am afforded the profound and intimate pleasure of hearing someone’s inner thoughts. What we try to do on The Slowdown is to preserve that intimacy. Every poem advances our humanity in language. It captures so much more that is intimate and telling. Our better selves are explored, given the stage, rather than our base needs which often sets us in conflict. We’ve a tenderness to us. Poetry allows that softness to come to the fore where we are more reflective, more conciliatory, more in concert with each other.

3. Poets urge me to not look away. To see everything which can be difficult. Thank you for slowing down and seeing with us.

Today’s poem, by an essential American poet, reminds me why this show matters. We want — no, need — to hear and honor the whole expanse of human existence."

999: clap-on Nov 15, 2023

Today’s poem is clap-on by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me to be on the lookout for such unsavory business practices, dominant in industries where we are most vulnerable.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today.

Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

998: A Computerized Jet Fountain in the Detroit Metro Airport Nov 14, 2023

Today’s poem is A Computerized Jet Fountain in the Detroit Metro Airport by Sidney Wade. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem of rhyming quatrains is a perfect example of linguistic beauty; its precise rhymes and conversational meter give the poem a kinetic energy, a lyrical wonder of motion and music.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

997: Letter to the Editor Nov 13, 2023

Today’s poem is Letter to the Editor by Andrea Gibson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I am sappy when it comes to romance. I chalk it up to the R&B music of my youth, songs about longing that anchor tenderness as essential, and hone in on loneliness as the bluesy aftermath of love gone awry. Today’s poem knows both that softness, and that messiness.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

996: A Portable Paradise Nov 10, 2023

Today’s poem is A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “As so much poetry reminds us, suffering is at the core of being human. Yes, we fumble along. We live a melancholic existence. Some of us protest, confess, and bring the news in our works. Yet, today’s poem wisely announces that we should always keep that place which feels like heaven within sight. We should maintain an inner utopia, even if hidden from others. It, too, is worthy of mapping in literature.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

995: Dear—, Nov 09, 2023

Today’s poem is Dear—, by DéLana R.A. Dameron. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem of rhyming couplets speaks a truth about loneliness; the wish for a sustaining love and companionship motivates us to work through our differences sometimes at the expense of our emotional health.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

994: ACT! pose with fingers as though cigarette (puff puff) Nov 08, 2023

Today’s poem is ACT! pose with fingers as though cigarette (puff puff) by India Lena González. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “If I could change careers as an artist, I’d likely want to become an actor — something about all those voices and the power of speaking in relationship to my feelings and those of others — to have all those characters bouncing around in my body.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

993: Bundt Cake from Sam's Club Nov 07, 2023

Please note that today’s episode contains mentions and descriptions of suicide. If this topic is difficult for you, please feel free to skip. We will be back tomorrow with more poems.

Today’s poem is Bundt Cake from Sam's Club by Lotte Mitchell Reford. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem unpacks the workings and limitations of sacred spaces — and the unexpected emotions they evoke.”

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992: Imago Nov 06, 2023

Today’s poem is Imago by Sandra Alcosser. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem draws attention to a moment in our evolution, when we feel ourselves closer to our true essence, especially in the presence of others.”

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991: Googling Ourselves Nov 03, 2023

Today’s poem is Googling Ourselves by Philip Schultz. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “It’s become common now to check our digital footprint, to seek evidence of ourselves in cyberspace, a place where we might also encounter our namesakes. Today’s poem delves into the psychological roots of this self-searching.”

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990: Feeding the Koi Nov 02, 2023

Today’s poem is Feeding the Koi by Rosanna Young Oh. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exemplifies those moments when sometimes we cannot speak or act on our truth because of debilitating fears. And on occasion, art is what provides clarity when we seek signs beyond the surface of our worlds.”

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989: Signs, Music Nov 01, 2023

Today’s poem is Signs, Music by Raymond Antrobus. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I believe life, even the cosmos, is saturated with sound. I’m not alone. The ancient mathematician Pythagoras and his followers discovered that a harmony of sounds exists in our solar system, based on each planet’s orbit around the sun.”

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988: Hillwood Oct 31, 2023

Today’s poem is Hillwood by Mark Jarman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem calls us to the sounds of the earth and its creatures, where the imagination takes over as we doze off. Mind and body are primed for that somnambulant journey that is the unconscious.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

987: Totalitarian Oct 30, 2023

Today’s poem is Totalitarian by Tyler Mills. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem makes the case that there are occasions in which I cannot let apathy rule, that the assaults on human dignity are so large, I must speak through my stunned witnessing.”

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986: EGGSHELLS Oct 27, 2023

Today’s poem is EGGSHELLS by Michael Kleber-Diggs. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “This poem makes me consider the great tension between one’s vision and one’s reality. I feel profundity in that the assertion of I will has lead to landing on distant moons.”

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985: Might Kindred Oct 26, 2023

Today’s poem is Might Kindred by Mónica Gomery. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem is a seeking of belonging. My favorite part about it is how shyness and a longing for friendship coexist.”

