Shows
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1213: Pacific Power & Light by Michael DickmanToday’s poem is Pacific Power & Light by Michael Dickman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The beauty of poetry is its diversity and how it gives us an opportunity to feel language, rather than the poem acting only as a substitute for a Hallmark card or occasion for a punchline.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-10-0908 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1212: Eureka! by Jessica AbughattasToday’s poem is Eureka! by Jessica Abughattas. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “To borrow a phrase, love calls us to the things of this world. But as today’s brilliant poem reminds us, in our search for happiness, we find our worth in relation to our freedom and societal expectations. We learn to self-affirm in our search for joy.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-10-0806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1211: The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack GilbertToday’s poem is The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart by Jack Gilbert. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Inadequacy is built into the enterprise of speaking; we struggle to say exactly what we need to say — if we even know what we need to say.“ Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-10-0705 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1210: Negro Hero (to Suggest Dorie Miller) by Gwendolyn BrooksToday’s poem is Negro Hero (to Suggest Dorie Miller) by Gwendolyn Brooks. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age. In this episode, Major writes… “When I last taught this poem, I asked a student to recite it. A Southeast Asian-American student could not mouth the once accepta...2024-10-0411 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1209: Sonnet 130 by William ShakespeareToday’s poem is Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age. In this episode, Major writes… “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is brilliant for how the speaker disproves the idea that his girlfriend could be compared to anything in nature. He takes aim at hyperbolic simi...2024-10-0307 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1208: Gravelly Run by A. R. AmmonsToday’s poem is Gravelly Run by A. R. Ammons. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age. In this episode, Major writes… “It is best if we come to know ourselves through its cycles and terrains, but without all the troublesome wrangling over questions of meaning. It is g...2024-10-0207 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1207: from "Spring and All" by William Carlos WilliamsToday’s poem is from "Spring and All" by William Carlos Williams. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age. In this episode, Major writes… “Time is the river that never dries up, that is always in motion. Yet, cycles of elections and global conflict appear as if we are goi...2024-10-0110 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1206: Birches by Robert FrostToday’s poem is Birches by Robert Frost. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age. \In this episode, Major writes… “I have long admired today’s poem by Robert Frost. “Birches” spotlights a young boy who makes his own fun in the outdoors. It’s a poem about self-relian...2024-09-3009 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1205: Leaving by Madeleine CravensToday’s poem is Leaving by Madeleine Cravens. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem knows the world is enticing, seductive, full of possibilities. The hack is to consciously curate our pleasures — the slow, intentional cherishing of a life well-lived.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-2708 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1204: The Joseph Cornell App by David RoderickToday’s poem is The Joseph Cornell App by David Roderick. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The great actor James Earl Jones departed this earth. His passing reminded me of a hilarious app idea I devised at a party. I called it the God App, where the great actor would simply recite the ten commandments. When I imagined a deity speaking, I thought of James Earl Jones, the rich baritone voice that gave us Darth Vader.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a differ...2024-09-2606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1203: This Living by Amber TamblynToday’s poem is This Living by Amber Tamblyn. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “In my mere five decades on earth, I’ve faced many challenges — thwarted dreams, failed friendships, career disappointments — that often left me feeling alone, stranded in the dry badlands, searing heat bearing down. And yet, of course, I wasn’t. A three-hour telephone conversation with a friend, an unexpected consoling note from a colleague, even a passing smile from that stranger who read signs of stress in my gait, all these could break down my self-involved isolation. Through a rich panoply...2024-09-2507 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1202: If only by Dawn Lundy MartinToday’s poem is If only by Dawn Lundy Martin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem unapologetically claims psychic space. In order to be at peace and clear-eyed, the speaker forgoes decorative language that would obscure what their heart and mind believe is ethically true.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-2408 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1201: Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare CavanaghToday’s poem is Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare CavanaghThe Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “One of the great paradoxes in life is the presence of human suffering on the planet amidst prosperity. No religion can explain this other than point to some large cosmic plan. Sometimes it’s tough bearing witness and walking in a world where one feels debilitated, and silence around other people’s suffering feels like gaslighting.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation mak...2024-09-2306 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1200: Lying My Head Off by Cate MarvinToday’s poem is Lying My Head Off by Cate Marvin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “One of the great feelings of aging is coming clean about my shortcomings. That honesty is an illuminating relief, because, as today’s surrealist poem suggests, the masks we take on eventually make us an imposter to ourselves.