The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Today’s poem is The Plum You're Going to Eat Next Summer by Gayle Brandeis. This episode was originally released on April 10, 2026. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I know optimism can be a tough sell when there’s so much suffering, so much difficulty, in the world. But this brokenness is exactly why we need more poems, more paintings, more films, more plays. More art. To make things that don’t exist yet — and don’t need to exist, because that is the very definition of art — and to send them out into the world is wildly, impractically, gorgeously hopeful.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Parts of a Body House by Erika Meitner. This episode was originally released on September 23, 2025. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It struck me recently how much technology has changed our relationships with our bodies. There are devices that tell us how well (or poorly) we slept the night before, how many steps we took in a given day, what our heart rate is when we work out. We have access to more data about our physical selves than ever, and we don’t even need to go to the doctor to get that data. We also have access to our own image more than ever before. I know that technology has made me more aware of my body and my face, because I see myself so often: on Zoom, on Facetime, in selfies.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is If Night You Were a City by Adam Wiedewitsch. This episode was originally released on March 17, 2026.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’ve always loved myths, legends, fables, and fairy tales. When I was young, the myth of Icarus was one that captured my imagination.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is For You Who Have Loved Old Dogs by Silas House. This episode was originally released on September 29, 2025.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “My Boston terrier, Phoebe, is about to turn eleven, so if she were a human, she’d be a 77 year old woman. If Phoebe were one of the Golden Girls, she’d probably be Rose: quirky, loyal, a little dim-witted. We adopted her from a Boston terrier rescue organization when she was one and a half, in the spring of 2016. When people assumed that the best thing to happen to me in 2016 was my poem “Good Bones” going viral, I have to correct them. “Good Bones” changed my life, to be sure, but the best thing to happen to me that year was Phoebe. As she grows older—silver muzzle now, too—I get emotional when I’m reminded that my years with her are limited. We only have so much time.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman. This episode was originally released on October 14, 2025.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this encore episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is from a collection of prose poems that chronicles a woman’s journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder, from childhood into adulthood. I admire the way we’re invited into the speaker’s consciousness, to see her mind at work.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is WHITMAN: by Larry Levis.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Every year, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs holds a conference in a different American city. A few years ago, when the literary industry descended on Kansas City, a poet I know posted on Instagram that he wanted to go to Charlie Parker’s grave. The pilgrimage was based on a Larry Levis poem. I threw my hat in the ring to join him.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Dialogue on Violence by Jayne Cortez.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “If you’re listening to this episode first thing in the morning or as you go to sleep, looking for something easeful, I should apologize. Today’s poem is not that. It is a grim litany. But I think by naming our harsh reality, it holds out hope for a different world. It will be read to you in just one voice, my voice, but the title calls it a dialogue. I want you to consider, while you’re listening, whom the dialogue might be between.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Missed Time by Ha Jin.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “I love to journal as documentation. To remember what happened in my day-to-day, even the small things I see and feel. I can thus make my own life real to myself. This is something I’ve worked out over time. When I look back at my first blue notebook, the recollections are fragmentary and melodramatic. They hardly make sense as a record. However much I feel a positive value in the process, if I look back at most of my journals, I would think that my life is miserable. Because I often turn to the page when I’m having a tough time, when I have difficult experiences to work through. I love to be alone, but it seems I write the most when I’m feeling lonely in the worst way. Today’s poem considers, joyously, the anonymous effect that this dynamic could have.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Are You Not Tired Yet? by Mohammed al-Khatib.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Though under ceasefire at the time of this recording, Gazans are still living in unimaginably difficult conditions, largely uprooted from their homes and experiencing limited access to resources and information. There has been a massive loss of human life in Palestine in the last three years, making it impossible for anyone to be without personal grief. The awareness of loss and trauma is undeniably constant.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Visitor's Center by T Bambrick.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem takes me back to a specificity of a Washington State public school education: learning the intricacies of salmon, sturgeon, dams, ecology, and electricity. What I didn’t see then, that I see now, is the tension between control and appreciation of the natural world. That our modern lives rely on a system built by lionizing the will of man. The speaker, here, wonders: At what cost?” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

