The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 31, 2025 • 4min
1322: [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings
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
Mar 28, 2025 • 6min
1321: The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data by Heather Christle
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
Mar 27, 2025 • 6min
1320: mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton
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
Mar 26, 2025 • 6min
encore [902]: Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo
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
Mar 25, 2025 • 9min
1319: The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky
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
Mar 24, 2025 • 6min
1318: Desert Sayings by Donovan McAbee
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
Mar 21, 2025 • 6min
1317: Grinning in Sardinia by Tomás Q. Morín
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
Mar 20, 2025 • 6min
1316: Portrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship Exam by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva
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
Mar 19, 2025 • 6min
encore [1224]: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel
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
Mar 18, 2025 • 6min
1315: Milestone 2 (We Laugh About the Weather, Its Permanence) by Divya Victor
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