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-2008 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1199: Homo naledi by Sara BorjasToday’s poem is Homo naledi by Sara Borjas.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I see poems functioning in the way stones function, as protection, as foundation, even as weaponry. Today’s poem asserts those simple objects that manifest as testament of our durable existence in the face of opposing forces.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-1907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1198: The Big People by César Vallejo, translated by James WrightToday’s poem is The Big People by César Vallejo, translated by James Wright. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem strikes that note of fear of being cut off from the world and the impending feelings of abandonment.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-1806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1197: March, the Garden by Chera HammonsToday’s poem is March, the Garden by Chera HammonsThe Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “People often ask me: can poetry be taught? As if there is a playbook for writing poetry, guidelines, and steps. I believe writing poetry, like gardening, is a gradual accumulation of instinctive habits: observing, tending, and nourishing one’s talent and imagination. Today’s poem sees the garden as a barometer of our changing climate and of our inner lives.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference...2024-09-1706 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1196: A Conversation between Women by Jennifer ChangToday’s poem is A Conversation between Women by Jennifer Chang. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “On any given day, I can call up one of a handful of friends to have tough conversations. Occasionally, I need someone who will challenge my assumptions, who will help me work through matters that are pressing, who will quickly go past the small talk to a deeper exchange, who will call me on my BS and earnest seriousness.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a differen...2024-09-1607 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1165: Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline BalderramaToday’s poem is Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on July 19, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “When lost, truth is, someone always rescued me from my disorientation. Today’s poem reminds me that we are a single body, reliant on each other to find our way.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-1307 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1063: Love Poem by Sophie Cabot BlackToday’s poem is Love Poem by Sophie Cabot Black.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on February 28, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me of the daunting and ongoing and heartrending work of preparing ourselves to love and to dare to receive it, if we can.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-1207 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1138: Orientation by Cindy Juyoung OkToday’s poem is Orientation by Cindy Juyoung Ok.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on June 12, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “Every poem is a bridge between nature and us, in that what lies hidden, what is below, is somehow familiar, and brought to consciousness.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-1106 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 926: from "The Garden of Limbs" by Cristina Pérez DíazToday’s poem is from "The Garden of Limbs" by Cristina Pérez Díaz.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on July 21, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, which alludes to the biblical story of Adam and Eve and the first garden, celebrates the carnal sweetness of those chill days with a beloved. The poem brazenly proclaims the power (and maybe even recklessness) of sensuous mating that is its own form of world-build...2024-09-1007 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1103: Chaos Theory by Clint SmithToday’s poem is Chaos Theory by Clint Smith.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on April 24, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “Occasionally, I try to follow the series of decisions that led me to this present, however triumphant or painful. My life wavers between fate and destiny. But then again, poetry brings me to the belief that some mysterious force is at work, below, that unveils a spiritually deeper meaning to it all.” Celebra...2024-09-0907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1125: English by Janel PinedaToday’s poem is English by Janel Pineda. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on May 24, 2024.In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem brilliantly figures the psychological complexities of adopting a new language, and a way of thinking, while losing another.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-09-0607 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1097: Mercy, Mercy Me by Olatunde OsinaikeToday’s poem is Mercy, Mercy Me by Olatunde Osinaike. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on April 16, 2024.In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s poem survives by an adherence to their values — but also by a willingness to adopt new codes, to risk new experiences, to take on new attitudes.