The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

A reflection on aging, body acceptance, and the liberating pleasure of becoming less self-conscious. Danusha Laméris’s vivid poem unfolds beside a beach bonfire, where a woman undresses, sings opera, and enters the sea. Its imagery explores freedom, desire, ritual, and the body’s fierce longing to break beyond its limits.

Sensory memories unfold through chlorine, sunscreen, campfire smoke, perfume, and a Donna Summer song. Amy Gerstler’s poem listens for melody in air raid sirens, household sounds, radio static, silence, and imagined transmissions from the living and dead. A reflection on how noise becomes music, and how sound invites us to create meaning.

David Duchovny, the actor, writer, director, and musician known for The X-Files and Californication, reflects on John Berryman’s “Dream Song 1.” He recalls discovering the poem in high school and explores tortured form, language and consciousness, creative freedom, poetic attention, lost innocence, guilt, and the strange feeling that something is wrong.

David Duchovny, the actor, writer, director, and musician known for The X-Files and Californication, reflects on John Berryman’s “Dream Song 1.” He explores the poem’s tortured form, the freedom within meter and rhyme, and poetry as concentrated attention. Duchovny considers Henry’s fall from innocence, leaving childhood’s Eden, and the mysterious guilt that can shadow a life.

Today’s poem is Crossing the Line by E. Ethelbert Miller. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem reads to me like a love poem, a tribute, to a long friendship. It reminds me that part of how we know ourselves is through the people who know us best, and who have loved us through our changes.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Earth Shovel by Dan Albergotti. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem, which looks at the fragility of our planet, begins with two epigraphs. One is from American astronomer Carl Sagan, from his book Pale Blue Dot. The other is the famous line from politician Michael Steele.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

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

Today’s poem is at the baggage claim in JFK by Lo Naylor. This episode was originally released on April 24, 2026.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 today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Hackberry by Cecily Parks. This episode was originally released on January 29, 2026.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is a kind of love poem—to a beloved tree, and to the sense of home it created.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Panegyric by Leila Farjami. This episode was originally released on July 28, 2026.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Poems that engage with war and grief are texts that communicate to us in ways that news articles about war, and loss, and grief cannot. An article might tell us what happened, who died, how many casualties there were. It should provide facts as to who, what, where, when, and how. It might even attempt the why. But a poem sings to us. A poem sits with us. Holds us, even.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate