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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 My Mother's Love by James Allen Hall. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is a testament to a mother’s love and courage and fierce protection. Maybe the real measure of a person is what they do for people — or creatures — who cannot do anything for them in return. Love is not transactional. Love, like poetry, is a gift economy.” 

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

1417: My Mother's Love by James Allen Hall

Today, we have a bonus episode for you: an excerpt of This Old House Radio Hour, featuring our very own Maggie Smith. She takes listeners inside the 100-year-old house that has carried her family through every chapter. If you’d like to hear more of “This Old House Radio Hour,” you can listen to past episodes at thisoldhouse.com/radiohour and follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Bonus Episode: Maggie Smith on This Old House Radio Hour

Today’s poem is Nursery by Kiki Petrosino. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem draws on the language of fairy tales and the strange, sometimes inexplicable things that happen in these stories. After all, strange, sometimes inexplicable things happen in life, too.” 

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

1416: Nursery by Kiki Petrosino

Today’s poem is Elephants Born Without Tusks by Allison C. Rollins. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It’s one thing to think about animals that have evolved to adapt to their habitats: maybe they are camouflaged from predators, or they develop physical traits to help them withstand the elements. But what about humans? We have the ability to live anywhere, thanks to human technologies. We’ve built a society that protects us from natural predators—except for other humans, that is. So what kind of evolution might help us survive in these dangerous times?I thought about this question, and I didn’t like the answers. I suppose the way to survive in a country that fears difference is to repress difference—to look, and to become, more like the people in charge. The way to survive in a capitalist system that values profits above mutual aid is to become greedier. But surviving like this feels like a de-evolution. It’s the opposite of progress.” 

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

1415: Elephants Born Without Tusks by Alison C. Rollins

Today’s poem is by R.A. Villanueva. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is one about parents and children, bedtime fears, and the ways we communicate love and safety. It references a lyric from a song I love: ‘Not Strong Enough’ by the band boygenius.”

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

1414: This dark is the same dark as when you close by R.A. Villanueva

Today’s poem is On Proliferation by Cass Donish. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “As a poet, I think one of my personal stages of grief is writing. When I experience deep loss, there is a part of me that needs to try to articulate that loss. I wouldn’t say that writing about loss is healing; writing doesn’t restore who or what’s been lost. There are distances we can’t cross, things we can’t fully understand. But we try, with language. And there is honor in the trying.” 

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

1413: On Proliferation by Cass Donish

Today’s poem is Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story) by Amorak Huey. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem calls itself an ars poetica, a love poem, and a true story. That’s a lot of work for one poem to do—a lot of layers of meaning! But this poet does speak to the precarity of it all: writing, and loving, and living.“ 

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

1412: Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story) by Amorak Huey

Today’s poem is Laura, I Want You Pulling Your Hair Back by Natalie Dunn.

The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes. Today’s episode was originally released on October 17, 2025. 

In this episode, Maggie writes… A big part of loving someone, whether they’re a friend or a family member or someone you’re romantically involved with, is embracing them exactly as they are. Not hoping they’ll change, or waiting for them to change, or—worst of all—trying to change them yourself.” 

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

[encore] 1376: Laura, I Want You Pulling Your Hair Back by Natalie Dunn

Today’s poem is /’mīgrent/ by Tiana Nobile.

The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes. Today’s episode was originally released on September 2, 2025. 

In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem looks at the word migrant and its meaning apart from the current political climate. Movement from place to place, after all, suggests possibility, opportunity, and AGENCY. To migrate, whether you can fly or not, is to be free.” 

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

[encore] 1343: /’mīgrent/ by Tiana Nobile

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

The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes.

Today’s episode was originally released on October 7, 2025. 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

1413: On Proliferation by Cass Donish

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