We’re bringing you a preview of the new series from the podcast, Death of An Artist. In February 2024, celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers and her husband, photographer Michael Mathers, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Petra and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they choose to die together? And what did that decision do to the people left to mourn them? Journalists Leon Neyfakh and Alice Gregory set out to interview everyone who got one of Petra and Michael’s letters — as one married couple trying to understand another. Through intimate conversations with Petra and Michael’s friends and family about their own relationships to aging, grief, death, and the friends they thought they knew, Death of an Artist weaves together a portrait of a community grappling with the Mathers’ deaths and the final words they left behind. Done entirely in recordings, Death of an Artist is as much a love story as one about death. Listen to Death of An Artist wherever you get podcasts. And if you want to hear the full story right now, ad-free, you can binge the entire season with a Pushkin+ subscription — sign up on the Death of an Artist show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

Today’s poem is Stop Thinking & End Your Problems by Elisa Gabbert.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “So often my mind feels crowded. Busy. Like a rush hour intersection of internal monologue. I’ve tried lots of strategies. I’m still trying new strategies. Blocking out focus time, tweaking notifications, using restrictions. My favorite strategy is keeping an art book on my desk. When I feel the desire to distract from the onslaught, or when I hit a mental block, I open up the book to a random painting. I don’t stop thinking; I change the shape of my thinking — by looking at art and avoiding words for a moment.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Story of My Life by Jameson Fitzpatrick.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Today’s poem shows us how our desires are about both projection and possession.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Rain by Jennifer Grotz.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “Loss of possibility is one of the greatest heartbreaks we can face. But today’s poem knows the bittersweet secret: that our memories of the possible are ours to keep.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Lover of Cars by Olivia Sokolowski. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “I keep today’s poem taped on my wall. I thought it spoke to me because it connects my father’s love of cars to my own love of poetry. But I realized, in writing this, that what it does on a craft level is what knocks me off my feet every time.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Portrait of the Speaker Riding a Greyhound Bus by Eduardo Martinez-Leyva. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Myka Kielbon writes… “In the seemingly endless spring of 2020, my roommate and I briefly decamped Los Angeles and holed up with her family in Southern Oregon. The town was already quiet during the best of times; that spring, it was even quieter. We plugged away at our desk jobs that we’d taken with us. We knew we were lucky, but still the days felt very long. At the foot of the bed in the room where I slept was a framed photograph of a dinghy in a body of water. The water was still, and the colors were a bit washed out. It was so serene. And still, it was full of potential. The photograph lacked horizon — there was smooth water all the way to each matted edge. And the dinghy was empty, yet equipped with oars.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This encore episode was originally released on April 3, 2026.Today’s poem is from Perihelion: A History of Touch by Franny Choi. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is about the snow moon, the first full moon of February. The explanation behind the name “snow moon” is fairly straightforward: February is often the snowiest month. After reading this quiet stunner of a poem, I was inspired to turn on one of my favorite Nick Drake songs, “Pink Moon.” I highly recommend this poem/song pairing.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This encore episode was originally released on January 20, 2026.Today’s poem is The Long Now by Robin Beth Schaer.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem addresses a child—a child full of questions about the world. It reminds me that as parents, we don’t need to have the answers, and we don’t need to pretend to have them. Instead we can listen, stay open, and honor our kids’ curiosity and wonder. Honor the poets and philosophers that they are.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This encore episode was originally released on September 18, 2026.Today’s poem is Rancho Bar by Margot Kahn.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem looks, tenderly, at two siblings attempting to close the distance between them. The poem is made even more poignant by the fact that its setting, a bar in California, has since burned down in a wildfire.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This encore episode was originally released on February 25, 2026.Today’s poem is Somewhere Else by Adam J. Gellings. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I was born at 4:30 in the afternoon on a cold Sunday in February. All of this is either useless information — time of day, day of the week, month of the year — or it’s part of our own myth-making.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. Today’s encore episode was originally released on February 27, 2026.Today’s poem is Poem about everything except— by Amy Lemmon.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I was drawn to today’s poem from the get-go because of its title: ”Poem about everything except—.” I went in anticipating maximalism — “everything but the kitchen sink,” as the saying goes, and the poem delivered.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. Today’s encore episode was originally released on March 30, 2026.Today’s poem is XII. Southern Constellations by Brandon Kilbourne. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “No matter where I am in the world, no matter what beautiful landscape I might find myself in, no matter what new experience I might be having, I feel the pull of home. I don’t mean home as in place. I mean home as in people.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. Today’s encore episode was originally released on December 4, 2025.Today’s poem is Go by Kathleen Ossip.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Other poems are like strands of pearls, long and lustrous and nearly impossible to gather into your hands all at once.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. Today’s encore episode was originally released on November 3, 2025.Today’s poem is Different Kinds of Sadness by Jenny Molberg.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When I lost my joy, my generous friends were there. It can be so hard to accept help from others, especially if you pride yourself on being self-sufficient, but I took them up on their offers of meals, and company, and advice. And I’m so glad I did, because these things were all lifesaving. All of these things, in their own ways, helped me close some wounds. All, in their own ways, restarted my heart.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

