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
1330: Playback by Lauren Camp
4/10/2025
Today’s poem is Playback by Lauren Camp.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I used to believe great art emerged from intense passion, a committed discipline driven by a purity of purpose. Of late, I use the word hunger as a measure of art, as an aesthetic value. Hunger as that inexplicable quality that conveys the artist’s works as their unique form of living, how they breathe where creation is existence.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:53
1329: Mantle by Kevin Young
4/9/2025
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
Duration:00:05:13
1328: Forge by Ethel Rackin
4/8/2025
Today’s poem is Forge by Ethel Rackin.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem reminds me, in the midst of rapid changes and the assault on freedoms, that we must find ways to protect our health and each other, to harness our capacity for joy, to shore up our hearts, minds, and bodies.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:43
1327: Gertrude: In the Rooms by Kate Daniels
4/7/2025
Today’s poem is Gertrude: In the Rooms by Kate Daniels.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Given the challenges we face on the daily, it is human for us to seek out those who seem to have it figured out, be they mentors or people who we think of in the face of some crisis. When faced with any crucial decision, my friend Salvatore frequently utters, ‘What would such and such do?’ However, what happens when even our role models lose clarity, when the world is bereft of understanding?”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:47
1326: The Slowdown Live
4/4/2025
Today’s episode was recorded live onstage at The Crawford in Pasadena, in partnership with our friends at LAist. Listen to hear conversation, poems, and some fun and games with our host Major Jackson and our guests Pádraig ÓTuama, Samiya Bashir, and Jason Schneiderman.
The full episode transcript is available on our website at slowdownshow.org.
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
Duration:01:26:14
1325: Flame by C.D. Wright
4/3/2025
Today’s poem is Flame by C.D. Wright.
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 catalogs the chaos of disaster, forming a portrait of the speaker’s experience, minute observation by minute observation.
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
Duration:00:03:59
1324: Why I Write Poetry by Major Jackson
4/2/2025
Today’s poem is Why I Write Poetry by Major Jackson.
In this episode, Major shares an important announcement.
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
Duration:00:07:34
1323: The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson
4/1/2025
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
Duration:00:05:42
1322: [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings
3/31/2025
Today’s poem is [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings.
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 explores our subjectivity, exposing the beauty and the ridiculousness in our impermanence.
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
Duration:00:04:04
1321: The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data by Heather Christle
3/28/2025
Today’s poem is The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data by Heather Christle.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Some might call it fantastical, but in fact, for many, magic is our orientation, or the place where we began as children and never experienced the rupture that befalls most when they become adults.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today.
Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:21
1320: mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton
3/27/2025
Today’s poem is mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “American poetry gently mediates our rich and complicated history. It points the way to healing and affirms timeless values that secure all Americans' freedoms.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:45
encore [902]: Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo
3/26/2025
Our episode today is one of many from the archives. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new poetry and reflection!
Today’s poem is Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, an homage to poet Robert Hass, suggests one possible way of retaining is to live in the music of our existence, where memories though fleeting and at our peripheries, still carry indulgences of delight.”
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
1319: The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky
3/25/2025
Today’s poem is The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I hear in today’s poem a spirit of riffing and casting forward in expressive notes. The speaker progresses by way of shifts and variations that ultimately arrives like a jazz solo. It’s where I find solace in movement and truth, in an embrace of simplicity.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:08:36
1318: Desert Sayings by Donovan McAbee
3/24/2025
Today’s poem is Desert Sayings by Donovan McAbee.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s uproarious poem makes me want to abandon our life of chatter. To throw off our overly scheduled existence. I want to wake up to truths that can only be gleaned when I fade-out sequentially every duty that impresses upon me as needing to get done.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:39
1317: Grinning in Sardinia by Tomás Q. Morín
3/21/2025
Today’s poem is Grinning in Sardinia by Tomás Q. Morín. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “Writing is mining. That’s what I tell students or anyone that aspires to give expression to their lives. It’s probably why the Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, is credited with inventing language. So much of writing is digging into the past, is going in further to find words that shape our understanding of the irrational before we lose hold.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:06:02
1316: Portrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship Exam by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva
3/20/2025
Today’s poem is Portrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship Exam by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “With watery eyes, Mrs. Kumar shared the feelings of being in a room full of people with different histories and cultures, all raising their hands together, in unison, giving voice to a shared belief in the freedoms espoused by their new country. Her story is but one of many. Today’s poem tells another story of a path to citizenship. Such stories deepen my appreciation for the principle of ‘We, the people.’”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Duration:00:05:51
encore [1224]: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel
3/19/2025
Our episode today is one of many from the archives. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new poetry and reflection!
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
1315: Milestone 2 (We Laugh About the Weather, Its Impermanence) by Divya Victor
3/18/2025
Today’s poem is Milestone 2 (We Laugh About the Weather, Its Impermanence) by Divya Victor. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “I wish us not to slide over each other’s lives, but there are limits to becoming too familiar. What if the conversation is not well-intentioned, but packed with assumptions, or worse? I thought as much reading today’s poem, one where the speaker themself is silent, subject not only to a barrage of trapping questions, but also to the weight of their own journey.”
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
1314: If we had known, by Marissa Davis
3/17/2025
Today’s poem is If we had known, by Marissa Davis. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “I love how nature disrupts the important goings-on of humans, how it forces us to grind to a halt and makes us one with our environs. We are smart to heed its signs.”
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
1313: A Little Slice of Heaven by Jaswinder Bolina
3/14/2025
Today’s poem is A Little Slice of Heaven by Jaswinder Bolina. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… “What breaks through the impenetrable folly of it all? What lends itself as miraculous in the dailiness of our lives? The magic sprouting of a bed of daffodils in spring time, a sculpture made from black twizzlers that the artist intricately wove together into a font of wonder, or the breathtaking smile of a friend that is all the gardens you ever gazed at. Sometimes, just sometimes, someone will utter a phrase that sends us reeling inward, that seems off the grid of the unexpected, that lifts us above the quotidian. Likely, just likely, this is the work of poetry.”
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