The Slowdown

“I'm willing to bet that no one on their death bed says, 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.' No one taking stock of their life in those final days and moments is thinking about spreadsheets or profits or ROI," Maggie shares in today's encore. Read Checkout by Caroline Bird: bit.ly/3ULs9Ai

This time of year can feel overwhelming. There’s a lot competing for our attention ... a lot of noise. So we're so happy to be back in your feeds with new episodes starting next Monday, Nov. 2. Join @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social each weekday to take a moment to listen, discover, and reflect.

“Today's poem speaks to how we all see the world — and our lives — with completely unique eyes. With a vision colored by our own experiences,” Maggie shares in today's encore episode. Read Blue by Jodie Hollander and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/3UgTR7U 📖: @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social

“Today's poem walloped me with its authentic intelligence. Even in her grief, this poem's speaker envisions her situation from a different perspective," Maggie shares in today's encore episode. Read The Happy Middle by Hedgie Choi and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/4Bt4ghy

“Today's poem unpacks some of what happens when families change, because of death or divorce or other upheavals," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read Real Estate by Richard Siken: bit.ly/4zE52Gw

“Today's poem is a persona poem from the point of view of a Hindu goddess, Sati," Maggie shares in today's encore episode. "I think you'll be moved by what she has to say." Read Sati by Vandana Khanna and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/3UgO7Ll

“Today's poem speaks to the things we are drawn to, and to the compromises that must happen when we share space with others, and when there just isn't room for everything," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read Arrangements by Adrienne Chung: bit.ly/4ekgJdk

“To me, this poem is about the power of community, and the necessity of friendship for our collective survival, collective freedom, and collective joy," Maggie shares in today's encore episode. Read Cento Between the Ending and the End by Cameron Awkward-Rich: bit.ly/482YUfc

"[Memories] are our mental holey sweaters," Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff shares in today's extended version of a very special episode of The Slowdown. "We wear them around, they slowly disintegrate, but we are proud to wear them." Read "Holes" by Eileen Myles: bit.ly/4zIbUD3

We've been chatting with friends of the show who know a thing or two about slowing down. Today’s guest host is Hurray for the Riff Raff's Alynda Segarra reading "Holes" by Eileen Myles. "[It's] heroic, erotic, modern, mythological, absurd, sentimental, and gut-wrenchingly real." bit.ly/4sb8mGP

"Today's poem so beautifully addresses the importance of holding onto joy — and onto one another — when the world feels dismal," @maggiesmithpoet shares in today's encore episode. Read “And Then It Was Less Bleak Because We Said So” by Wendy Xu and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4jgPTpU

“The 'Choose Your Own Adventure' aspect of life is something on my mind a lot," Maggie shares in today's encore episode. "I suspect it was on this poet’s mind, too." Read “Wind-Related Ripple in the Wheatfield” by Mikko Harvey: bit.ly/3VLQAxI 📖: @houseofanansi.bsky.social

“Today’s poem looks at the anxiety and the absurdity of America: How many people seem fixated on the dangers outside our borders without acknowledging the dangers within,” Maggie shares in today’s encore episode. Read “Are you bringing fruits, plants, seeds,” by Karen Llagas : bit.ly/3WmUr4r

"Oftentimes we see writing as a reflection of society, when really writing is where we bend society," guest host @rkrelentless.bsky.social shares in today's extended version of a very special episode of The Slowdown. Read "They/Them" by Danez Smith and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4yFBqsf

During our break, we've been chatting with some friends of our show who know a thing or two about slowing down. Today’s episode is guest hosted by @rkrelentless.bsky.social — an NFL legend, writer, and social justice advocate. Read "They/Them" by Danez Smith: bit.ly/4jMLlrm

“Today's poem captures that feeling when you've just HAD it — you've absolutely hit your limit. But at the same time, you realize that you're the only person who can pick yourself back up," Maggie shares in today's encore episode. Read “New York Address” by Linda Gregg: bit.ly/4i61J54

“You’ll want to listen to this poem more than once, letting it lap at you like water, letting it rise around you like smoke from a beach bonfire, letting it sing to you like an aria,” @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore. Read “Bonfire Opera” by Danusha Laméris: bit.ly/3TDJP0k

“Today’s poem is a celebration of sound, and also a celebration of our own power to interpret sound and make meaning — as poets do," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today’s encore episode. Read “Étude” by Amy Gerstler and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4yzCgaf

"We can focus on love and focus on positives, but the fact is we're living in time, and things are being stripped away from us constantly," guest host David Duchovny shares on today's very special episode. Read "Dream Song 1" by John Berryman and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4xW5f6Y

“Today’s poem ... 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,” @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "Crossing the Line" by E. Ethelbert Miller: bit.ly/4rHy6KE

"Today's poem, which looks at the fragility of our planet, begins with two epigraphs," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social explains in today's encore episode. Read “Earth Shovel” by Dan Albergotti — from CANDY (@lsupress.bsky.social) — and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/46Q4ukO

"Today’s poem speaks to the ways we can care for one another, and of how profound and meaningful even the smallest gestures are,” shares host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today’s encore episode. Read “Lotioning My Mother’s Back” by Ama Codjoe: bit.ly/3ViKjJE 📖: @milkweededitions.bsky.social

"There are so many beautiful moments in airports, if you pay attention," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read “at the baggage claim at JFK” by @lonaylor.bsky.social and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/3TrImdb

"Today's poem is a kind of love poem — to a beloved tree, and to the sense of home it created," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "Hackberry" by Cecily Parks, from THE SEEDS (@alicejamesbooks.bsky.social): bit.ly/4hLEqNK

"One of the best arguments for what poetry can do, what it's for, how it can serve us, is that poetry says the unsayable," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read “Panegyric” by Leila Farjami, from DAUGHTER OF SALT: bit.ly/4yRqrM2 📖: @triohousepress.org