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984: Poem at the Top of a Mountain Oct 25, 2023

Today’s poem is Poem at the Top of a Mountain by Angel Nafis. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem is about a prayerful space which offers not just withdrawal, but perspective. I see in this poem what it was that I found on my walk to my high school art room sanctuary. What appears to be aloneness is actually a deepening camaraderie.”

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983: Things Haunt Oct 24, 2023

Today’s poem is Things Haunt by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “To meet one’s eyes in the mirror while grieving is to meet parts of the self that are unbearable, raw, jagged, self-judging and perhaps even unforgiving. Today’s poem reckons with one’s own gaze, but also with the warped gaze of others.”

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982: Rain Oct 23, 2023

Today’s poem is Rain by Adrian Keith Smith. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s short poem is by an extraordinary young monk, four year old Adrian Keith Smith. He may not be ordained, but he is a tremendously wise noticer. Like the Buddha, by simply observing the world around him, he grasps a mammoth truth that most adults struggle to accept.”

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981: Through a closed mouth the flies enter Oct 20, 2023

Today’s poem is Through a closed mouth the flies enter by Pablo Neruda. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Knowing is often heralded as more valuable than not knowing. So questions become an underground currency for those of us that appreciate a different way of being. Today’s poem understands that if a question is a jawbreaker you turn over and over, at its center is not an answer, but humility.”

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980: Villanelle Oct 19, 2023

Today’s poem is Villanelle by Michelle Lin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem centers around the defining relationship of a mother and child. To bring obsession into language, Lin masterfully uses the repetitive poetic form of the villanelle. They fling open doors only to quickly shut them. I know this dance well. The dance of longing and revelation.”

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979: The Listening World Oct 18, 2023

Today’s poem is The Listening World by Hannah Emerson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “I turn to poetry to be among deep feelers and open-hearted world-experiencers––to feel connected. But I think I also turn to poetry because, at its best, it teaches me the rigorous, risky, and stunning craft of listening.”

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978: And the Beautiful Oct 17, 2023

Today’s poem is And the Beautiful by Paul Celan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “The work of today’s poet, Paul Celan, was marked by genocide. This small poem by Celan reckons with what is brutally taken, what is lost. He doesn’t offer us superficial answers to endless grief. He offers only questions. And I sense, inside the questions, the immense task of facing a violent and brutal world.”

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977: sights and sounds on my way to you Oct 16, 2023

Today’s poem is sights and sounds on my way to you by Geleisa George. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “There are things we come to see only by slowing down. Today’s poem is an ode to observation. As the speaker makes moves to meet her beloved, we get lost in her quiet noticing, which is, in and of itself, an arrival.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

976: Wonder Wheel Oct 13, 2023

Today’s poem is Wonder Wheel by Wo Chan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Late spring, I attended a brilliant performance of Pretend It’s a Boat Poetry Tour, featuring comedian/poet Derrick C. Brown and actress/poet Amber Tamblyn at Coop Gallery. They stood behind a makeshift boat fashioned from a card table turned on its side and invited everyone to imagine they were in it. We were no longer in a gallery but on the seas, being carried along by their stand-up comedic performance and poetry. The evening reminded me of readings of yore, the kind of ease and whimsy that happens between artists and longtime compatriots — no stiff explications of theory smothering a poem, no solemn acts of confession, just a shared vulnerability and intimacy, an overflowing love between friends.”

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975: Love after Love Oct 12, 2023

Today’s poem is Love After Love by Derek Walcott. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem dramatizes the important act of rediscovering and intimately coming to love who one is, in all our complexities. It’s a famous poem that teaches devotion of self before we make ourselves available to others.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

974: Did you want to come in? Oct 11, 2023

Today’s poem is Did you want to come in? by Temperance Aghamohammadi. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Is there any situation more vulnerable for potential, amorous partners than that moment ending an evening of performative first impressions? Personally, I’ve experienced everything from a soft kiss to awkward hugs to clammy handshakes to goodbyes from the driver’s seat followed by screeching tires… which is the equivalent of don’t call us, and we’ll never call you. But then, occasionally, the dreaded decision to wave goodbye, shake hands, hug, or kiss turns into an invitation to stretch the evening longer, maybe to a nearby all-night diner, or an ice-cream parlor, or nightcap at a piano bar or on a couch watching a movie.”

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973: Sword Swallowing Lessons Oct 10, 2023

Today’s poem is Sword Swallowing Lessons by Judy Kaber. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “There is no shortcut to virtuosity. Today’s visceral poem points to the all important fact that with any artistic activity or pursued talent, the quest is the reward.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

972: Light Upon The Body Oct 09, 2023

Today’s poem is Light Upon The Body by Alison Braid. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem speaks a truth about bodies. Illness, occasionally, makes them seem like their own entities; they speak the languages of pain and discomfort that need translation into a music. Music that ushers us back to familiarity and recovery.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 936: Voyeuristic Intentions Oct 06, 2023

Today’s poem is Voyeuristic Intentions by Adele Elise Williams. This episode was originally released on August 4, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If the Yoruba proverb, character is beauty, is true, then, given the hostilities in the world and mass indifference, a bright spirit, full of warmth and compassion, is likely forged over time out of suffering. Such a soul exudes empathy and light. And thus, we acknowledge and survive off each other’s radiance, a moral beauty, as the ancient Greeks believed, that equated to goodness.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 929: this is a library Oct 05, 2023

