The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Latest Episodes:

1584: Missed Time by Ha Jin Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Missed Time by Ha Jin.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “I love to journal as documentation. To remember what happened in my day-to-day, even the small things I see and feel. I can thus make my own life real to myself. This is something I’ve worked out over time. When I look back at my first blue notebook, the recollections are fragmentary and melodramatic. They hardly make sense as a record. However much I feel a positive value in the process, if I look back at most of my journals, I would think that my life is miserable. Because I often turn to the page when I’m having a tough time, when I have difficult experiences to work through. I love to be alone, but it seems I write the most when I’m feeling lonely in the worst way. Today’s poem considers, joyously, the anonymous effect that this dynamic could have.”

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1583: Are You Not Tired Yet? by Mohammed al-Khatib, translated by Tayseer Abu Odeh and Sherah Bloor Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Are You Not Tired Yet? by Mohammed al-Khatib.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Though under ceasefire at the time of this recording, Gazans are still living in unimaginably difficult conditions, largely uprooted from their homes and experiencing limited access to resources and information. There has been a massive loss of human life in Palestine in the last three years, making it impossible for anyone to be without personal grief. The awareness of loss and trauma is undeniably constant.”

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

1582: Visitor's Center by T Bambrick Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Visitor's Center by T Bambrick.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem takes me back to a specificity of a Washington State public school education: learning the intricacies of salmon, sturgeon, dams, ecology, and electricity. What I didn’t see then, that I see now, is the tension between control and appreciation of the natural world. That our modern lives rely on a system built by lionizing the will of man. The speaker, here, wonders: At what cost?”

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

From Death of an Artist | Petra Mathers and Her Michael Aug 29, 2026

Show notes

We’re bringing you a preview of the new series from the podcast, Death of An Artist. In February 2024, celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers and her husband, photographer Michael Mathers, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Petra and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they choose to die together? And what did that decision do to the people left to mourn them? Journalists Leon Neyfakh and Alice Gregory set out to interview everyone who got one of Petra and Michael’s letters — as one married couple trying to understand another. Through intimate conversations with Petra and Michael’s friends and family about their own relationships to aging, grief, death, and the friends they thought they knew, Death of an Artist weaves together a portrait of a community grappling with the Mathers’ deaths and the final words they left behind. Done entirely in recordings, Death of an Artist is as much a love story as one about death. Listen to Death of An Artist wherever you get podcasts. And if you want to hear the full story right now, ad-free, you can binge the entire season with a Pushkin+ subscription — sign up on the Death of an Artist show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

1581: Stop Thinking & End Your Problems by Elisa Gabbert Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Stop Thinking & End Your Problems by Elisa Gabbert.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “So often my mind feels crowded. Busy. Like a rush hour intersection of internal monologue. I’ve tried lots of strategies. I’m still trying new strategies. Blocking out focus time, tweaking notifications, using restrictions. My favorite strategy is keeping an art book on my desk. When I feel the desire to distract from the onslaught, or when I hit a mental block, I open up the book to a random painting. I don’t stop thinking; I change the shape of my thinking — by looking at art and avoiding words for a moment.”

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

1580: Story of My Life by Jameson Fitzpatrick Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Story of My Life by Jameson Fitzpatrick.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem shows us how our desires are about both projection and possession.”

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

1579: Rain by Jennifer Grotz Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Rain by Jennifer Grotz.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Loss of possibility is one of the greatest heartbreaks we can face. But today’s poem knows the bittersweet secret: that our memories of the possible are ours to keep.”

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

1578: Lover of Cars by Olivia Sokolowski Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Lover of Cars by Olivia Sokolowski.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “I keep today’s poem taped on my wall. I thought it spoke to me because it connects my father’s love of cars to my own love of poetry. But I realized, in writing this, that what it does on a craft level is what knocks me off my feet every time.”

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

1577: Portrait of the Speaker Riding a Greyhound Bus by Eduardo Martinez-Leyva Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

Today’s poem is Portrait of the Speaker Riding a Greyhound Bus by Eduardo Martinez-Leyva.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “In the seemingly endless spring of 2020, my roommate and I briefly decamped Los Angeles and holed up with her family in Southern Oregon. The town was already quiet during the best of times; that spring, it was even quieter. We plugged away at our desk jobs that we’d taken with us. We knew we were lucky, but still the days felt very long. At the foot of the bed in the room where I slept was a framed photograph of a dinghy in a body of water. The water was still, and the colors were a bit washed out. It was so serene. And still, it was full of potential. The photograph lacked horizon — there was smooth water all the way to each matted edge. And the dinghy was empty, yet equipped with oars.”

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

[encore] 1486: from Perihelion: A History of Touch by Franny Choi Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This encore episode was originally released on April 3, 2026.

Today’s poem is from Perihelion: A History of Touch by Franny Choi.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is about the snow moon, the first full moon of February. The explanation behind the name “snow moon” is fairly straightforward: February is often the snowiest month. After reading this quiet stunner of a poem, I was inspired to turn on one of my favorite Nick Drake songs, “Pink Moon.” I highly recommend this poem/song pairing.”

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