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm42024-09-0506 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 932: Letter to my sister by Trapeta B. MaysonToday’s poem is Letter to my sister by Trapeta B. Mayson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on July 31, 2023.In this episode, Major writes… “My mother did not live long enough to read my poems about her. I like to think that she would have appreciated how I processed our shared history and relationships, even the difficult moments. I like to think she’d have granted me the latitude to craft the poems I need...2024-09-0407 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1093: When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine KwonToday’s poem is When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on April 10, 2024.In this episode, Major writes… “I read all those articles that proclaim how lonely we are becoming; I believe there’s some truth to it. Here’s my fear: all my work is making me alien to myself and others. I’m happy people are in my life. I wish not to skirt over their humanit...2024-09-0306 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily[encore] 1117: I Am Waiting by Lawrence FerlinghettiToday’s poem is I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. This episode was originally released on May 14, 2024.In this episode, Major writes… “On a Saturday morning group Zoom call, I wore my Philadelphia Phillies cap. A friend almost choked on his coffee, confusing my red hat for a MAGA hat. It made for a funny exchange, where I unapologetically claimed my belief in the ideals of America, but, no . . . I am a different...2024-09-0207 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1195: First Kiss by Rooja MohassessyToday’s poem is First Kiss by Rooja Mohassessy. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds us that kissing is universal, but also something that is not taught, and so, we fumble our way through until we get it right.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-3006 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1194: Theories of Influence by Anselm BerriganToday’s poem is Theories of Influence by Anselm BerriganThe Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Reading is like wandering through our dreams where the details blur once we awaken yet we are still changed throughout our day. Sometimes, we want to be lost, but what is to be gained when we find where we’re going? When we see what our subconsciouses are processing?” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-2906 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1193: Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, with special guest Jacques PépinToday’s poem is Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, with special guest Jacques Pépin. He is a French chef, author, culinary educator, television personality, and artist who has appeared on American television, has written for The New York Times and Food & Wine and has authored more than 30 cookbooks. He has been honored with 24 James Beard Foundation Awards, five honorary doctoral degrees, the American Public Television's lifetime achievement award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019 and the Légion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit, in 2004. In 2016, with his daughter, Claudine Pépin and his son-in-law, Rollie Wesen, Pépin c...2024-08-2806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1192: Narcissus and the Namesake River by Reginald ShepherdToday’s poem is Narcissus and the Namesake River by Reginald Shepherd. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem takes up the myth of Narcissus, the nymph who falls in love with his own image.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-2706 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1191: For Mac Miller and 2009 by Kayleb Rae CandrilliToday’s poem is For Mac Miller and 2009 by Kayleb Rae Candrilli.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Because of my family’s addiction issues, I spoke out of fear to my children, and often rather harshly. I worried particularly that they would fall prey to the opioid epidemic that hit the state of Vermont, a fentanyl crisis as severe as the rest of the country. Several friends grieved the loss of children to overdose. I wish I had told my children of my casual experiment with drugs, moments that scared me so much I k...2024-08-2606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1190: At the Museum of Empress Livia’s Garden Room by Pimone TriplettToday’s poem is At the Museum of Empress Livia’s Garden Room by Pimone Triplett. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s lyric poem walks us through a villa garden painted on a fresco. Reading the poem, it is as though we eavesdrop on the speaker’s awe, but also how a rich, imagined replica of fruit, birds, trees leads us to thoughts about our own relationship to natural spaces.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-2307 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1189: Nature Poem About Flowers by Matthew RohrerToday’s poem is Nature Poem About Flowers by Matthew Rohrer. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “They say clothes make the man. Frequently though, clothes hide the person, particularly a person’s depth of feeling.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-2207 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1188: In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brownToday’s poem is In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown. Through her writing, which includes short- and long-form fiction, nonfiction, spells, tarot decks and poetry; her music, which includes songwriting, singing and immersive musical rituals; and her podcasts, including How to Survive the End of the World, Octavia’s Parables and The Emergent Strategy Podcast, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas, frameworks, networks and practices for transformation. Her work is informed by 25 years of social and environmental justice facilitation primarily supporting Black liberation, her...2024-08-2109 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1187: Picking Favorites by George FranklinToday’s poem is Picking Favorites by George Franklin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem finds a capacious way of existing that honors an entire life and everyone in it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-2006 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1186: Oh, y’know, just your standard Q&A by Alex Z. SalinasToday’s poem is Oh, y’know, just your standard Q&A by Alex Z. Salinas.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem is the kind of interview that I long to give, one full of non sequiturs and expansive evasions.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-1907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1185: Fragment 31 by Sappho, translated by Christopher ChildersToday’s poem is Fragment 31 by Sappho, translated by Christopher Childers.