Today’s poem is this is a library by Asiya Wadud. This episode was originally released on July 26, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s empathetic poem, which takes the tone of an elementary school primer, encourages a greater noticing of those who are leastwise among us, who fall outside the social fabric of our care. In doing so, hopefully, we might reverse prevailing attitudes toward the unhoused, who often are the target of violence and intolerance.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 909: My Dearest Black-Billed Streamertail Oct 04, 2023

Today’s poem is My Dearest Black-Billed Streamertail by Michelle Whittaker. This episode was originally released on June 28, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s epistolary poem turns to the hummingbird as an avatar of their own wish to soar.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 935: Happy Campus Oct 03, 2023

Today’s poem is Happy Campus by Rodrigo Toscano. This episode was originally released on August 3, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem of self-mocking irony makes the connection between our daily routines and the natural and artificial environments that we navigate—how we negotiate a dissonance that complicates our sense of what’s real and what’s unreal.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 904: The Statues and Us Oct 02, 2023

Today’s poem is The Statues and Us by Yannis Ritsos, translated by Martin McKinsey. This episode was originally released on June 21, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My life is a constant stream of deadlines, such that I am forever trying to fit in what I love most — writing poetry. When I worked in the corporate finance office of a popular clothing retail store , I worked a regular 9-5. Back then, my life was more structured, and poetry bookended my days. I arose in the dark of morning and scribbled opening lines that would unfold into a larger piece. Light spread across the sky and only birdsong could be heard. I miss those days. When did writing poetry become something that I “fit in”? Trust me; I find meaning in all of my activities, work-related or domestic. But only one satiates this ongoing spirit of becoming, which is what creating is about. In that solitude, with each poem I wrote, I saw myself more clearly. ”

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971: On Mars Sep 29, 2023

Today’s poem is On Mars by Ariana Benson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I’ve come to believe our galaxy serves as a destination for our imaginations; it inspires our conjecture about the universe; it is where we land all of our queries about the meaning and origins of life, where we construct narratives that give us solace.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

970: Ungendered 2 Sep 28, 2023

Today’s poem is Ungendered 2 by Kwame Sound Daniels. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem rightly resists labels that limit our lived experiences, and rallies for us setting our own terms for how we are viewed in society.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

969: Us Sep 27, 2023

Today’s poem is Us by Zaffar Kunial. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Since moving to the quaint village of Rochester, I come to expect visible signs of welcome everywhere. What matters in life is that space between us, formulated by philosopher Martin Buber as I-Thou. It’s a sacred space of shared existence where we feel each other’s uniqueness and feel our common humanity. Today’s attentive poem fosters a consciousness in which we view our lives as more in relation to each other, as close as two small letters.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

968: The Long Goodbye Sep 26, 2023

Today’s poem is The Long Goodbye by Diana Whitney.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem spotlights a multigenerational family, where the daily demands of domestic and long-term care are challenging enough, but at the center is the familial promise of unconditional love.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

967: Ode to Purple Summer Sep 25, 2023

Today’s poem is Ode to Purple Summer by Sabrina Benaim. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “For me, the pendulum swing that is emotional health deprives me of the world’s splendor. The hummingbird flitting about the garden is no longer enchanting to me, a bite of a perfect brick oven pizza is just food, mere nourishment, not a crispy, aromatic experience of basil, tomato sauce, mozzarella on its way to becoming a culinary memory. Planning travel to other countries feels burdensome with all the flight preparation and itinerary building. I lose my sense of excitement. Yet, when I come out of my despair or have figured things out with the help of friends and family, I am more alive than ever, rendered new, painfully so. My synesthesia kicks in. I want to explore.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 806: Polycardial Sep 22, 2023

Today’s poem is Polycardial by James Hoch. This episode was originally released on February 3, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, is a sort of sentimental journey which ponders that tenderness of our youth, when it seems like our hunger for love and touch and connection peak. The poem realizes, too, that perhaps we eventually lose the ability to feel with such depth and intensity.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 822: Cricket Song Sep 21, 2023

Today’s poem is Cricket Song by George Kalogeris. This episode was originally released on February 27, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “At times, no words exist to capture our rapid, forward-marching world. Life outpaces language. It is then we attempt to create fresh language or rinse cycle words until we have a new purchase on old concepts. For example, for about a decade, I’ve been trying to formulate a word that explains the phenomenon of contagious yawning. It’s a thing and I’m haunted by this lack in our speech. It is what leads me to sing.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 804: Foxglove Sep 20, 2023

Today’s poem is Foxglove by Ambalila Hemsell. This episode was originally released on February 1, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “In today’s brilliant poem, the speaker wrestles with the self-perception of how our hungers as humans nascently contribute to the disruption of the natural world, and whether or not we have proprietary rights to those natural places.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 870: Hymn to Church Basements Sep 19, 2023

