1381: What Is This Air Changing, This Warm Aura, These Threads of Air Vibrating Rows of People by Ariel Yelen
Today’s poem is What Is This Air Changing, This Warm Aura, These Threads of Air Vibrating Rows of People by Ariel Yelen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Going to the elementary school choir concerts and winter music festivals, I got teary every time the kids sang. I told myself it was because of their sweet, little-kid voices, but that’s not the whole story. Something about hearing voices in unison—it’s powerful, and communal, and comforting, and deeply moving.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1380: Like Apple from Seed by Molly Johnsen
Today’s poem is Like Apple from Seed by Molly Johnsen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem begins with a beautiful story that the speaker’s father would tell her, and transforms as she becomes the family storyteller. Stories themselves are like seeds in our lives; so much can grow from them. There is so much potential waiting inside.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1379: Arkansabop by Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers
Today’s poem is Arkansabop by Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is as imagistic and musical as a song, and it’s deeply rooted in place. The poem borrows a refrain from a Lucinda Williams song.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1378: poem where no one is deported by José Olivarez
Today’s poem is poem where no one is deported by José Olivarez.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem recounts a story of women outsmarting immigration officials who raid their factory, thanks to ‘dios del chisme,’ meaning ‘the god of gossip.’ The poem repeats a Spanish phrase, ‘si dios quiere,’ meaning ‘God Willing.’” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1377: The Crux by Megan Peak
Today’s poem is The Crux by Megan Peak. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “There were times when mothering felt overwhelming. I’m so glad we got through the too-muchness to get to this place. Now, I always want more of them. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? For years I craved more freedom, more independence, and then, when I got it, part of me missed being so needed.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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.
Listen to The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily, Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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