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American Public Media

Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and the lives of others, to help us live creatively and compassionately, to use that attention to lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope — to keep hoping. The Slowdown community knows that reflecting on a poem, every weekday, can connect us to our inner world and the world around us. Listen as you make your morning coffee, as you go on a walk in your neighborhood, as you pull away from the to-do list, as you resist the dismal, endless scroll to share five minutes of perspective through the lens of poetry, from poets old and new, well-loved and emerging onto the scene. Brought to you by American Public Media, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Today’s poem is Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is from a collection of prose poems that chronicles a woman’s journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder, from childhood into adulthood. I admire the way we’re invited into the speaker’s consciousness, to see her mind at work.” 

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

1373: Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman

Today’s poem is My Body Knows its Limits by Page Hill Starzinger.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I know we often think of our intelligence as being related to our brains. Smart people are called “brainy.” Wise approaches to problem-solving are called “mindful.” But the body has its own intelligence. Some things we know, because we intuit them—as we say, we feel them in our gut. I sense when I’m in danger, or when someone is lying to me. I might get a prickle on the back of my neck, or a speeding up of my pulse, or an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I sense when I can trust someone, too. My nervous system relaxes around them.”

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

1372: My Body Knows Its Limits by Page Hill Starzinger

Today’s poem is At Last the New Arriving by Gabrielle Calvocoressi. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I don’t know what might happen tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. I can’t know! That can be a source of stress, but it can also be a source of hope and excitement. The future is full of possibility. Some of life’s surprises are heartbreaking, yes—but some are heart-repairing. Heart filling. Heart strengthening. I try to remind myself of that.” 

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

1371: At Last the New Arriving by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Today’s poem is Soot by Kaveh Akbar. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “My friend, the poet Dana Levin, once said that my poems are “God Curious,” and I loved that description. Part of what I do in my poems is pose existential questions to myself, and think—and feel—my way into them. That’s not the same as answering them! Luckily, poems don’t require us to have answers.”

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

1370: Soot by Kaveh Akbar

Today’s poem is Six Hours Lost, Land Between the Lakes by Kathleen Driskell. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem tells a story about a tense encounter in the woods. I so admire how this poet unfolds the narrative, then leaves me sighing deeply at the end.”

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

1369: Six Hours Lost, Land Between the Lakes by Kathleen Driskell

Today’s poem is Do You Consider Writing to be Therapeutic? by Andrew Grace. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The next time I’m asked if writing is therapy, I may just respond by reading today’s poem. I think it answers the question with succinct, heartbreaking beauty.” 

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

1368: Do You Consider Writing to be Therapeutic? by Andrew Grace

Today’s poem is Abundance by Rick Barot. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem rejoices in something at the heart of this podcast: the pleasure of sharing our favorite poems with others, rather than reading them alone.” 

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

1367: Abundance by Rick Barot

Today’s poem is Nostalgia by Matthew Minicucci. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I joke that I can be nostalgic about a moment while it’s happening. That might be the writer in me: part of me is in the moment, and part of me is already thinking about it from a distance, and seeking the language to write about it.”

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

1366: Nostalgia by Matthew Minicucci

Today’s poem is Noise Cancelling by Devon Walker-Figueroa. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I love getting a little bit lost. Today’s poem is one you’re going to lose yourself in for these few minutes.” 

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

1365: Noise Cancelling by Devon Walker-Figueroa

Today’s poem is Hiking Moraine State Park by Violeta Garcia-Mendoza. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem speaks to me because, at its heart, is a deep curiosity about the world—a desire to know more and more. It recognizes that sometimes we can use technology to be more connected to nature, not more disconnected from it.”

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

1364: Hiking Moraine State Park by Violeta Garcia-Mendoza

Today’s poem is Untitled by Sesshu Foster. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. 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 June 12, 2019.

In this episode, former host Tracy K. Smith writes… “Sometimes, I return to memories of my past and feel as though I'm peering in upon strangers. And yet, I know something fundamental to the person I now am, resides there.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. 

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

[encore] 143: Untitled by Sesshu Foster

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