Today’s poem is Hymn to Church Basements by Joan Kwon Glass. This episode was originally released on May 4, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exalts the unadorned spaces where those on the journey to recovery find acceptance and community.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 812: September Sep 18, 2023

Today’s poem is September by Nathaniel Perry. This episode was originally released on February 13, 2023.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s gorgeous poem invokes the enigmatic energy of an impending storm, the kind that mesmerizes, that beckons us to read the symbolism of nature, that points to both destruction and life.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

966: Love Poem, with Birds Sep 15, 2023

Love Poem, with Birds by Barbara Kingsolver.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem gives voice to the intimidating feeling of competing with a partner’s personal passion. However begrudgingly we come around to their idiosyncratic awarenesses, such an intense engagement is exactly what attracts us in the end.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

965: from "Excess Sonnets" Sep 14, 2023

Today’s poem is from "Excess Sonnets" by Isabel Prioleau.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem dramatizes the vulnerability of our most extreme emotions as revealed on various platforms, such that no layered extravagance of mystery exists between us.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

964: abundance of light Sep 13, 2023

Today’s poem is abundance of light by erica lewis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I hear in today’s poem a haunting, reckoning, and nostalgia – dominant themes among poets on the road. On stages and podiums, we traded poems about heartbreak, childhood memories, and personal loss. What emerges is a triumphant questioning spirit that overcomes grief and uncertainty.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

963: Frederick Douglass Sep 12, 2023

Today’s poem is Frederick Douglass by Robert Hayden.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s monumental poem keeps alive the fighting spirit of one of the great minds of the 19th century, whose eloquent speeches and books brought into focus freedoms we sometimes take for granted.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

962: Afternoon in Andalusia Sep 11, 2023

Today’s poem is Afternoon in Andalusia by Sahar Romani.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem also provides us with a sense of how the mind and heart make from symbols and patterns a space beyond our reach, where we fleetingly glimpse, if not encounter, the divine.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

961: Nocturne Sep 08, 2023

Today’s poem is Nocturne by Oliver Baez Bendorf.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “In young adulthood, long before children, jobs, home ownership, my evenings felt like a blank canvas of cultural and spiritual possibility. I felt a joyous connection to all around me, artists and writers and musicians, thinkers and believers, both living and departed, alive in their pursuit of beauty and knowledge. I was starving and knew it. On South Street, one bookstore stayed open till midnight. Many nights I closed it down, sitting in a corner reading a paperback, a beer in my pocket or a cup of coffee in my hand. At some point, I knew I needed to make art, to move to celebrating the world’s loveliness. I was perpetually hungry to do so.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

960: I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260) Sep 07, 2023

Today’s poem is I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260) by Emily Dickinson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s popular poem encourages a kind of disappearance from life rather than a need for attention. Cosmologically speaking, there’s a virtue in acknowledging one’s insignificance, maybe, too, in instigating others to enjoy the pause of anonymity and quietness of being."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

959: On Earth Sep 06, 2023

Today’s poem is On Earth by Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “After my last heartbreak, before I even tried to enter into a new relationship, my friend Victoria noted how she and I never give up on love, which we both know is not found in any one person, but an aspirational state two people can achieve when they partner on an authentic journey together. Although the insidious and unprocessed hurts from past relationships threaten to work their way into our daily interactions, a new love is an invitation to get it right in this lifetime.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

958: Alain Locke in Stoughton Hall Sep 05, 2023

Today’s poem is Alain Locke in Stoughton Hall by John Keene.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s dramatic monologue reminds me that poets are also archivists, storytellers who celebrate the past. We go beyond our self as subject matter to become humanity’s finest chroniclers.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

957: Rooms by the Sea Sep 04, 2023

Today’s poem is Rooms by the Sea by Lauren Aliza Green.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My early adult years were a stream of impulsive decisions. Some worked out and many did not — for example, the used car with the too-good-to-be-true price tag, as well as my brief career as an accountant. The speaker in today’s poem also realizes our best laid plans are often thwarted by unforeseen consequences. Some decisions work out, some do not. Even well-reasoned choices are not guaranteed to bring our wishes within reach, especially when it comes to love.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

956: Hair Sep 01, 2023

Today’s poem is Hair by Clarence Major.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me of what my mother, who knew our heads to be sacred and mystical, told me years ago: you don't just let anyone in your hair.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

955: Love Sits by My Father Aug 31, 2023

Today’s poem is Love Sits by My Father by Qutouf Elobaid.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “People in love are complicated; no one knows this more than the children, who get a front row seat to how affection plays itself out in the home, or not. Which influences how they interact and understand intimacy operating, or not, around them. Many psychological experts suggest making affection and tenderness appropriately visible in the lives of children. It goes far to ensure emotional stability. What children observe may drive them as adults to positively replicate their parent’s model, attempt to fulfill their parents' lack, or avoid intimacy altogether. A kiss, a hug, any physical expression of fondness is an active possibility of healing that radiates out into the world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

954: In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa Aug 30, 2023

Today’s poem is In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa by Ada Limón.