The Slowdown is taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. Today’s encore episode was originally released on March 4, 2026. Today’s poem is Pardon My Heart by Marcus Jackson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “If I had a different kind of heart, a tougher heart, would I be able to see what’s happening in the world around me and not feel so brokenhearted? What would it be like to be able to sleep through the night, unbothered? I can’t imagine feeling less, or caring less. That’s not the heart I have.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is What I Am Telling You, Jessica, Is That Those Chickens Are Fine by K.T. Landon.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Several of our neighbors have backyard coops, and occasionally we’re offered fresh eggs. Unfortunately, the raccoons and possums (and maybe even a fox) have encountered the chickens, too. There are fewer now.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is ode to the afternoon by Zeina Hashem Beck.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “‘Que Sera Sera’ is a song I remember my mother singing when I was small. Which is fitting, as the song opens with these words: ‘When I was just a little girl I asked my mother what will I be.’ I remember part of the chorus well: ‘Que Sera Sera, whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see.’” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Black Fairy Tale by Elizabeth Spires. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When I was old enough, I found my way to the collected Brothers Grimm, but even then I wasn’t quite old enough for the violence I found inside. Cinderella’s sisters butchered their own feet to try to fit into the glass slipper! That bloody plot detail certainly wasn’t in the Disney movie with the cute mice and birds who made Cinderella a dress from fabric scraps.Today’s poem conjures that dark, fantastical world of fairy tales.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Dialogue with the Oldest Tree in the U.S., whose Location is a Closely-Guarded Forest Service Secret by Nina Sudhakar.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I like to think that I’m still growing as a person. That every year I become older, I truly grow older, developing some new part of myself. Conversations about aging so often dwell on preserving what you have when you’re young, about postponing loss. But when I turn to my writing, my poems and prose, I see a body of work that does continue to grow. A body that comes from my physical body, from how my whole being senses and processes the world around me. It continues to grow, even when marked by hardship, by absences, and by loss.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Summer Strawberries by Cat Wei. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “We move through life with so many doors opening and closing all around us. One of the gifts and burdens of being human is being aware of time, and impermanence, and our own mortality. That awareness keeps us grateful for what we have, but it can also make us fearful to lose what we have. Sometimes, as we see in today’s poem, it’s difficult not to wonder if life will go on as expected, and if traditions will continue, or if we’re experiencing the end of an era. But still, there are ways to find presence in the uncertainty.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Guava Jelly by Quinn Franzen.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Sometimes, as we see in today’s poem, even when things are difficult, even just the smallest bit of sweetness helps.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today.Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Wabi-Sabi by Catherine Esposito Prescott. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem invites us to celebrate what is, rather than what could be — so it invites us to accept ourselves exactly as we are.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today.Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Someday by Mary Oliver. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “You have one of our listeners to thank for today’s poem — well, one of our listeners for suggesting it, and the beloved Mary Oliver for writing it.” 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. 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

