Today’s poem is Sehnsucht by Michael Dumanis. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem introduced me to a new word for longing or yearning—and it showed me a way to use that expansive desire as a frame for the magic of everyday life.”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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1388: When I learn Catastrophically by Martha Silano
Today’s poem is When I Learn Catastrophically by Martha Silano.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem unexpectedly merges the playfulness of anagrams with the gravitas of a terminal diagnosis—the weight of reckoning with the end of one’s life. But when you think about it, an anagram isn’t just play. It’s a way of making a thing out of something else entirely. A way of seeing—and creating—other possibilities. A way of containing multitudes.” 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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1387: Different Kinds of Sadness by Jenny Molberg
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.” 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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1386: Night of the Living, Night of the Dead by Kim Addonizio
Today’s poem is Night of the Living, Night of the Dead by Kim Addonizio.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It might surprise you to know that one of my favorite genres is the zombie movie. I like my zombies fast, like in ‘Train to Busan’ and ‘28 Days Later,’ and I like my zombies slow, like in the old classics directed by George Romero. In ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ the zombies shamble so slowly, people can run right by them. They seem unable to figure out doorknobs and fence latches and cars. It’s black-and-white, so the gore isn’t that gory: the blood and guts are gray, after all! It’s still scary, though—because the zombies are seemingly uncontainable. They just keep coming at you. Today’s poem has been a favorite of mine for years, and it seemed like the right choice for Halloween.” 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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1385: At Night by Stanley Plumly
Today’s poem is At Night by Stanley Plumly.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes, “Today’s poem is by one of my favorite poets, the late Stanley Plumly. Maybe more than anyone else in my life, Stan understood the double bind of deep solitude: that for the poet, for the artist, it’s as lonely as it is necessary. It’s both.” 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.
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