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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. Ma ...
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Today’s poem is Jamboree, Evening, Midsummer by Austin Araujo. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I have borne witness to some profoundly tender relationships over the years between siblings. I realize how quiet I have been in acknowledging the beauty of those bonds. So, consider today’s episode a shout out, a…
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Today’s poem is In Which I Become (Skywoman) by Kenzie Allen.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s beautiful, incantatory poem contains a rich message of communal nurturance, how we soften each other’s fall, as we learn to acknowledge our purpose in the universe.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift …
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Today’s poem is Wind Ode by Sharon Olds. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem is an ode, a poem of praise or celebration. It reminds me that attention is a form of love. If you love the world, give it the gift of your attention. Don’t be afraid to get up close, to look deeper, to g…
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Today’s poem is White Peonies by Reginald Dwayne Betts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “When I’m on a walk, I take pictures and make recordings so I can later identify what I’ve seen and heard. If my teenage daughter is with me, as she often is, she teases me when I use the birding app on …
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Today’s poem is Washing the Elephant by Barbara Ras. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem walloped me with its deep wisdom about childhood, memory, and love.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4…
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Today’s poem is Rabbitbrush by Molly McCully Brown. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “One of the things I love about being in a new place is experiencing the flora and fauna of that place. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? When we learn a new place, we also learn who we are in that new plac…
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Today’s poem is Our Bodies by Michael Bazzett. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “I grew up pre-Internet, pre-cell phones. For most of my childhood we didn’t have cable TV or a VCR. If I had free time, I was riding my bike, playing outside, or reading a book. We call it “free range” now—the i…
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Today’s poem is Statement of Teaching Philosophy by Keith Leonard. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “I know I’m not the only one who’s experienced the inadequacy of language. I know I’m not the only one who’s struggled to communicate something I’ve been thinking or feeling. But maybe you’ve …
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Today’s poem is Things I Want to Tell You About California by Barbara Costas-Biggs. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem feels like a “wish you were here” postcard. It makes me wonder how I would describe where I live to someone faraway, what details I would include. What in my fam…
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Today’s poem is A Drink in the Night by Deborah Garrison. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem captures a scene between a parent and child that feels both familiar and miraculous. I love that poems are a place where the everyday and the transcendent can live side by side. Because t…
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Today’s poem is Astronomers Locate a New Planet by Matthew Olzmann. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem does something I admire a great deal, which is to bring two unexpected things together: a scientific discovery of a new planet, and the issue of marriage rights." Celebrate the …
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Today’s poem is Reasons to Live by Ruth Awad. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “I know hope can be a tough sell when there’s so much suffering in the world. It’s easier to notice what’s wrong with the world instead of what’s right. But in especially difficult times, we have to look harder fo…
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Today’s poem is It Too Remains by Glyn Maxwell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Though spoken to a single person, today’s elegiac poem makes a universal claim about loss; our hearts, mind, and bodies and the memories within render permanent, even conjure, those we once loved on this side of life.” Celebrate…
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Today’s poem is When You Rise from the Dead I Drive You to the After Party by Melissa Studdard. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I think my group chats are the best group chats. We hit each other up every day, give verbal daps, check-in on family, share progress videos of workouts. We pass on new drafts of p…
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Today’s poem is A Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart by Pádraig Ó Tuama. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I think my group chats are the best group chats. We hit each other up every day, give verbal daps, check-in on family, share progress videos of workouts. We pass on new drafts of poems with no pressure to giv…
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Today’s poem is Third Week of Ramadan by Sahar Romani. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem banishes any doubt that this is all a precious journey. It is a poem that points to a holy rite practiced the world over whose aim is purification and renewal.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The…
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Today’s poem is I Want to Die by Tariq Luthun. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Dining at a new restaurant, me and a group of friends landed on the topic of fears. I was kind of listening, but I was more into the food being set before us. Then it was my turn; I said I feared loneliness, that I would never ex…
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