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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 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 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

1363: Notes on Beachgrass by Yong-Yu Huang

Today’s poem is For You Who Have Loved Old Dogs by Silas House. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “My Boston terrier, Phoebe, is about to turn eleven, so if she were a human, she’d be a 77 year old woman. If Phoebe were one of the Golden Girls, she’d probably be Rose: quirky, loyal, a little dim-witted. We adopted her from a Boston terrier rescue organization when she was one and a half, in the spring of 2016. When people assumed that the best thing to happen to me in 2016 was my poem “Good Bones” going viral, I have to correct them. “Good Bones” changed my life, to be sure, but the best thing to happen to me that year was Phoebe. As she grows older—silver muzzle now, too—I get emotional when I’m reminded that my years with her are limited. We only have so much time.” 

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

1362: For You Who Have Loved Old Dogs by Silas House

Today’s poem is Earth, Sometimes I Try to Play It Casual, by Catherine Pierce. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Maggie writes… “I have zero chill when it comes to the natural world. My son and daughter would probably tell you I’m like a little kid: I gasp audibly at the clouds, the moon, the light coming through the leaves of trees. I shout “hawk!” when I see one on a walk or in the car. I take videos of hummingbirds in my neighbor’s mimosa tree and text them to people I care about. I call the albino squirrels in my neighborhood by name: Sugar (rest in peace), Flour, and Cloud. I’m delighted by what I see and hear and experience, and I don’t try to hide or downplay that delight. Why play it cool?”

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

1361: Earth, Sometimes I Try to Play It Casual, by Catherine Pierce

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

1360: Wind, Blue Sky by Susan Aizenberg

Today’s poem is Lotioning My Mother’s Back by Ama Codjoe. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The world feels like a hard place right now—a not very soft and tender place. In times that feel difficult, it’s tempting to retreat, to harden ourselves, to “numb out.” But I think, more and more, that tenderness is what we need—toward one another, and toward ourselves. We need touch. We need connection. We need soft places to land. We need to hold on to one another.”

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

1359: Lotioning My Mother’s Back by Ama Codjoe

Today’s poem is Parts of a Body House by Erika Meitner. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It struck me recently how much technology has changed our relationships with our bodies. There are devices that tell us how well (or poorly) we slept the night before, how many steps we took in a given day, what our heart rate is when we work out. We have access to more data about our physical selves than ever, and we don’t even need to go to the doctor to get that data. We also have access to our own image more than ever before. I know that technology has made me more aware of my body and my face, because I see myself so often: on Zoom, on Facetime, in selfies.”

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

1358: Parts of a Body House by Erika Meitner

Today’s poem is Country Night by Laura Newbern. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem touched me because it made me think of my grandmother. It made me think of her care, but also about the life she had after her marriage ended. I know her life didn’t look the way she’d expected it would. I wish it had been easier. Still, she could whistle like a songbird.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1357: Country Night by Laura Newbern

Today’s poem is The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson. 

Last week, our team attended the 2025 AWP Conference in Los Angeles. AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs — the conference is an annual moment to gather together colleagues across the writer world. This week’s episodes include audio we recorded onsite, bringing together many voices, Slowdown style. 

Today’s poem, by Los Angeles’ most recent poet laureate, begins with one of the city's most famous mysteries — and goes on to consider reclaiming the stories of women in this land of reinvention.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. 

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

1323: The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson

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