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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Eliana Benavides
Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Make us a part of your routine as you drink coffee in the morning, as you take a walk in nature, or as you wind down to go to sleep in the evening. With host Major Jackson, we collectively take a moment to calm, to inspire, to learn, and to engage with the best emerging poets and established writers of our time and generations past, from Emily Dickinson to Danez Smith, from Amanda Gorman to Mary Oliver. Listen to our back catalog for episodes by our previous hosts, Tracy K. Smi
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- Today7 min
1597: On Children by Kahlil Gibran
Today’s poem is On Children by Kahlil Gibran. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’ve always believed my son and daughter came through me, not to me, like I’m the door they used to enter the world. In this way, I feel like they’ve been loaned to me, and my job is to be a steward and a guide while they’re young. Today’s poem articulates that better than I can here, and I think that’s what we turn to poems for: to tell us the truth, and to tell it beautifully.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate
- Yesterday7 min
1596: Hares by Angela Ball
Today’s poem is Hares by Angela Ball. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Sometimes I read or listen to a poem, and I’m absolutely charmed — seduced — by the sentences: the way they move across the lines, like a river moving around a bend, breaking around stones. Sometimes I marvel at the word choices, at the sounds, at the way a narrative unfolds.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate
- 2 days ago6 min
1595: My Shark by Ellie Black
Today’s poem is My Shark by Ellie Black.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Writing is a process of discovery. When I’m working on a poem or an essay, I don’t know what I might find, and that sense of discovery doesn’t end when the piece is finished and published.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate
- 3 days ago7 min
1594: The Grass Could Be Yours by Emily Lee Luan
Today’s poem is The Grass Could Be Yours by Emily Lee Luan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Feeling at home somewhere new is surreal. Surreal and comfortable. Freeing, in a way. I’m not where the memories of my life took place, but because of the landscape, and the people, my senses feel at home. And so my memories seem to be at home, too.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate
- 4 days ago6 min
1593: Halloween in the Anthropocene by Karyna McGlynn
Today’s poem is Halloween in the Anthropocene by Karyna McGlynn. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Now that we’re past Halloween, I can admit that I’m not much of a Halloween person. It was fun when I was little, trick-or-treating with my friends, because, hey, free candy! And it was fun for me as a mother of young children. The speaker of today’s poem celebrates Halloween the way I do now: as an observer, outside of it all.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate
- 1 weeks ago8 min
1386: [encore] Night of the Living, Night of the Dead by Kim Addonizio
Today’s poem is Night of the Living, Night of the Dead by Kim Addonizio.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It might surprise you to know that one of my favorite genres is the zombie movie. I like my zombies fast, like in ‘Train to Busan’ and ‘28 Days Later,’ and I like my zombies slow, like in the old classics directed by George Romero. In ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ the zombies shamble so slowly, people can run right by them. They seem unable to figure out doorknobs and fence latches and cars. It’s black-and-white, so the gore isn’t that gory: the blood and guts are gray, after all! It’s still scary, though—because the zombies are seemingly uncontainable. They just keep coming at you. Today’s poem has been a favorite of mine for years, and it seemed like the right choice for Halloween.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
- 1 weeks ago7 min
1363: [encore] Notes on Beachgrass by Yong-Yu Huang
Today’s poem is Notes on Beachgrass by Yong-Yu Huang. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem offers us images we often find in poetry: the ocean, the moon, dreams, a mother, a wound. But it offers us these elements in such a profoundly original and moving way. I couldn’t read this poem just once—I had to read it several times, picking up new treasures with each reading, like walking along the same stretch of beach at different times of day and finding new shells.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
- 1 weeks ago7 min
1360: [encore] Wind, Blue Sky by Susan Aizenberg
Today’s poem is Wind, Blue Sky by Susan Aizenberg. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem speaks to the challenge of staying in the present moment, and having gratitude for that moment, when memory is always doing what it does best: calling to us from afar.” 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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About The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Make us a part of your routine as you drink coffee in the morning, as you take a walk in nature, or as you wind down to go to sleep in the evening. With host Major Jackson, we collectively take a moment to calm, to inspire, to learn, and to engage with the best emerging poets and established writers of our time and generations past, from Emily Dickinson to Danez Smith, from Amanda Gorman to Mary Oliver. Listen to our back catalog for episodes by our previous hosts, Tracy K. Smi
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