399 episodes
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily American Public Media
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- Arts
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4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
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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.
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1160: Naïve by Tim Seibles
Today’s poem is Naïve by Tim Seibles.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s deeply reflective poem encourages a return to ourselves as open and loving, even at the risk of seeming dewy-eyed and idealistic.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1159: We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers by Diannely Antigua
Today’s poem is We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers by Diannely Antigua.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I treasure the elder women in my life for their conscious, yet easy-going transference of soul-nourishing values. Matriarchs mediated conflicts among family members. They put into play care and cohesion. They lovingly told stories, recalled important family members, and carried on cultural traditions, passed down like charms.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1158: A Blessing by Samyak Shertok
Today’s poem is A Blessing by Samyak Shertok.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s remarkable poem exalts in the cultural rite of eating a meal prepared by an elder. Its sumptuous language and lush syntax are markers of the summer’s abundance.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1157: from “Requiem 1935-1940” by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward
Today’s poem is from “Requiem 1935-1940” by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “What is the role of poetry during war? Does it have a function? Then and now, poets and readers of poetry see language as the terrain where we find ourselves heard and affirmed in our beliefs. Poets protest, bear witness, and mourn.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1156: In Love by Chloe Martinez
Today’s poem is In Love by Chloe Martinez.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The first time I was in love, I started missing baseball practice. Instead, I went to the library. Cherie spent afternoons doing her homework there. I could barely think about anything but her. What an immense feeling, to live with a perennial lump in my chest!”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1155: A Toast by Oksana Zabuzhko
Today’s poem is A Toast by Oksana Zabuzhko.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem honors the immense feelings of connection art and poetry offer us. It notes what care is possible when we listen to each other and co-create a world where decency and regard are the order of the day.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Customer Reviews
What a gift!
I love that Slowdown consistently offers beautiful, accessible poetry read by someone passionate about life and the craft. I often use the slowdown in the classroom and professional development teaching workshops as a powerful opener to spark curiosity and discussion. I shared the “Chaos Theory” episode with 125 students in our last class of the academic year. What a gift! Thanks for all that you do, Major.
If you can get past the host, it’s great!
The boring, cliched host opens every episode with a story about Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me but if you can survive those 45-60 seconds you’re typically rewarded with a fresh, insightful poem. Just try to ignore what the host has gleaned from it and you’ll be better off.
That’s my DJ!
Major takes me back to the 1980s when I was a teenager and when I was judged, and when I judged, based on the radio station I listened to. The voices of my favorite DJs are recorded in my memory like a beloved mixtape. I counted on them to wake me up, introduce me to the latest songs, and lull me to sleep. I listen to Major every morning. He is my current day DJ. I count on him for inspiration, wisdom, and messages so beautiful I am dazzled all day long.
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