Today’s poem is Assistance by Abbie Kiefer. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I famously have a brown thumb, as they call it. For as much as I love trees and appreciate flowers when I see them, I haven’t thought to plant and tend to them myself. For as much as I love fresh cucumber and zucchini and herbs, I’ve never planted them. Maybe someday that will change. Maybe someday gardening will call to me and be just what I need. In today’s poem, gardening is exactly what the speaker needs.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is What I Wanted to Keep Private by Melissa Crowe.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I think self-compassion is the most challenging kind of compassion. We are so hard on ourselves, aren’t we? We humans carry around so much guilt and shame. We ruminate about breakups and arguments. We think about the things we said in anger that we wish we could take back. We think about the things we didn’t say and wish we had. We replay the past despite being unable to change it.The speaker of today’s poem confesses something — and in doing so, with self-compassion and self-forgiveness, sets it down.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is bilingual by Mckendy Fils-Aimé. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “You know we love language at The Slowdown. We spend time every weekday celebrating the power of words! And language isn’t just a tool for communication or self-expression, it’s a part of who we are. Language and culture are deeply intertwined. Language connects us to our elders and to previous generations. It connects us to our homeland, no matter how far away it may be. It connects us to our roots.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Young Widow at the Kitchen Window by Donna Spruijt-Metz.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “We know holidays and anniversaries will be difficult: Mother’s Day after you lose your mom, birthdays after your loved one is gone, Thanksgiving with the family around the table and some beloveds missing. We know this pain.But grief isn’t something we can schedule. It’s not reserved for certain days or times. Grief sneaks up on us in the smaller moments. Or, maybe it doesn’t sneak up on us at all, because it’s been with us all along. It may feel like a rogue wave breaking over us, knocking us down, leaving us gasping — but really it’s the water we swim in, day in and day out. That may sound like a dark, depressing thought, but I don’t think of it that way. Grief is with us all the time because love is with us all the time. Grief touches every part of our lives, because love touches every part of our lives. The more you love someone, the more you grieve their absence.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Return Path by Lesley Wheeler.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The multiple repetitions and the circular nature of the villanelle make it a good form for poems that grapple with an insistent memory, an unresolved emotion, or a feeling of being trapped. But the form can be a container for any kind of subject matter in which repetition feels essential. So much of life is repetition, after all, isn’t it? We perform the same actions again and again, day after day. This might sound mundane, but when repetition is reverent, it also forms rituals — repetitions which give our lives meaning. Today’s poem is a villanelle, and its use of the word ‘circuit’ makes the repetition especially apropos.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Listening to Vespertine for Twenty Hours Straight by Derrick Austin.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “If you’re lucky, you have friends who might sense the shift in your emotional weather: the clouds rolling in, the sky darkening. If you’re very lucky, those friends might know what to do without being asked or prompted. They might come over with takeout and offer a listening ear. They might pick you up and take you to the movies or to a concert, to get you out of your bubble. Or maybe they come over and just simply exist with you. Maybe sitting next to you, maybe watching TV, maybe not talking at all, all without expecting you to be cheerful or even sociable. Their presence is calming in itself. Their unconditional love and acceptance, even when you’re not sparkling.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is So Much Space for Song by James Crews. Sharing poetry is a two-way street. So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Today’s selection was submitted by Rekha from Washington, D.C.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Rekha reflects… “Today's poem shows us that we are part of nature. We always tend to think of birds and animals and insects sort of as nature abstracted, but they're just like us.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate.If you’d like to participate in the next round of Community Selections, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll be sending a special Slowdown postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. Subscribe at slowdownshow.org/newsletter.