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If you listen close enough to a poem, especially to the very best of them, you can hear on their surface, the poet’s breathing and silences shaped by the pace and noise of their age. You can hear a voice fastened to the page, the speech of the era in which the poem was written, along with images that float into our mind’s eye which are also of a period like red wheelbarrows, pool players, f...2024-08-1606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1184: End of December by Ashjan Hendi, translated by Moneera Al-GhadeerToday’s poem is End of December by Ashjan Hendi, translated by Moneera Al-Ghadeer.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Tests to long-term commitments are bound to happen. Expending too much affection can lead to exhaustion and the bruise of eventual disappointment. As today’s poem suggests, one of the secrets to a successful marriage is moderation and restraint.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-1506 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1183: maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings, with special guest Eric WhitacreToday’s poem is maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings, with special guest Eric Whitacre. Whitacre is a Grammy Award-winning composer, conductor, and speaker. A graduate of The Juilliard School, his works are programmed worldwide, and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united well over 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries. Upcoming premieres include a new major work for choir, instrumentalists and electronics, Eternity in an Hour, at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Eric shares… “I could sit for hours and just l...2024-08-1407 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1182: from “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” by L. Lamar WilsonToday’s poem is from “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” by L. Lamar Wilson.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Humans, it seems, are bound to feel adrift. So many times in my life, I have worked to muster a belief that all of it matters. I have made great efforts to not be lulled into amnesia nor medicate myself blind to the forces that harm — and to those that truly heal. Living a spiritual existence means developing strategies that keep us in possession of ourselves, ever aware that we share this fragile world.” 2024-08-1308 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1181: Enlightenment by Vijay SeshadriToday’s poem is Enlightenment by Vijay Seshadri.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem points to how people’s sense of desolation and lack of meaning sometimes fuel a desire to save the world, work they go about with patronizing superiority and condescension.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-1206 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1180: The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath TagoreToday’s poem is The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath Tagore.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry has a way of collapsing time, and by working the senses, having us experience an era. In the blues rhythms of Langston Hughes’ poetry, I hear early twentieth century New York, and going back, I hear the plurality of America and its citizens in the poetry of Walt Whitman who explicitly said he heard singing. In a way, poems are capsules from the past that open whenever we read them.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to...2024-08-0907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1179: Nude by James Kelly QuigleyToday’s poem is Nude by James Kelly Quigley.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I long to write poems of a mystical nature, where the wisdom of the ages is carried forth in new forms and phrases. Today’s brief poem, in its associative leaps, could be the seed to a new way of seeing, if we just let its words work their magic.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-0805 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1178: America by Claude McKay, with special guest Tonya MosleyToday’s poem is America by Claude McKay, with special guest Tonya Mosley. Tonya is the host and creator of Truth Be Told and founder of TMI Productions. She is also a co-host of Fresh Air, and a correspondent and former host of Here & Now, the midday radio show co-produced by NPR and WBUR. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Tonya shares… “The Harlem Renaissance feels so current and so now, and the thing about it is it always has for me. From the time I was a little girl, it didn't feel historical, in fact, it fel...2024-08-0707 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1177: Machete: Look by Jasminne MendezToday’s poem is Machete: Look by Jasminne Mendez.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds us of the tools that break the bonds of human connection and life, how we must go against rhetoric that strips us of our power to feel empathy and exercise grace.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-0606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1176: Fowl at Large by Sarah GiragosianToday’s poem is Fowl at Large by Sarah Giragosian.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Courage is at the heart of writing, and as today’s poem suggests, a wildness of being, that fires away from timidity and into realms of the self as glamorous and unpredictable, as if you had the whole world shook.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-08-0505 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1175: Hunger by Kelli Russell AgodonToday’s poem is Hunger by Kelli Russell Agodon.This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Jeannine from Washington. In this episode, Major writes… “What is it about this stage of dating that has us turn off the radar, render us blind to the red flags, to what we hope our instincts should catch? We become wild in our desperat...2024-08-0207 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1174: Separation Wall by Naomi Shihab NyeToday’s poem is Separation Wall by Naomi Shihab Nye.This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Meital from Washington, D.C. In this episode, Major writes… “Coexistence on the planet demands that we transcend reactionary treatment of each other. For this reason, we need poems to tease out our innocence, that part of us untouched by the callousness...2024-08-0107 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1173: Sono by Suji Kwock KimToday’s poem is Sono by Suji Kwock Kim.This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem coordinates a masterful flow of language, simulating the journey of a child crossing into our time through another’s body. The poem reminds us, with sound and texture, to not lose our sense of marvel.