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.
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 4, 2025 • 6min
[encore] 664: Prayer Beginning with a Line by Czaykowski by Pablo Piñero Stillmann
Today’s poem is Prayer Beginning with a Line by Czaykowski by Pablo Piñero Stillmann. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on April 29, 2022.In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Today’s poem is that kind of prayer, a prayer for pleasure, for the brief moment of relief, to be made whole again. In this poem’s repetition we hear the desperation, but also the song.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jul 3, 2025 • 6min
[encore] 677: Practicing by Ciona Rouse
Today’s poem is Practicing by Ciona Rouse. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on May 18, 2022. In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “I’ve always been interested in how we plan for the future. I try to put a little money away now and again for a rainy day as they say. I try to imagine future scenarios to see if I am prepared. But if the last three years have taught me anything, it’s that I cannot be prepared for all the scenarios. Life is full of terrific… and terrifying surprises. I never know what’s coming next. I can only be here at this moment and try to be somewhat flexible.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jul 2, 2025 • 5min
[encore] 541: Little Grey Dreams by Angelina Weld Grimké
Today’s poem is Little Grey Dreams by Angelina Weld Grimké. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on November 9, 2021. In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Today’s meaningful poem by early 20th century poet Angelina Weld Grimké is a tribute to dreaming, the wishes we send into the world without an idea of what will become of them.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jul 1, 2025 • 5min
[encore] 617: Places With Terrible Wi-Fi by J. Estanislao Lopez
Today’s poem is Places With Terrible Wi-Fi by J. Estanislao Lopez. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on February 23, 2022. In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Hiding has gotten so much harder these days. Growing up, I could hide by the creek or in the branches of a shrub. In high school, I could hide behind the dumpsters, or in the creek, or by the tennis courts. In college, I could hide by Greenlake or by Gasworks Park, or in the arboretum.But now, there is a little machine in my pocket that is always on. And you can always find me. How can we ever hide if we attach ourselves to these little machines that are hellbent on finding us? Today’s poem ponders what it is to be without the internet, and what it means to not have access to the constant buzz of the world. What comes is a reminder of what’s sacred.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jun 30, 2025 • 5min
[encore] 710: Acknowledgments by Nkosi Nkululeko
Today’s poem is Acknowledgments by Nkosi Nkululeko. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on July 4, 2022. In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Today’s poem is an exploration of shouting out ourselves and our community. I love how this poem makes room for complicated praise.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jun 27, 2025 • 7min
[encore] 463: To be of use by Marge Piercy
Today’s poem is To be of use by Marge Piercy.The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on September 2, 2020. In this episode, Tracy writes… “I am alive in 21st Century America. I have a voice. Let it serve as a corrective to the violent and reckless power that stands against the force of love.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jun 26, 2025 • 6min
[encore] 403: The Book of Genesis by Morgan Parker
Today’s poem is The Book of Genesis by Morgan Parker.The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on June 10, 2020. In this episode, Tracy writes…”Today's poem is by Morgan Parker. Parker's poems fill me with joy for the ways they ponder and bear witness to the experience of blackness.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jun 25, 2025 • 6min
[encore] 387: Stop Looking At My Last Name Like That by Michael Torres
Today’s poem is Stop Looking At My Last Name Like That by Michael Torres.The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on May 19, 2020. In this episode, Tracy writes… “Rationally speaking, I know that another person’s bigoted thinking is their problem, not mine. But it’s hard to leave it at that. It’s hard to accept that sometimes my race causes another person to jump to conclusions about what I know or have or deserve… and what I don’t.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jun 24, 2025 • 6min
[encore] 448: Telephone of the Wind by Eddie Kim
Today’s poem is Telephone of the Wind by Eddie Kim.The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on August 12, 2020.In this episode, Tracy writes… “Today’s poem takes me back to the time when telephones and the distances they allowed us to cross were monumental.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Jun 23, 2025 • 5min
[encore] 377: Moon Pull by Carlina Duan
Today’s poem is Moon Pull by Carlina Duan.The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on May 5, 2020. In this episode, Tracy writes… “I love the way today's poem lays claim to the moon and all it represents.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