Today’s poem is Gratification to the survivors of daily damnations by Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi. Sharing poetry is a two-way street. So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Today’s selection was submitted by Abdulmueed from Oyo, Nigeria.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Abdulmueed reflects… “Today's poem is an invitation for you to live more freely. The poem urges us to take a pause in our day-to-day activities to reflect on our lives, to look around us, experience the little things despite all odds.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate.If you’d like to participate in the next round of Community Selections, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll be sending a special Slowdown postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. Subscribe at slowdownshow.org/newsletter.

Today’s poem is Florida Doll Sonnet by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton. Sharing poetry is a two-way street. So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Today’s selection was submitted by J.D. from Texas.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, J.D. reflects… “Today's poem is a cheeky tableau of a grocery store where we get to see what we present to the world, but also what the world presents to us.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate.If you’d like to participate in the next round of Community Selections, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll be sending a special Slowdown postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. Subscribe at slowdownshow.org/newsletter.

Today’s poem is Late Work by Andrés Cerpa. Sharing poetry is a two-way street. So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Today’s selection was submitted by Meghan from Pennsylvania.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Meghan reflects… “Today's poem is determined to be hopeful in a way, and it's a kind of hope that seems to exist among all of it.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donateIf you’d like to participate in the next round of Community Selections, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll be sending a special Slowdown postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. Subscribe at slowdownshow.org/newsletter.

Today’s poem is All Trains Are Going Local by Timothy Liu. Sharing poetry is a two-way street. So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Today’s selection was submitted by Prerna from Assam, India.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Prerna reflects… “Today's poem takes me back to the timelessness of the pandemic. After reading this poem, I started my own little newsletter for my friends, which is named after this poem actually. I started it thinking if nothing else, if I have nothing else going in my life and I forget today from tomorrow, at least there'll be this particular day in the month that I will have to sit down and think, ‘So what did I do last month? What did I listen to? What did I read? What the hell happened to my plants?’” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donateIf you’d like to participate in the next round of Community Selections, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll be sending a special Slowdown postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. Subscribe at slowdownshow.org/newsletter

Today’s poem is Articulation of Solace by Yongyu Chen.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’ve read a lot of books over the years, and some have fundamentally changed not only the way I write but the way I think. I mean books that broke everything wide open for me, showing me possibilities — in form, and in content — that I couldn’t access before. Today’s poem impacted me like those beloved texts, with its jewellike sentences and its use of the field of the page.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Wherever you live, you don’t have to be nice. But please be kind. We need more genuine, altruistic kindness in this world. So, how can you be more kind? By helping others without being performative about it, and without needing recognition. By letting people know you’re thinking of them, by reaching out when you know someone is struggling, and by practicing simple acts of kindness: holding a door open, letting someone go ahead of you in line, offering a sincere compliment. And one more thing: You can take in the wisdom of today’s poem and pass it along.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Nobody's Job by Ronna Bloom.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “We call an ending “resonant” because it does what a bell does: After it’s rung, the vibration lingers. It reverberates. It sticks with you long after you’ve read the piece, humming in your head. Today’s poem is beautiful start to finish, but the ending astonished me. It moved me to tears, which caught me by surprise! If you don’t know this poem, I’m envious that you get to experience it for the first time.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is When you have to remind me to do the dishes by Isaac Pickell.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When I think back to my own upbringing and what I learned from my mother and father, almost none of it has to do with growing up as a girl. I got my work ethic, sense of humor, and sense of fairness from both of them. I remind myself of all of that whenever I wonder if my son is getting what he needs from me. And I remind myself that he has a village around him.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Mother Church No. 3 by Robin Coste Lewis.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It’s incredible to me that less than two hours from my home in the Midwestern suburbs is an enormous ancient earthwork. But that’s the thing about history — it layers on top of itself in unexpected ways. No matter where you live in the United States, you live on land that has long been home to Indigenous people.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support us today. Slowdownshow.org/donate