This June, the US Poet Laureate and former host of The Slowdown, Ada Limón, unveiled a poem that she wrote for NASA's Europa Clipper, a poem that will be inscribed in her own hand on the side of the spacecraft set for Jupiter's water moon, 1.8 billion miles away. Her work is partnered with the Message in a Bottle project, which invites anyone to have their name etched on the microchip mounted to the outside of the spacecraft. Our producer, Myka Kielbon, met with Ada in the ceremonial offices of the Poet Laureate in the Library of Congress, to connect on this moment that merges science, art and humanity.

A shortened version of their conversation is in today’s podcast feed. The full version of this interview is on our website, slowdownshow.org.

953: Two Photographs Aug 29, 2023

Today’s poem is Two Photographs by Theresa Lola.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Susan Sontag, writing about Robert Mapplethorpe, once wrote, “a [photograph] convey[s] a truth about the subject, a truth that would not be known were it not captured. . . All such claims, however contradictory, are claims of power over the subject.” The speaker in today’s poem remarks how photographs, be they selfies or those professionally rendered, capture our growth.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

952: Failed Essay on Privilege Aug 28, 2023

Today’s poem is Failed Essay on Privilege by Elisa Gonzalez.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “We are in the midst of an attack on perceived advantages. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ended race conscious admissions in higher education. The decision is sure to have a domino effect in our society. The ruling closed one of the proven means to economic and upward mobility for everyone, but especially talented youth of various backgrounds born into low-income households, or, like me, raised in working-class communities.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

951: I wanted music Aug 25, 2023

Today’s poem is I wanted music by Sarah Ruhl. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “The doorbell rings. It’s my childhood friend, Jake. Where any two friends would exchange hellos, he and I say nothing. We get in his car without a word. There are only 3 rules at a Silence Party: 1) no talking 2) hang out 3) listen. Because we aren’t trying to fill the air with words––our observations, what we like or dislike––we are left to experience.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

950: from FIXER Aug 24, 2023

Today’s poem is from FIXER by Edgar Kunz. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “In our old apartment, if it wasn’t one thing, it was another. Besides being old and hardly-maintained by management, the building was a living being, prone to moods. To fix her was an illusion. What we did was temporarily subdue, patch up, cover over.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

949: Thirty-Fifth Year Aug 23, 2023

Today’s poem is Thirty-Fifth Year by Charif Shanahan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “As each birthday arrives, what do we expect from our new age, its vantage point? Today’s poem unspools a wealth of questions, both practical and existential.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

948: Willing in the Orisha Aug 22, 2023

Today’s poem is Willing in the Orisha by Camonghne Felix. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Do we reach for ritual to melt paralysis? Do we reach for ritual when our personhood is fragmented, or lost to us? Today’s poem explores the daring act of ritual. I love its decision to move toward incantation, toward worship.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

947: Famous Aug 21, 2023

Today’s poem is Famous by Naomi Shihab Nye. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “What makes someone famous? The dictionary says it’s the “state of being known or talked about by many people.” Today’s poet resituates our cultural obsession with stardom and flips on its head who gets to be fanatically revered.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

946: Crackerbell Aug 18, 2023

Today’s poem is Crackerbell by Mary Ruefle. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem confronts the fork in the road where we are pushed to change. And though this push is ruthless and confusing and total, the speaker humbly persists. I learn a lot from that persistence, which could also be called self-love.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

945: The Jungle Aug 17, 2023

Today’s poem is The Jungle by Carrie Fountain. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poet reflects on a girlhood lived in contrast to boys. What does it mean to be a girl, then a woman, then a mother to a son in this culture, this chaos, this jungle?” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

944: Sonnet written walking under the mess some magnolia made Aug 16, 2023

Today’s poem is Sonnet written walking under the mess some magnolia made by Jay Deshpande. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem understands not just the bloom of romantic love, but the rot and mess and grit that’s just as worthy of our praise, of the glorious spending of our hearts.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

943: The Dictator in Prison Aug 15, 2023

Today’s poem is The Dictator in Prison by Adélia Prado, translated by Ellen Doré Watson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “In one lifetime we’re tasked with bearing a range of horrors. It amazes me that underneath it all––the denial, dissociation, or rage––the heart keeps going. I used to think this gust of empathy was my weakness. I now know it’s a superpower.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

942: Very Large Moth Aug 14, 2023

Today’s poem is Very Large Moth by Craig Arnold. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem teaches us that you can’t choose your holy moments. The poet is a sudden citizen of bewilderment. When it comes time to express a kinship across species, he finds himself bereft.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

941: After We Buried The Dog In The Dark Aug 11, 2023

Today’s poem is After We Buried the Dog in the Dark by Jin Cordaro.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My family has a shelf of movies to test whether someone new to our orbit has a heart. At the top of this short list is the film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. based on the true story of a white Akita dog named Hachiko. If said person is not bawling their eyes out by the end of this movie they just might not have a pulse. The movie is in its own category of sentimentality, one which dogs demand of us. Yet, what breaks through is a textured allegory about a dog’s loyalty. A dog’s love is primitive, mythic, and the stuff of folklore.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

