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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 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 Song of Songs of Songs of Songs by Jeremy Radin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is one of my favorite kinds of poems—a list. And not any list, but a list of similes. This poet builds bridge after bridge, line after line. Don’t worry—I won’t give you homework, but maybe, just maybe, after listening to this poem, you’ll be inspired to make a list of your own. I wonder what bridges you might build.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1356: The Song of Songs of Songs of Songs by Jeremy Radin

Today’s poem is Rancho Bar by Margot Kahn. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem looks, tenderly, at two siblings attempting to close the distance between them. The poem is made even more poignant by the fact that its setting, a bar in California, has since burned down in a wildfire.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1355: Rancho Bar by Margot Kahn

Today’s poem is Checkout by Caroline Bird. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’m willing to bet that no one on their death bed says, “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” No one, taking stock of their life in those final days and moments, is thinking about spreadsheets or profits or ROI - Return on Investment. I can imagine what I’ll be thinking about at the end of my life: my beloveds, and the beauty of this place I’ve called home, and the memories I treasure most.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1354: Checkout by Caroline Bird

Today’s poem is Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem invites us to look at ourselves at this moment of extreme, ongoing gun violence in America. And to think about our own responses, time after time after time.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

1353: Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones

Today’s poem is Mantle by Kevin Young. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s minimalist poem makes a poignant observation about the images of those who silently populate our homes, offices, museums, and walls. Their presence is our eventual destination.” 

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

1329: Mantle by Kevin Young

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