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gif...2024-07-3107 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1172: From Blossoms by Li-Young LeeToday’s poem is From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee.This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. Today’s selection was submitted by Candace from North Carolina. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exults in that bounty of spiritual abundance and celebrates the joy inside us yielded from the land.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation m...2024-07-3007 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1171: One Art by Elizabeth BishopToday’s poem is One Art by Elizabeth Bishop. This spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. Thank you to the nearly 300 of you who sent us poems to read and enjoy. This week we’re featuring the team’s selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Doug from Minnesota. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s iconic poem inflects so much psychological truth and honest emotion in the wake of a parting; the hard pain must be worked through.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown tod...2024-07-2907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1170: The Way by Cynthia CruzToday’s poem is The Way by Cynthia Cruz. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This past spring like every spring many of my students graduated into the uncertainty of their futures. Their lives can take so many directions. I am curious as to what ultimately launches us as human beings with a purpose, or not. If ever we meet as new friends, I will likely ask what you do for a living. In some scenarios, my inquisitiveness can sound like prying. But what I am really asking is what makes you happy — to reall...2024-07-2607 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1169: from "American Analects" by Gary YoungToday’s poem is from "American Analects" by Gary Young. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I find that poems emerge out of dialogues that I have either with myself, other works of art, or my friends. In this way, my poems are a collaboration of silences.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-2506 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1168: Refusing Rilke's “You must change your life” by Remica Bingham-RisherToday’s poem is Refusing Rilke's “You must change your life” by Remica Bingham-Risher. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I live with Rilke’s famous line, “You must change your life,” in my ear on repeat, an earworm, as if something is less than stellar about who I am today. I move instinctively towards myself as though I were a massive project, believing I will someday, again in Rilke’s words, “burst like a star.” That this is how to be seen, to be loved, to be cherished. This quest has distorted my sense of what is im...2024-07-2406 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1167: Transfusion by Shara LessleyToday’s poem is Transfusion by Shara Lessley. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s fine poem creates the feeling of a medically induced slumber, but, by working layers of sound, a gorgeous aesthetic tension enlivens my ears.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-2306 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1166: Wind Poem by Song Yu, translated by Chloe Garcia RobertsToday’s poem is Wind Poem by Song Yu, translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “During moments of political crises, I think of wind, how conflicts arise and unfold. Today’s poem, written some 17 centuries ago, effectuates a storm. In the very structure of its sentences, the poem enacts the motion of a mighty gust and its aftermath — a murmuring calm and quiet that claims our being.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-2207 minThe Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1165: Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline BalderramaToday’s poem is Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When lost, truth is, someone always rescued me from my disorientation. Today’s poem reminds me that we are a single body, reliant on each other to find our way.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-1907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1164: Act of Gratitude by Cyrus CassellsToday’s poem is Act of Gratitude by Cyrus Cassells. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Reading poems that strike big-hearted notes of the ecstatic have me celebrate my own victories and joys, small things in life that are meaningful, yet unnoticeable to the distracted eye: a child’s hug at the end of bedtime, first sip of steaming soup on a frigid day that fogs your face, the way a friend smiles at a corny joke. Today’s poem deftly catalogs those unexpected moments and still advances positivity as a social emotion that is be...2024-07-1806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1163: Voice Clear As by Kemi AlabiToday’s poem is Voice Clear As by Kemi Alabi. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Long ago, I knew I needed a new conception of heaven. The one with pearly white gates and winged angels from my youth in church just wasn’t working for me. I mean, I get clouds and blue skies as symbols of ascension from earthly plains. And it wasn’t just in church — heaven was everywhere, in museums and in movies, too. But those early images, lodged into my subconscious, weren’t inclusive or realistic, except for the 1936 Holly...2024-07-1705 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1162: But Beautiful by Rodney Terich LeonardToday’s poem is But Beautiful by Rodney Terich Leonard.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Some poets aim for meaning and clarity of emotion. And then, the best does that and more. They also play language as though words were comprised of tones and notes, as though the poem were a musical composition. They treat language as a resource by creating echoes through rhyme or cadence or incantation. Others give language a skin by utilizing words that have a roughness to them. Then other poets map a route to individuality by capturing words...2024-07-1606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1161: Each Morning Again by Rose McLarneyToday’s poem is Each Morning Again by Rose McLarney.