940: Survivor Aug 10, 2023

Today's poem is Survivor by Geffrey Davis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “These days, whenever I sit down to dinner with my kids or am fortunate to catch them in their busy lives, I wistfully recall the pleasures of becoming a father… and the shock of it. Not that Langston was an abstract idea for nine months, but when your child, pretty much a biological speculation grown into a creature, is placed in your arms for the first time screaming itself into the world, an amazing wave of obligation and accountability lands full force into your heart. No experience up till that moment suffices to prepare you. When my friends arrived home with their adopted daughters, I read that same jolt of recognition on their faces.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

939: A Guy in a Black SUV Aug 09, 2023

Today’s poem is A Guy in a Black SUV by William J Harris.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, through use of hyperbole, voice, and tone, arrives at visualization as a form of retribution. Its strong cinematic action subverts and upends gender norms. The poem reminds me how we stretch our minds to manifest feelings and unknown states within—a power that affords us catharsis.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

938: Sorcery Aug 08, 2023

Today’s poem is Sorcery by Jessica Hagedorn.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem cautions us to the bewitching, yet striking, perfection of art and beauty. We are susceptible to its magic, and even sometimes, to the magic of its maker.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

937: While Shaving Aug 07, 2023

Today’s poem is While Shaving by Alfredo Aguilar.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes "Today’s poem beautifully illustrates a startling recognition: parents provide us with the skills they’ll need us to perform when they are no longer independent, the lessons we will remember them by when they are no longer with us."

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

936: Voyeuristic Intentions Aug 04, 2023

Today’s poem is Voyeuristic Intentions by Adele Elise Williams.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If the Yoruba proverb, character is beauty, is true, then, given the hostilities in the world and mass indifference, a bright spirit, full of warmth and compassion, is likely forged over time out of suffering. Such a soul exudes empathy and light. And thus, we acknowledge and survive off each other’s radiance, a moral beauty, as the ancient Greeks believed, that equated to goodness. ”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

935: Happy Campus Aug 03, 2023

Today’s poem is Happy Campus by Rodrigo Toscano.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem of self-mocking irony makes the connection between our daily routines and the natural and artificial environments that we navigate—how we negotiate a dissonance that complicates our sense of what’s real and what’s unreal.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

934: Labor Theory of Value Aug 02, 2023

Today’s poem is Labor Theory of Value by Angie Sijun Lou.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poet sees the field—or the writing of poetry—as a means of strengthening our bonds, our Platonic love. It’s a labor of seeing that transforms those fragmented moments, and unconnected objects in the world into an ever-expansive, idealized symbol of desire and understanding.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

933: Penmanship Aug 01, 2023

Today’s poem is Penmanship by Allison Joseph.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem venerates the power of writing as an exchange with the world, how our thoughts travel outward, but then, in the end, bring us to the center of our own existence.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

932: Letter to my sister Jul 31, 2023

Today’s poem is Letter to my sister by Trapeta B. Mayson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My mother did not live long enough to read my poems about her. I like to think that she would have appreciated how I processed our shared history and relationships, even the difficult moments. I like to think she’d have granted me the latitude to craft the poems I needed to write, and possibly understood that the practice of poetry is one of imagining and composing rather than simply reporting what happened. ”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

931: Epilogue Jul 28, 2023

Today’s poem is Epilogue by Robert Lowell.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem affirms the simple approach of narrating our lives as a means of shining a light on our complex era. Given our quick passage on earth, the poem argues that to tell our stories and name the people who populate our lives is noble and rewarding enough.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

930: elegy for the moaner, 2016 Jul 27, 2023

Today’s poem is elegy for the moaner, 2016 by Airea D. Matthews.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Grieving the death of a relative, or friend, is hard work. Work made even more difficult by the sudden and complex task of interring a body and its belongings. The living are thrust into the minutiae of funeral proceedings, caterers, florists, lawyers, movers, and estate professionals. All the while, hearts are heavy.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

929: this is a library Jul 26, 2023

Today’s poem is this is a library by Asiya Wadud.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s empathetic poem, which takes the tone of an elementary school primer, encourages a greater noticing of those who are leastwise among us, who fall outside the social fabric of our care. In doing so, hopefully, we might reverse prevailing attitudes toward the unhoused, who often are the target of violence and intolerance.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

928: Prayer Jul 25, 2023

Today’s poem is Prayer by Philip Metres.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem follows a long tradition of devotional poetry. In such poems, often a speaker asks for intervention, relief, and renewal. It is a human call out into the empty immensity of the universe. It is one of the things we do during quiet acts of meditation. We ask for help in dealing with our human cares. We ask to have our fears dissolved, to be shown a way, to break open into a new reality.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

927: Via Politica Jul 24, 2023

Today’s poem is Via Politica by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated by Ani Gjika.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Everyday, people around the world are living through astonishing crises, both multi-generational and personal, vast and siloed. Today’s poem speaks to the all-encompassing and leveling despair we carry when we are survivors, or the descendents of survivors.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

926: from "The Garden of Limbs" Jul 21, 2023

Today’s poem is from "The Garden of Limbs" by Cristina Pérez Díaz.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, which alludes to the biblical story of Adam and Eve and the first garden, celebrates the carnal sweetness of those chill days with a beloved. The poem brazenly proclaims the power (and maybe even recklessness) of sensuous mating that is its own form of world-building, voyage, and cultivation.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

