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PODCAST

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Eliana Benavides

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

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All Episodes

5:34

1288: A Drink in the Night by Deborah Garrison

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/02/05

Today’s poem is A Drink in the Night by Deborah Garrison. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem captures a scene between a parent and child that feels both familiar and miraculous. I love that poems are a place where the everyday and the transcendent can live side by side. Because they live side by side in life, too. There’s wonder everywhere, even in the tiniest, most banal moments. We just have to open our eyes to see it—or, as

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5:52

1287: Astronomers Locate a New Planet by Matthew Olzmann

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/02/04

Today’s poem is Astronomers Locate a New Planet by Matthew Olzmann. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem does something I admire a great deal, which is to bring two unexpected things together: a scientific discovery of a new planet, and the issue of marriage rights."Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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4:55

1286: Reasons to Live by Ruth Awad

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/02/03

Today’s poem is Reasons to Live by Ruth Awad. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “I know hope can be a tough sell when there’s so much suffering in the world. It’s easier to notice what’s wrong with the world instead of what’s right. But in especially difficult times, we have to look harder for the light. It’s there. Even if it’s small, or flickering, or hard to see from a distance, the light is always there.” Celebrate the power of poems with

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6:20

1277: Self-Portrait as Kendrick Lamar, Laughing to...

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/21

Today’s poem is Self-Portrait as Kendrick Lamar, Laughing to the Bank by Ashanti Anderson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "I first read today’s poem as the rap battle of the summer, arguably of the century, played out between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. This helped me understand again the relationship between hip-hop and poetry. Wit and insinuation are vital elements of our culture." Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every

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6:32

1276: To Be Longing by Elizabeth Willis

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/20

Today’s poem is To Be Longing by Elizabeth Willis. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem explores the situation of writing ourselves out of fixed meanings that confine us to labels, to disempowering social and political realities." Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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6:05

1275: Love Language by Angela Narciso Torres

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/17

Today’s poem is Love Language by Angela Narciso Torres. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Why do we need to know how much we are loved? In a way, aren’t we asking how thick is the shield of affection that protects us from the world, maybe even from ourselves?” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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5:55

1274: Ennui by Luis G. Dato

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/16

Today’s poem is Ennui by Luis G. Dato. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem critiques the relentless, psychic demands of an inscrutable world, yet, too, encourages a side-ways road to tranquility, a way that we might secure a meaningful freedom.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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6:02

1273: Sorrow Ghazal by Mary Elder Jacobsen

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/15

Today’s poem is Sorrow Ghazal by Mary Elder Jacobsen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem is a loving exchange that underscores the importance of giving room for what makes those we love different from us, even if we wish to change them.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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5:53

1272: The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/14

Today’s poem is The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Treat poetry like a rollercoaster. You may not know the laws of physics, but it does not prevent you from enjoying the ride. Poetry values ambiguity and it is okay not to know all of its layers.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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6:19

1271: Refuge by Nehassaiu deGannes

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/13

Today’s poem is Refuge by Nehassaiu deGannes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s formally rich poem positions gardening as a powerful means of holding on to one’s culture, to one’s culinary identity in a new land.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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5:48

1269: Grace by Orlando Ricardo Menes

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/09

Today’s poem is Grace by Orlando Ricardo Menes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I believe in grace, which arrives from a sacred belief that all of us are deserving of it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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5:01

1268: The Pacific by Jennifer Jean

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/08

Today’s poem is The Pacific by Jennifer Jean. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “What I appreciate in today’s poem is the speaker’s indomitable outlook that echoes my grandparents’ optimistic spirit, especially in the face of deprivation and difficulty. Today’s poem lands on what is both a beautiful notion and a pragmatic belief: that even in our states of lack, we still live a miraculous existence, where love and natural beauty abound.” Celebrate the power of

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5:19

1267: What the Body Gives Away by Saba Keramati

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/07

Today’s poem is What the Body Gives Away by Saba Keramati. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I like to believe that my senses are open as I take in music, food, travel, new adventures, new friends. I like to think poetry makes me extrasensory. But, then again, my wife would argue I spend too much time in my head, thinking my life away. I enjoy how today’s poem makes it a goal to be keenly aware, intuitive, and innate.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift

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5:04

1266: Echo by Christina Rossetti

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/06

Today’s poem is Echo by Christina Rossetti. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem calls back to a deceased beloved, to return to this side of existence, to traverse the layers of time — an incantation that wishes to reunite us with the bliss we once knew.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

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5:48

[encore] 1006: Something Sweet by Hannah Lowe

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/03

Today’s poem is Something Sweet by Hannah Lowe. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on November 24, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, a sonnet, holds the truth that the world is capable of awakening us out of our petrified states. We can be charmed back into our bodies and repaired, so that we

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5:47

[encore] 1032: Counting, This New Year’s Morning,...

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2025/01/01

Today’s poem is Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me by Jane Hirshfield. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on January 1, 2024.In this episode, Major writes… “The clocks have struck another year. Soon, I will box up and archive 2023 in the mental basement of my mind, although I'm

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6:36

[encore] 908: After the Farm was Sold to FedEx by...

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2024/12/26

Today’s poem is After the Farm was Sold to FedEx by Carlie Hoffman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on June 27, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “Often, nostalgia can look like that woodblock key handed to us at the interstate rest stop. It opens a door, but the past is really a little room and kind of

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5:04

[encore] 1122: Childhood by David Baker

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2024/12/25

Today’s poem is Childhood by David Baker. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on May 21, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “I enjoy today’s poem immensely for how it makes its opening comparison, then leads us to the sweet conclusion, one about an experience we all share. Yet, it individualizes through the

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6:57

[encore] 1022: Two Shadows by Maurice Manning

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2024/12/24

Today’s poem is Two Shadows by Maurice Manning. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on December 18, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “I want someone in my daughter’s life who will sing to her when she is most full of doubts and uncertainties, when storms inevitably arrive. Today’s poem gorgeously

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6:21

[encore] 1163: Voice Clear As by Kemi Alabi

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily ·

2024/12/23

This episode was originally released on July 17, 2024. Today’s poem is Voice Clear As by Kemi Alabi.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Long ago, I knew I needed a new conception of heaven. The one with pearly white gates and winged angels from my youth in church just wasn’t working for me. I mean, I get clouds and blue skies as symbols of ascension from earthly plains. And it wasn’t just in church — heaven was everywhere, in museums and in movies, too. But

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