The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

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[encore] 1094: 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re revisiting some favorites from Major Jackson’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on April 11, 2024.

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

[encore] 1005: eco-hood by Melania Luisa Marte Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

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

[encore] 624: Sunflowers in the Median Jul 25, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Sunflowers in the Median by Natalie Homer.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on March 4, 2022.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “What is it about noticing beauty that brings you out of yourself and returns you to yourself? I love rooting for beauty, for awe, for those unexpected visions that make life a little easier to manage. In today’s vibrant poem, we see how the image of sunflowers can allow for a sort of grace. I love this poem for its appreciation of unexpected beauty.”

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

[encore] 526: Saudade Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Saudade by Silvia Bonilla.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “There are days I’m prone to see the nostalgia in things, the ache of the moment. Most days, I try to focus on the bright edges, those little seams of joy that vibrate in the world. One of the many reasons I love today’s poem is that it is full of that cantaloupe-colored longing and makes no apologies.”

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

[encore] 645: It’s 9:30am, I’ve ran four miles, cried four times, & eaten two chicken sandwiches Jul 23, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is It’s 9:30am, I’ve ran four miles, cried four times, & eaten two chicken sandwiches by Christian Aldana.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Annie Dillard once wrote, “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.” I think about this a lot when I’m planning my day and what sort of pleasure I might suck out of its marrow during these tumultuous times of constant upheaval and war. Sometimes that means noticing even the most mundane of tasks in order to know we are alive, that we are living.”

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

[encore] 510: Let Me Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Let Me by Camille T. Dungy.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “The thing that makes me break down in tears the most often is not grief, but human resilience. To watch someone dress their kids and get them to school, ship them off with backpacks and N95 masks knowing how hard the world is. To watch someone keep going with some sort of unfathomable fortitude, no matter how rough the human waters, that is what astounds me. And still we go on, the world seems to say.”

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

[encore] 788: John Muir, A Dream, A Waterfall, A Mountain Ash Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is John Muir, A Dream, A Waterfall, A Mountain Ash by Robert Hass.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Today’s poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, is a poem that balances the worrisome long threads of our lives against the large wonder of mountains. The poem’s title also asks us to question who gets to name, or claim, nature at all.”

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

[encore] 382: Another Night at Sea Level by Meg Day Jul 18, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Another Night at Sea Level by Meg Day.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on May 12, 2020.

In this episode, Tracy writes… “Written in letter form, today's poem captures and seeks to describe that feeling of the sublime for someone who is far away.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today.

Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 442: Climbing China's Great Wall by Afaa M. Weaver Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Climbing China's Great Wall by Afaa M. Weaver.

In this episode, Tracy writes… “I visited China for the first time in the spring of 2017. It was a visit to the great poet Yi Lei, whose poems I had been working to translate. It was my second time meeting Yi Lei in person. The first had been three years earlier, over lunch in Manhattan. That was the trip when we visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It was a bright, clear, warm day. There were plenty of visitors all around, but our climb up and down the thousand steep steps felt spacious somehow, as if we had the site to ourselves. I gawked happily at trees and mountains, stones and birds. I wanted to feel history under my feet, but really it was the living moment that enraptured me.”

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

[encore] 454: On a Spaceship Somewhere, Long After Empire's Collapse by Jesús I. Valles Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is On a Spaceship Somewhere, Long After Empire's Collapse by Jesús I. Valles.

In this episode, Tracy writes… “The message from the stars is simple: it doesn’t have to be this way. I hope we humans might change of our own volition. Barring that, I’m game for celestial intervention.”

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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