The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Make us a part of your routine as you drink coffee in the morning, as you take a walk in nature, or as you wind down to go to sleep in the evening. With host Major Jackson, we collectively take a moment to calm, to inspire, to learn, and to engage with the best emerging poets and established writers of our time and generations past, from Emily Dickinson to Danez Smith, from Amanda Gorman to Mary Oliver.
Listen to our back catalog for episodes by our previous hosts, Tracy K. Smith and Ada Limón, as well as guest hosts Jenny Xie, Brenda Shaughnessy, Tina Chang, Nate Marshall, Shira Erlichiman, and Jason Schneiderman. Our hosts and production team select poems that move them, and we hope they move you, too.
Location:
United States
Genres:
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Networks:
American Public Media
Description:
Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Make us a part of your routine as you drink coffee in the morning, as you take a walk in nature, or as you wind down to go to sleep in the evening. With host Major Jackson, we collectively take a moment to calm, to inspire, to learn, and to engage with the best emerging poets and established writers of our time and generations past, from Emily Dickinson to Danez Smith, from Amanda Gorman to Mary Oliver. Listen to our back catalog for episodes by our previous hosts, Tracy K. Smith and Ada Limón, as well as guest hosts Jenny Xie, Brenda Shaughnessy, Tina Chang, Nate Marshall, Shira Erlichiman, and Jason Schneiderman. Our hosts and production team select poems that move them, and we hope they move you, too.
Language:
English
Episodes
1231: Gala Noise by Diane Mehta
11/4/2024
Today’s poem is Gala Noise by Diane Mehta. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to contemplate how language is not just what is heard, but what is conveyed beneath the surface. Underneath, it sees that we are interconnected with nature, linked to an existential restlessness which leads us to the act of making sounds.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:49
1230: Second Paradise by Chard deNiord
11/1/2024
Today’s poem is Second Paradise by Chard deNiord. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s shrewd poem ardently shows how time shreds memories into a dreamlike sequence of events, yet we are preserved in our stories.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:01
1229: Refugia by Traci Brimhall
10/31/2024
Today’s poem is Refugia by Traci Brimhall. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem knows some environments awaken us daily to the wonders. Maybe that is paradise, a place of first permission to go on loving the world.” '
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:32
1228: Shelf Life by Nathan Xavier Osorio
10/30/2024
Today’s poem is Shelf Life by Nathan Xavier Osorio. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “There’s something sad, sometimes, about taking in all of the country from the fringes. I used to view the highway as a symbol of escape and possibility. Now, I view the road as a complex portal to our great melancholy. Today’s poem exposes a thin veil of desolation on the surface of life. It’s as if we are all waiting for something magical to happen, to lift us out of our collective spiritual anguish.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:50
1227: Genetics by Sinead Morrissey
10/29/2024
Today’s poem is Genetics by Sinead Morrissey. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “The speaker in today’s poem professes an emotional and physical connection to parents who chose to go separate ways. Understanding the power of sacred love, the speaker in the poem invites a beloved to embark on a shared life together.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:42
1226: The Devouring Economy of Nature by Daniel Borzutzky
10/28/2024
Today’s poem is The Devouring Economy of Nature by Daniel Borzutzky. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “I know there is no easy solution to economic inequality. I do wish that we channeled greater energy into figuring out the wealth gap, how to provide sustainable wages to working people. One of the corrupting aspects of our economic system is that it forces us to accept conditions that reduce people and nature.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:14
1225: After Vallejo by A.B. Spellman
10/25/2024
Today’s poem is After Vallejo by A.B. Spellman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Recently, I decided to be responsible and begin the process of creating a trust and establishing a will. I thought it morbid at first. Yet, planning the aftermath of my death empowered me. I don’t know when or where I will die. So having some say in that eventful day for me feels like a lavish gift to myself.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:49
1224: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel
10/24/2024
Today’s poem is Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem begins from the idea that we yearn for connection and healing, but that our conflicts feel irreconcilable — to the point that we do not trust a future free of our trauma, grief, and suffering.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:33
1223: Between You and You by Sham-e-Ali Nayeem
10/23/2024
Today’s poem is Between You and You by Sham-e-Ali Nayeem. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Writing can change the mind for the better. Poems shape our breathing, allow us to enter seas of consciousness that become part of the spontaneous energy of life. The improvised, spirited words in a poem are born out of a body free enough to let go.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:46
1222: Post- by Corey Van Landingham
10/22/2024
Today’s poem is Post- by Corey Van Landingham. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me that life shapes us into authentic beings. Looking behind at our own journey can sometimes cause pain — but it can also liberate us.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:06
1221: Home Movies: A Sort of Ode by Mary Jo Salter
10/21/2024
Today’s poem is Home Movies: A Sort of Ode by Mary Jo Salter. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “With so much of our treasured moments digitized on servers, it seems we’ve lost physical evidence of our lives. Yet, we own thousands more photos of ourselves than our parents and grandparents. Like many, I wonder what will happen to the virtual record of our existence once we depart the earth.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:41
1220: Taking Stock by Elaine Equi
10/18/2024
Today’s poem is Taking Stock by Elaine Equi. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to find the balance between deepening our self-awareness and actually living life. Sometimes our journey means not letting that journey inhibit our sense of fun.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:20
1219: from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell
10/17/2024
Today’s poem is from "Elegy for the Times" by Adonis, translated by Robyn Creswell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “For stateless people, writing poems, taking pictures, composing songs is precarious, but making art happens, nonetheless. Often, it is a counter insistence of one’s presence on earth. Today’s poem is a humanizing statement of profound sorrow borne of conflict and exile.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:08
1218: Vulture by Ted Kooser
10/16/2024
Today’s poem is Vulture by Ted Kooser. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem invites us to attune, to notice, to hear what’s communicated beneath our words and bodies, to read the signs, even if what is heard or seen or felt bears an ominous message.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:40
1217: Abide by Jake Adam York
10/15/2024
Today’s poem is Abide by Jake Adam York. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem sees existence as a fleeting encounter of sublime immensity — one where we intertwine with the natural world, such that we have no other choice, but to awaken to all life around us.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:06
1216: oracle by Duriel E. Harris
10/14/2024
Today’s poem is oracle by Duriel E. Harris. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem intrigues me for how it upholds the possibility of poetry as a terse, sacred voicing that emerges from within, where the inexpressible finds its way to the world as transcendent music, something far more compelling than the language of machines.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:13
1215: The Clearing by Jane Kenyon
10/11/2024
Today’s poem is The Clearing by Jane Kenyon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Dogs have a lot to teach us. Learning to care about the land and people is to live daily in the fullness of existence, such that we come to cherish and love those close to us and beyond.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:31
1214: Grading Rubric by Antonio de Jesús López
10/10/2024
Today’s poem is Grading Rubric by Antonio de Jesús López. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s brilliant poem speaks to the ordeal of enduring racial abuse and microaggressions in educational institutions. It slyly appropriates an academic assessment tool to point out that we are clearly failing in treating each other like whole humans.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:06
1213: Pacific Power & Light by Michael Dickman
10/9/2024
Today’s poem is Pacific Power & Light by Michael Dickman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “The beauty of poetry is its diversity and how it gives us an opportunity to feel language, rather than the poem acting only as a substitute for a Hallmark card or occasion for a punchline.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:07:25
1212: Eureka! by Jessica Abughattas
10/8/2024
Today’s poem is Eureka! by Jessica Abughattas. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “To borrow a phrase, love calls us to the things of this world. But as today’s brilliant poem reminds us, in our search for happiness, we find our worth in relation to our freedom and societal expectations. We learn to self-affirm in our search for joy.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:03