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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1096: Gacela of the Dark Death by Federico García Lorca, translated by Merryn Williams
Today’s poem is Gacela of the Dark Death by Federico García Lorca, translated by Merryn Williams.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem has me recall a pilgrimage to the home of a cherished poet, whose mystery is the very fire that channels my faith in poetry as nothing less than pure feeling.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1095: Nameless Places by Tony Petrosky
Today’s poem is Nameless Places by Tony Petrosky.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "This summer, I get to write in a castle in Italy at an artist retreat. I am hoping my assigned room is in a dungeon. Otherwise, I am afraid high ceilings will mean high windows, which will mean a room flooded with light. I wish to arrive at light like a burst that suddenly suffuses my eyelids; I want the page to contain inexpressible awe at our existence, to enact a calamitous and beautiful journey. Today’s short poem honors the unseen, formidable spaces that define us as much as our existence in the light."
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1094: 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch
Today’s poem is 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem disentangles the quest for money, transactional desire, and lyric subjectivity. Its teasing interplay of language brings into close proximity art, social class, and manners of currency.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1093: When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon
Today’s poem is When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, Major writes… "I read all those articles that proclaim how lonely we are becoming; I believe there’s some truth to it. Here’s my fear: all my work is making me alien to myself and others. I’m happy people are in my life. I wish not to skirt over their humanity, nor my own. I do not want our relationship to devolve to obligation, or come off as transactional. But we naturally negotiate that space of difference between ourselves and others; how rewarding when we can really connect to others.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1092: Eid Mubarak by Fady Joudah
Today’s poem is Eid Mubarak by Fady Joudah.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Today’s poem makes a profound commitment to carry the living and the dead in language forward into time, to record our presence, to meld the collectivity and richness of humanity into a singular vision that feels like love.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp -
1091: To Find Stars in Another Language by Elizabeth Bradfield
Today’s poem is To Find Stars in Another Language by Elizabeth Bradfield.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Sometimes it is necessary to create our own stories and poems that account for our reality, for who we are, presently, in the 21st century. Our dreams and imagination serve as a bridge in expanding conceptions of the self. One of my favorite poets once declared “The dream of every poem is to be a myth.” I like this idea, that poems can order our world, give agency and permission, cultivate, and open our collective unconscious.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Customer Reviews
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.
Quiet and powerful show
Poetry is always been a love of mine, and the show delivers in such a powerful and beautiful way. Major has a great way of delivering such beautiful reflections. It's a great way to start the day! Thank you so much.
What a Gift !
I remember when Tracy left the show and I thought, “oh my gosh - it will never be the same” and then Ada, and then Major showed up and I was like “oh my gosh - this is amazing” and then there is a guest host and I think “this is going to be horrible!” and then I get a hot take that thrills me from Jason Schneiderman or Shira Erlichiman and I’m again reminded that change is good. I love the voices and reflections on the poems. The intros are often poems themselves. We listen in the car as the sun comes up on our way to work. Communing silently as we listen. Sometimes only a sigh or breath is heard for a few minutes after a particularly powerful episode. Thank you all so very much.
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