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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily — Arts
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and the lives of others, to help us live creatively and compassionately, to use that attention to lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope — to keep hoping. The Slowdown community knows that reflecting on a poem, every weekday, can connect us to our inner world and the world around us. Listen as you make your morning coffee, as you go on a walk in your neighborhood, as you pull away from the to-do list, as you resist the dismal, endless scroll to share five minutes of perspective through the lens of poetry, from poets old and new, well-loved and emerging onto the scene. Brought to you by American Public Media, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.

Copyright: © Copyright 2026 Minnesota Public Radio

Latest Episodes:

[encore] 1369: Six Hours Lost, Land Between the Lakes by Kathleen Driskell Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Six Hours Lost, Land Between the Lakes by Kathleen Driskell. This episode was originally released on October 8, 2025.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem tells a story about a tense encounter in the woods. I so admire how this poet unfolds the narrative, then leaves me sighing deeply at the end.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1520: The New City by Hieu Minh Nguyen Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is The New City by Hieu Minh Nguyen. This episode was originally released on May 21, 2026.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “There’s a very specific pleasure in doing things alone. Going to the movies by yourself, sitting in the dark with your own drink and popcorn or candy that you don’t have to share, and sitting anywhere you want in the theatre without asking a companion where they want to sit. Or having a meal on your own, party of one, just people watching and enjoying the ambience without the need to make conversation.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1412: Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story) by Amorak Huey Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story) by Amorak Huey. This episode was originally released on December 15, 2025.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem calls itself an ars poetica, a love poem, and a true story. That’s a lot of work for one poem to do — a lot of layers of meaning! But this poet does speak to the precarity of it all: writing, and loving, and living.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1427: A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind by J. Hope Stein Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind by J. Hope Stein. This episode was originally released on January 5, 2026.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Once upon a time, I was a new mother with a baby girl in my arms, and I was her whole world. It was seventeen years ago, but sometimes I swear I can transport myself back there just by closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I remember reading that a baby’s first three months of life are called the fourth trimester. Three trimesters are spent in the mother’s body, bobbing around like a little fish, but the "fourth trimester" is when everyone is adapting to life in the outside world. The babies seem bewildered, trying to adjust to nursing and sleeping, but I think parents are just as bewildered.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1491: The Plum You're Going to Eat Next Summer by Gayle Brandeis Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is The Plum You're Going to Eat Next Summer by Gayle Brandeis. This episode was originally released on April 10, 2026.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I know optimism can be a tough sell when there’s so much suffering, so much difficulty, in the world. But this brokenness is exactly why we need more poems, more paintings, more films, more plays. More art. To make things that don’t exist yet — and don’t need to exist, because that is the very definition of art — and to send them out into the world is wildly, impractically, gorgeously hopeful.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1358: Parts of a Body House by Erika Meitner Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Parts of a Body House by Erika Meitner. This episode was originally released on September 23, 2025.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It struck me recently how much technology has changed our relationships with our bodies. There are devices that tell us how well (or poorly) we slept the night before, how many steps we took in a given day, what our heart rate is when we work out. We have access to more data about our physical selves than ever, and we don’t even need to go to the doctor to get that data. We also have access to our own image more than ever before. I know that technology has made me more aware of my body and my face, because I see myself so often: on Zoom, on Facetime, in selfies.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1478: If Night You Were a City by Adam Wiedewitsch Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is If Night You Were a City by Adam Wiedewitsch. This episode was originally released on March 17, 2026.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’ve always loved myths, legends, fables, and fairy tales. When I was young, the myth of Icarus was one that captured my imagination.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1362: For You Who Have Loved Old Dogs by Silas House Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is For You Who Have Loved Old Dogs by Silas House. This episode was originally released on September 29, 2025.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “My Boston terrier, Phoebe, is about to turn eleven, so if she were a human, she’d be a 77 year old woman. If Phoebe were one of the Golden Girls, she’d probably be Rose: quirky, loyal, a little dim-witted. We adopted her from a Boston terrier rescue organization when she was one and a half, in the spring of 2016. When people assumed that the best thing to happen to me in 2016 was my poem “Good Bones” going viral, I have to correct them. “Good Bones” changed my life, to be sure, but the best thing to happen to me that year was Phoebe. As she grows older—silver muzzle now, too—I get emotional when I’m reminded that my years with her are limited. We only have so much time.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

[encore] 1373: Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman. This episode was originally released on October 14, 2025.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this encore episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is from a collection of prose poems that chronicles a woman’s journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder, from childhood into adulthood. I admire the way we’re invited into the speaker’s consciousness, to see her mind at work.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1586: WHITMAN: by Larry Levis Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is WHITMAN: by Larry Levis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Every year, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs holds a conference in a different American city. A few years ago, when the literary industry descended on Kansas City, a poet I know posted on Instagram that he wanted to go to Charlie Parker’s grave. The pilgrimage was based on a Larry Levis poem. I threw my hat in the ring to join him.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

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