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “My daily routines present no surprises; they keep the beat of my life. The foreseeable brings me comfort. I typically stick to the script of the previous day. But writing poetry is something that disrupts my set pattern. Composing language into a meaningful act of artful feeling provides necessary pause to meditate on the purpose of my life and its possibilities.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a differen...2024-07-1506 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1160: Naïve by Tim SeiblesToday’s poem is Naïve by Tim Seibles. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s deeply reflective poem encourages a return to ourselves as open and loving, even at the risk of seeming dewy-eyed and idealistic.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-1207 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1159: We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers by Diannely AntiguaToday’s poem is We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers by Diannely Antigua. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I treasure the elder women in my life for their conscious, yet easy-going transference of soul-nourishing values. Matriarchs mediated conflicts among family members. They put into play care and cohesion. They lovingly told stories, recalled important family members, and carried on cultural traditions, passed down like charms.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-1106 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1158: A Blessing by Samyak ShertokToday’s poem is A Blessing by Samyak Shertok. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s remarkable poem exalts in the cultural rite of eating a meal prepared by an elder. Its sumptuous language and lush syntax are markers of the summer’s abundance.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-1006 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1157: from “Requiem 1935-1940” by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max HaywardToday’s poem is from “Requiem 1935-1940” by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “What is the role of poetry during war? Does it have a function? Then and now, poets and readers of poetry see language as the terrain where we find ourselves heard and affirmed in our beliefs. Poets protest, bear witness, and mourn.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-0907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1156: In Love by Chloe MartinezToday’s poem is In Love by Chloe Martinez. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The first time I was in love, I started missing baseball practice. Instead, I went to the library. Cherie spent afternoons doing her homework there. I could barely think about anything but her. What an immense feeling, to live with a perennial lump in my chest!” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-07-0806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection DailyDosis de reflexiónEn la rutina de nuestro diario vivir, nos vemos sumergidos en distintas situaciones que nos llevan a replantearnos la manera en como asumimos cada proceso que pone de manifiesto nuestra existencia.2024-07-0600 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1151: I Tune My Body and My Brain to the Music of the Land by Natalie ShaperoToday’s poem is I Tune My Body and My Brain to the Music of the Land by Natalie Shapero.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I wonder how much of our authentic selves are lost in the belief that we are stronger collectively, when we adhere this way, to a set of civic virtues that may not fully align with our worldview. Is there a part of us that wishes to express something different? How might we look within, and no longer seek social affirmation?” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift t...2024-07-0105 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1150: Fuji, Ararat by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, translated by Eduardo AparicioToday’s poem is Fuji, Ararat by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, translated by Eduardo Aparicio. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s exquisite poem infuses the Petrarchan sonnet with playful existentialism and self-soothing. It’s Nietzsche meets Anti-Eat, Pray, Love—and as a work of translation, it defies impossibility.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-2807 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1149: Agony's Rasp by Garous Abdolmalekian, translated by Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra NoveyToday’s poem is Agony's Rasp by Garous Abdolmalekian, translated by Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra Novey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem simultaneously inhabits the planes of presence and absence, conveying the suffering of avoidance from multiple perspectives. With restraint and disorienting beauty, we are at the mercy of the dying voice, the reviving voice, and the surviving voice.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-2706 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1148: Urine Season by Niina PollariToday’s poem is Urine Season by Niina Pollari. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “When someone in my life—an acquaintance, a coworker, a friend or beloved—experiences a tremendous loss, I am acutely reminded of how language fails us. We give out heartfelt condolences such as “I’m sorry for your loss,” “My deepest sympathy,” or “Thinking of you during these difficult times.” But they do not resurrect the dead and rarely comfort the living.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a dif...2024-06-2606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1147: A Book of Music by Jack SpicerToday’s poem is A Book of Music by Jack Spicer. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s nimble poem inspires me to think about rope idioms in the context of romantic relationships. When did you show your lover the ropes? Have you given your lover enough rope from which to dangle?”