925: Country of Water Jul 20, 2023

Today’s poem is Country of Water by Mahogany L. Browne.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Sometimes, I walk down the street, rooting for myself. Sometimes, it takes being in your own corner, especially when faced with a challenge for which nothing less than an attitude of absolute confidence will do. Today’s poem is all about self-blessing. Far from boasting or ego-tripping, the speaker makes an incantation out of self-affirmation.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

924: Theme for the nautical cowboy Jul 19, 2023

Today’s poem is Theme for the nautical cowboy by Kinsale Drake.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “One of the reasons why I'm drawn to poetry is because it invites a scale of seeing that sometimes might go undetected. The work of our guest, Leah Thomas, allows folks to engage in what might be hidden. Today’s poem, one by a poet featured on Season Three of As She Rises, invites that same scale of seeing and care, not only across universes, but also throughout time.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

923: A Funeral Ending with Beyoncé Jul 18, 2023

Today’s poem is A Funeral Ending with Beyoncé by Karisma Price.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When speaking about the dead, my uncle makes sure to hit his fisted hand on any object that looks grainy and some shade of brown. One theory is that the practice of touching wood has its roots in the medieval belief that trees contained spirits that positively intervened when summoned. Today’s poem continues this faith, that we can somehow protect ourselves, by acting out instinctive customs against bad news or fateful tragedy.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

922: Not It Jul 17, 2023

Today’s poem is Not It by Caitlin Doyle.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Memories of our youth make the journey to adulthood seem like a flicker. One minute you’re ten years old, rounding 2nd base or performing Sleeping Beauty in a ballet recital… the next, you’re sitting on a call with colleagues, talking marketing strategies or marveling at the swiftness of time with family and friends.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

921: Dear Red Jul 14, 2023

Today’s poem is Dear Red by Jonathan Maule.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem understands the sacred exchange of contemporary literature. It is a spiritual and creative dowry of the mind and heart that is consecutively passed from writer to writer, from writer to reader.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

920: Invented Landscape Jul 13, 2023

Today’s poem is Invented Landscape by L.A. Johnson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Each generation of poets rewrites the function of poetry in society. And this episode isn’t the first time I’ve chimed in. I once wrote: “poetry, like all imaginative creations, divines the human enterprise. This is poetry's social function.” I still believe that, but also know that poems which attempt to re-envision a better world, one that is kinder, more humane, more just, those poems are reaching for the greatest possibility to impact.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

919: Take This Poem Jul 12, 2023

Today’s poem is Take This Poem by Elizabeth Willis. This episode was recorded live, in-person, at On Air Fest 2023.

Onstage, Major described that “In coming to this role, I've been thinking a lot about how poetry shifts from the page to the voice. How the words hold different meanings written versus spoken. For when we speak out loud the words of the poets, we access their freedom and consciousness and rage for order. As my friend Robert Pinsky tells us, “poetry’s medium is the individual chest and throat and mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem.” It is a physical embodiment that changes us and the spaces we occupy. The poem creates an environment.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

918: Vision from the Blue Plane-Window Jul 11, 2023

Today’s poem is Vision from the Blue Plane-Window by Ernesto Cardenal, translated by Jonathan Cohen.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “On a recent return flight to Nashville, I secured a window seat. I looked out as the jet sped up the runway, as the nose pointed skyward, and the earth receded. That’s when the fantasy began. My whole life I have imagined a world without war.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

917: Love and the Deli Counter Jul 10, 2023

Today’s poem is Love and the Deli Counter by Jill McDonough. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I love the spaces we enter, in which we feel a rich sense of our differences, of our collective humanity, and a lightness of being. Today’s poem exhibits the kind of love and care and humor that passes through us out in the world.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

916: from "fabula: towards a black mirror” Jul 07, 2023

Today’s poem is from "fabula: towards a black mirror” by Victoria Adukwei Bulley.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “For both poet and reader, the best poems can offer a pathway out of the prison of false assumptions and the dangers of snapshot generalizations.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

915: Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic? Jul 06, 2023

Today’s poem is Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic? by Garrett Hongo.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exemplifies the kind of deep historical and sensory awareness only possible when one has turned their senses into a laboratory of feeling and wonder.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

914: Voices of the Air Jul 05, 2023

Today’s poem is Voices of the Air by Katherine Mansfield.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When we discover the reach of our voices, we disturb the silence around us. We experience self-possession. Today’s poem makes an allegory of small creatures who also render their presence both meaningful and heard.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

913: America, I Do Not Call Your Name without Hope Jul 04, 2023

Today’s poem is America, I Do Not Call Your Name without Hope by Dean Rader.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem encourages us to do more than celebrate the narrative of our country, to reflect on our sacred inheritance with its sacred past.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

912: Poem Jul 03, 2023

Today’s poem is Poem by Jorie Graham.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “As readers of poetry, we get to engage with and listen to the mind of a poet who, in the normal course of a day, we might not casually encounter. For this reason, I treasure the anonymity of the page. We meet the speaker in the poem on their own terms without any preconceived notions.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

