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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

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 The Beginning by Katherine Gibbel. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I have the worst spring fever every year, because the winters in Ohio are so long and so bleak and gray. When the landscape comes alive and turns green again, I’m nearly drunk with joy. I’m in noticing heaven: ‘Look at the buds on the trees!’ and ‘Breathe in that green smell!’ I don’t even mind that the birds wake me up at four o-clock in the morning with their too-early songs. It’s the best alarm clock.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1504: The Beginning by Katherine Gibbel

Today’s poem is Cloud Hands by Arthur Sze. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem shows us that tai chi is not only meditation in motion, but also metaphor in motion.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1503: Cloud Hands by Arthur Sze

Today’s poem is On My History of Kissing Everyone At Parties by Isabelle Correa. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem was introduced to me by a friend of mine, the playwright and director Moisés Kaufman. If you’ve seen or read The Laramie Project or Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, you know his work. Moisés read this poem to me recently, and it moved me so much — the words themselves, and his face lighting up, and the warmth in his voice as he was taking so much pleasure from each line.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1502: On My History of Kissing Everyone At Parties by Isabelle Correa

Today’s poem is at the baggage claim in JFK by Lo Naylor. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When I’m preparing for a multi-city book tour, I’m not nervous about reading in front of people or answering questions or finding my way around a strange place. I’m nervous about getting where I’m going. And with somewhat regular government shutdowns impacting TSA these days, those nerves aren’t coming from nowhere! But there are so many beautiful moments in airports, if you pay attention: parents comforting children, or occupying them with silly games; couples excited to be going on a trip together; teams of uniformed student athletes traveling to, or from, a big game.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1501: at the baggage claim in JFK by Lo Naylor

Today’s poem is You believed only a girl born of dandelion can be ferocious by Purvi Shah.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Poems are meant to live in the air, to be read aloud, but I also know that form follows function. I want to see the choices the poet made when crafting the piece. Is the poem in couplets, tercets, or sturdy quatrains? Is it in one unbroken stanza with no white space? When I read a poem, knowing that form has the opportunity to enact, or at least reinforce, the content, I learn from the poet’s choices. The stanza shape and length is an opportunity to embody something in the poem, so what did the poet go with? Maybe they chose couplets for a poem about two lovers or a parent and child. Or a prose poem for a piece that is more narrative and casually spoken. Or maybe the poem “explodes” across the field of the page, fragmented and uncontained.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1500: You believed only a girl born of dandelion can be ferocious by Purvi Shah

Today’s poem is Spring in War-Time by Sara Teasdale. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’m sure you’ve also seen the news stories, or at least social media takes, theorizing on the potential for a military draft. I have a son, and surely many of you listening have sons, too. “Operation Epic Fury” is what I feel, as a mother, when I think about men like Trump and Hegseth possibly, someday, sending my son and yours needlessly into harm’s way. Meanwhile, it’s spring. The earth feels set on creating more life. It’s sunny in central Ohio, and the Bradford Pears and the Redbud trees and the Magnolias are blooming. My yard is overrun with violets and dandelions. Later today my son — my only son — will mow it.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1499: Spring in War-Time by Sara Teasdale

Today’s poem is Twenty Questions by Jayrold Trasporte.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is full of questions but doesn’t circle on a single, winning answer. Instead, it finds possibility — and poetry — in the spaces between yes and no.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1498: Twenty Questions by Jayrold Trasporte

Today’s poem is Intaglio by Emma Aylor.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When we hear the word “print’ in regards to a painting, we might think of a copy or duplicate — in other words, not the real thing. There’s Gustav Klimt’s famous painting “The Kiss,” worth millions of dollars, and then there are poster prints of the original, which anyone can buy and hang in their home. Printmaking as a technology began just before the invention of movable type allowed for the mass production of books — in both cases, opening the floodgates of knowledge and ideas. Today, many forms of printmaking are practiced as a craft and as an art. Some printmaking, like intaglio, is used to create both limited-edition art that would hang in a museum or a piece of paper money.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1497: Intaglio by Emma Aylor

Today’s poem is Love Song to the Alpacas of Solomon Lane by Kenzie Allen. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I have a soft spot for poems that center animals, and there are many such poems. I’m thinking about the horse in James Wright’s famous poem, “A Blessing.” I’m thinking about the poor dead goat in Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s poem “Song,” which might just be my favorite poem of all time. (It’s so hard to choose just one!)” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1496: Love Song to the Alpacas of Solomon Lane by Kenzie Allen

Today’s poem is Pathway by Paula Bohince. 

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “What if we saw turning to community not as a sign of weakness, but as a sign of wealth — an acknowledgement that we are so rich with support, so rich with friendship. And beyond that, I think of community as being broader than just people. Isn’t place part of community? The creatures, the landscape, the trees and plants. When I feel grounded in a place, I have a sense of being held. You can see love everywhere if you look closely enough.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1495: Pathway by Paula Bohince

Today’s poem is Smalltown Lift by Brian Blanchfield.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “One of the most challenging things about being in a relationship, especially a new one, is communication. I’ve certainly been guilty of doing what some of you listening have probably done, too: not saying how I feel, not asking for what I want, not being clear in my communication. When we don’t say what’s on our minds, it’s usually out of fear — fear of being rejected, of upsetting the other person, of blowing the whole thing up. You might not share music you love or activities you enjoy if you think they’ll be judged as uncool; you might try to play it safe and not show too much of your true, quirky self.” 

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

1490: Smalltown Lift by Brian Blanchfield

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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