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-2506 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1146: Lonely Women by Choi Seungja, translated by Won-Chung Kim and Cathy Park HongToday’s poem is Lonely Women by Choi Seungja, translated by Won-Chung Kim and Cathy Park Hong. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… "I learned how to enjoy my own company while living in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. One evening, I decided to enter the Campus Theatre, an art-deco movie house known for showing a captivating mix of new releases, classics, and indie films. And it was there, sitting comfortably in a dark room, while staring at an anachronistically large screen, that my loneliness peeled off me in layers, alongside strangers coupled and...2024-06-2405 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1145: Love Poem by the Light of the Refrigerator by Alisha DietzmanToday’s poem is Love Poem by the Light of the Refrigerator by Alisha Dietzman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem, with its phantom-like repetition and delicate renderings of stereotypically gendered décor, demands our aesthetic attention. It is at once domestic and elemental, modest and suggestive, buoyant and exacting.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-2106 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1144: Horse by TR BradyToday’s poem is Horse by TR Brady. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s deceptively simple poem is as provoking as it is spare. With parallel syntax and capacious anticipation, we witness the unbridgeable silences that exist between man and beast, man and earth, and, most immediately, between each other.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-2006 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1143: Screenplay by Harryette MullenToday’s poem is Screenplay by Harryette Mullen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem performs the mundane in cinematic fashion. Through sharp auditory imagery, deliberate juxtaposition, and the suggestion of ritual, it reminds us that, though the musical scores of our lives are never not playing and not always pleasant, our job is, always, to listen.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-1907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1142: Hyperacusis by Santee FrazierToday’s poem is Hyperacusis by Santee Frazier.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “I find that I’m especially sensitive to sound. I also find that sonics drive my poetics. In my role as an editor, I gravitate towards writing that prioritizes rhythm, be it harmonious or unsettling, and I believe phonetics alone has the power to both eschew narrative meaning and dictate it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-1806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1141: When I Was in My Early Thirties I Saw Elton John in a Nightclub in Atlanta Called Tongue and Groove by Khadijah QueenToday’s poem is When I Was in My Early Thirties I Saw Elton John in a Nightclub in Atlanta Called Tongue and Groove by Khadijah Queen.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Leslie Sainz writes… “Today’s poem transports us to a night out worth remembering, not for its intoxicating music or the surprise of a celebrity sighting, but because our response to disappointment can function as a measure of individual growth.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4sy2024-06-1705 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1140: Fish, Serpent, Egg, Scorpion by Kwame DawesToday’s poem is Fish, Serpent, Egg, Scorpion by Kwame Dawes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem highlights that cycle of hard truths and compassion passed between fathers and sons.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-1407 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1139: Dolly Would by Julie E. BloemekeToday’s poem is Dolly Would by Julie E. Bloemeke. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “To build an image and reputation from dreams requires herculean efforts that often involve doubts, failures, and sacrifices, but as we hear in today’s poem, a devotedness to one’s art that transforms a passion into a stratospheric journey into the self. ” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-1306 minThe Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1138: Orientation by Cindy Juyoung OkToday’s poem is Orientation by Cindy Juyoung Ok.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Every poem is a bridge between nature and us, in that what lies hidden, what is below, is somehow familiar, and brought to consciousness.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-1205 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1137: i have an irrational fear of spiders by Charlie GetterToday’s poem is i have an irrational fear of spiders by Charlie Getter.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem smartly interrogates the role of fears and how they might unreasonably control our lives.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-1107 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1136: Visible Light by Heidi SeabornToday’s poem is Visible Light by Heidi Seaborn.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “As a child, on summer evenings, my friends and I ran through the neighborhood collecting lightning bugs. They were most visible in vacant lots, but we feared those dark places we sometimes entered. So, the hunt for them as ten-year-olds also felt like an adventure. We gently coaxed them into glass mason jars then sat on the stoop counting their lights to see who had the most. Their underbellies lit up and cast a glow onto our faces. Later...2024-06-1005 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1135: At the Rainbow Cattle Company by Bruce SniderToday’s poem is At the Rainbow Cattle Company by Bruce Snider. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem names the silent syncopated talk of the body that occurs when two people are in sync, in graceful movements, when they let each other lead.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-0706 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1134: Americans by Katie PetersonToday’s poem is Americans by Katie Peterson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Whenever I hear a person refer to people by their geographic or cultural or national association, I wince. In doing so, we falsely implicate everything from intelligence levels to physical appearances. This strikes me as crude, reductive, unintentionally demeaning.