911: The Messenger Jun 30, 2023

Today’s poem is The Messenger by Brynn Saito.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem renders visible the change that needs to happen — the vows we make to ourselves in order to grow, to become the person we were meant to be; however painful, however triumphant.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

910: How Long Could I Have Been Weightless? Jun 29, 2023

Today’s poem is How Long Could I Have Been Weightless? by Colin Channer.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds us that despite the wonders of engineering, our lives are fragile. It suggests that, maybe, we should avoid the false protections our modern age promises, that maybe we should live patiently and slowly within the bounds of ourselves.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

909: My Dearest Black-Billed Streamertail Jun 28, 2023

Today’s poem is My Dearest Black-Billed Streamertail by Michelle Whittaker.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s epistolary poem turns to the hummingbird as an avatar of their own wish to soar.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

908: After the Farm was Sold to FedEx Jun 27, 2023

Today’s poem is After the Farm was Sold to FedEx by Carlie Hoffman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Often, nostalgia can look like that woodblock key handed to us at the interstate rest stop. It opens a door, but the past is really a little room and kind of smelly, yet, in our mind, exists as a golden age. One we urgently grasp for.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

907: A State of Permanent Visibility Jun 26, 2023

Today’s poem is A State of Permanent Visibility by Steve Healey.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem guides us to the revelation that we become the machines we dream, especially when what drives us is to be seen. We find ourselves contending with the mechanization of human behavior that divorces us from our power, which is the very real bodies we live in, and not the projected images of ourselves on screens.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

906: Self-Portrait as Derivatives Trader Jun 23, 2023

Today’s poem is Self-Portrait as Derivatives Trader by José Edmundo Ocampo Reyes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Change and adventure are important aspects of a poets’ growth. To write against convention is to test the limits of poetic form, of language, of our imagination. Sometimes that risk looks like writing in forms different than what is generally expected. Sometimes, shaking it up is approaching topics that feel vulnerable, both personally and communally. And I think, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

905: Voyeur Jun 22, 2023

Today’s poem is Voyeur by Paige Taggart. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem could be interpreted as an allegory for narcissistic personalities — how they violently demand our attention, and how we give it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

904: The Statues and Us Jun 21, 2023

Today’s poem is The Statues and Us by Yannis Ritsos, translated by Martin McKinsey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My life is a constant stream of deadlines, such that I am forever trying to fit in what I love most — writing poetry. When I worked in the corporate finance office of a popular clothing retail store, I worked a regular 9-5. Back then, my life was more structured, and poetry bookended my days. I arose in the dark of morning and scribbled opening lines that would unfold into a larger piece. Light spread across the sky and only birdsong could be heard. I miss those days. When did writing poetry become something that I “fit in”? Trust me; I find meaning in all of my activities, work-related or domestic. But only one satiates this ongoing spirit of becoming, which is what creating is about. In that solitude, with each poem I wrote, I saw myself more clearly. ” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

903: Boy Shooting at a Statue Jun 20, 2023

Today’s poem is Boy Shooting at a Statue by Billy Collins. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “How do we foster a greater belief in each other rather than in our guns? How might we come to live without fear of each other? I have no solutions. Today’s poem points to the conundrum of guns in society and points to the possibility of our imaginations to release us from their hold.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

902: Morning in a City Jun 19, 2023

Today’s poem is Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, an homage to poet Robert Hass, suggests one possible way of retaining is to live in the music of our existence, where memories though fleeting and at our peripheries, still carry indulgences of delight.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

901: The Poet Jun 16, 2023

Today’s poem is The Poet by Bert Meyers.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “How do we celebrate our teachers? We pass down their advice. We recall legendary moments in the classroom. We discuss the brilliance of their poems, and sometimes, we gossip about their failures and triumphs. We keep their poems alive in public. When poets die, we also mourn the loss of great friends. Today’s poem is by a Los Angeles poet, one whose life and work are the subject of renewed interest and celebration, not only as a writer of astute verse, but also as a beloved teacher.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

900: In An Elevator with Ashbery, Crossing Stanzas, Bashfully Jun 15, 2023

Today’s poem is In An Elevator with Ashbery, Crossing Stanzas, Bashfully by Alina Stefanescu.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem gently refuses to consign poetry to the world of philosophical musing, semiotics, and language games, which many have experienced in the difficult and wildly associative poetry of the great American poet, John Ashbery.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

899: Areyto for the Shipwrecked: The Case for Spanglish Jun 14, 2023

Today’s poem is Areyto for the Shipwrecked: The Case for Spanglish by Vincent Toro.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem celebrates the power of speaking multiple languages, of having options to fulfill poetry’s demand to achieve ever more expression of human emotion.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

898: from THIRSTY Jun 13, 2023

Today’s poem is from THIRSTY by Dionne Brand.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I love the beauty of natural spaces, and will never jettison the sense of sacred communion there, but cities serve as staging grounds for my feelings of agape, the benevolence I feel from and extend to fellow human beings.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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