"Today's poem reminds me to feel tenderness toward the earlier versions of me," Maggie shares in today's encore episode. Read "How to Dress a Star" by Nicholas Goodly, from STAR POWER (Scribner Books), and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4hEFByu

“Today’s poem is a celebration of creatures we tend to overlook or even disdain. It invites us to reconsider our perspective,” shares @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today’s encore episode. Read “I Find Myself Defending Pigeons” by Keith S. Wilson: bit.ly/4AhN3XG 📖: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

“I so admire how this poet unfolds the narrative then leaves me sighing deeply at the end," shares @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today’s encore episode. Read "Six Hours Lost, Land Between the Lakes" by Kathleen Driskell: bit.ly/46pUxdD

"Today's poem captures the experience of dining alone so beautifully," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read “The New City” by Hieu Minh Nguyen, from STAYING STILL (@tinhouse.bsky.social): bit.ly/4xU1rUt

"This poet does speak to the precarity of it all: writing, and loving, and living," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story)" by @amorak.bsky.social: bit.ly/4h6VFYt

"Once upon a time, I was a new mother with a baby girl in my arms, and I was her whole world," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind" by J. Hope Stein and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4haVYlb

"To make things that don't exist yet ... and to send them out into the world is wildly, impractically, gorgeously hopeful," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "The plum you're going to eat next summer” by @gaylebrandeis.bsky.social: bit.ly/4yCIF45

“Today’s poem considers how we regard ourselves—our physical selves. It’s a poem I love, a poem that I see a lot of beauty in,” host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today’s encore episode. Read “Parts of a Body House” by Erika Meitner (@rika99.bsky.social): bit.ly/4yoBuMy

"When I was young, the myth of Icarus was one that captured my imagination," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. "Today's poem references this myth — this cautionary tale — in beautiful, unexpected ways." Read "If Night You Were a City" by Adam Wiedewitsch: bit.ly/4ykGou6

“Today’s poem is by one of my favorite Kentucky writers, a fellow dog person,” host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today’s encore episode. Read “For You Who Have Loved Old Dogs" by @silashouse.bsky.social and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4gPxPjK

“Today’s poem is from a collection of prose poems that chronicles a woman’s journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder, from childhood into adulthood," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read “Protection Spell Jar" by Cynthia Marie Hoffman: bit.ly/3V1R4iN

"I don’t mean this to sound grim, but I think poetry is like a living wake," guest post Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1586. "Poets sing the songs of everything that matters to them in this life." Read "WHITMAN:" by Larry Levis, from WINTER STARS: bit.ly/4qXpP4W 📖: @upittpress.bsky.social

"[Today's poem] will be read to you in just one voice, my voice, but the title calls it a dialogue," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1585. "I want you to consider, while you’re listening, whom the dialogue might be between." Read “Dialogue on Violence” by Jayne Cortez: bit.ly/4cTXdni

"I love to be alone, but it seems I write the most when I’m feeling lonely in the worst way," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1584. "Today’s poem considers, joyously, the anonymous effect that this dynamic could have." Read "Missed Time" by Ha Jin: bit.ly/3T5dEqd

"Today’s poem is from a recent anthology of new poetry out of Palestine," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1583. Read "Are You Not Tired Yet?" by Mohammad al-Khatib, from YOU MUST LIVE: NEW POETRY FROM PALESTINE: bit.ly/4zTMW4A 📖: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

“Today's poem takes me to [a] specificity of a Washington State public school education: learning the intricacies of salmon, sturgeon, dams, ecology, and electricity,” guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1582. Read “Visitor's Center” by T Bambrick, from VANTAGE: bit.ly/4gu6yoc

"Today’s poem ... bends the shape of thinking by forming a lyric collage," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1581. Read “Stop Thinking & End Your Problems” by Elisa Gabbert, from NORMAL DISTANCE, and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4ybjEN6

“Today’s poem shows us how our desires are about both projection and possession," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1580. Read "Story of My Life” by Jameson Fitzpatrick, from PRICKS IN THE TAPESTRY, and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4cJgGHc

“Loss of possibility is one of the greatest heartbreaks we can face," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1579. "But today’s poem knows the bittersweet secret: that our memories of the possible are ours to keep.” Read "Rain" by Jennifer Grotz, from STILL FALLING: bit.ly/4gxbCqB

"I thought [today's poem] spoke to me because it connects my father’s love of cars to my own love of poetry," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1578. "But ... what it does on a craft level is what knocks me off my feet every time." Read "Lover of Cars" by Olivia Sokolowski: bit.ly/3UTU8gI

"[Today's poem] is a welcome message to the possibility of simple pleasures, despite whatever pain is held in the past," guest host Myka Kielbon shares in episode 1577. Read "Portrait of the Speaker Riding a Greyhound Bus” by Eduardo Martinez-Leyva: bit.ly/3UdIOMs 📖: @uwiscpress.bsky.social

For two weeks starting Monday, 8/24, we'll be joined by a special guest host: lead producer Myka Kielbon. "Selecting poems to share with you feels like creating a cast list for a play ... I so hope you enjoy the journey they will take you on together." Episodes with Maggie return late September!

"Today's poem addresses a child — a child full of questions about the world," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "The Long Now" by Robin Beth Schaer and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4hKEm1g

“Today's poem looks, tenderly, at two siblings attempting to close the distance between them," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's encore episode. Read "Rancho Bar" by Margot Kahn and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4xJRQ20

“I know poetry can’t stop bombs from falling, and it can’t feed the starving, and it can’t evacuate people to safety,” shares @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today’s encore episode. "But poetry can change our inner world." Read “From the Sky” by Sara Abou Rashed: bit.ly/4zpUw6w