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-0606 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1133: The Alien by Greg DelantyToday’s poem is The Alien by Greg Delanty. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “However tight the team of parents, and family and community beyond that, supporting a child in utero, that baby is carried by one body alone. Their body is not only one of creation, of labor, of internal mystery, but one of a singular emotional gravity.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-0505 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1132: Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod AvantToday’s poem is Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod Avant. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I am drawn to poets who, like the author of today’s poem, bring imagination and attention to sonic idioms of a poem. They make reading aloud fun.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-0405 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1131: How It Will End by Denise DuhamelToday’s poem is How It Will End by Denise Duhamel. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem illustrates how difficult it is to plot the fate of a couple, especially one whose ups and downs are played out publicly.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-06-0305 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1130: Cy Twombly's Untitled (Say Goodbye Catullus, to the shores of Asia Minor) by Javier O. HuertaToday’s poem is Cy Twombly's Untitled (Say Goodbye Catullus, to the shores of Asia Minor) by Javier O. Huerta. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Ekphrastic poetry sometimes pushes back against the idea of simple art made complicated in idea, born from an eccentric personality. Inspired by another famous Twombly painting, one that itself is inspired partly by a poem, today’s poem realizes the frenetic sense of the artist’s canvas is a conceptual product of a s...2024-05-3107 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1129: Hagar in the Wilderness by Tyehimba JessToday’s poem is Hagar in the Wilderness by Tyehimba Jess.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Today’s poet pays homage to an artist who, with her own hands, made art out of heroic, mythical, and biblical figures, whose visions were worthy of the substance of stone.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-05-3006 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1128: Post-Industrial Society Has Arrived by Vidhu AggarwalToday’s poem is Post-Industrial Society Has Arrived by Vidhu Aggarwal.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Poets possess an expansive intuition, a proclivity towards image-making that meets head-on the most difficult of artists. In responding to works of art, poets perform the gift of interpretation. By turning language into a critical practice, they find pathways into paintings and teach us how to see what they see. They make the paintings speak.” Celebrate the power of poems wit...2024-05-2907 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1127: Two Paintings Seen Again by Rachel HadasToday’s poem is Two Paintings Seen Again by Rachel Hadas.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. Today’s ekphrastic poem makes a compelling assertion that to fully register the power of art, we must take our time to take it in.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-05-2806 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1126: Not So Much an End as an Entangling by Linda GregersonToday’s poem is Not So Much an End as an Entangling by Linda Gregerson.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “This week’s episodes are a special feature on ekphrasis – poems which engage with works of art. The vision of birds stilled in motion at the center of Tom Uttech’s paintings invite similar speculations. Today’s poem reads an exodus of earth’s species as an ominous commentary, I surmise, on the decimation of the environment.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference...2024-05-2706 minThe Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1125: English by Janel PinedaToday’s poem is English by Janel Pineda. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem brilliantly figures the psychological complexities of adopting a new language, and a way of thinking, while losing another.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-05-2406 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1124: What Good Is A Castle by Linda Susan JacksonToday’s poem is What Good Is A Castle by Linda Susan Jackson.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Those signs are back; a favorite restaurant near campus suddenly closed. My network news show has a new host; my local bagel shop removed the best breakfast sandwich this side of cream cheese from its menu board. These are reminders that nothing is permanent. Is anything sacred? Of course not. The only constant in life is change.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a differen...2024-05-2305 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1123: In the House With No Doors by Sarah KayToday’s poem is In the House With No Doors by Sarah Kay.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem speaks to the intimacy roommates share, how sometimes we start off as strangers then, as we enter into each other’s routines, become the best of friends.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-05-2205 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1122: Childhood by David BakerToday’s poem is Childhood by David Baker.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I enjoy today’s poem immensely for how it makes its opening comparison, then leads us to the sweet conclusion, one about an experience we all share. Yet, it individualizes through the power of metaphor.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-05-2105 min
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily1121: The Empire of Light by Michael DumanisToday’s poem is The Empire of Light by Michael Dumanis.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reveals how poets distinctly process the world. A fragmented mix of images might reflect how we naturally think. Spontaneity defines our lyricism, and its pleasure is its speed.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp2024-05-2005 min