The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
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.
Episodes
Today’s poem is My Mother's Love by James Allen Hall.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is a testament to a mother’s love and courage and fierce protection. Maybe the real measure of a person is what they do for people — or creatures — who cannot do anything for them in return. Love is not transactional. Love, like poetry, is a gift economy.”
Celebrate the pow...
Today, we have a bonus episode for you: an excerpt of This Old House Radio Hour, featuring our very own Maggie Smith. She takes listeners inside the 100-year-old house that has carried her family through every chapter. If you’d like to hear more of “This Old House Radio Hour,” you can listen to past episodes at thisoldhouse.com/radiohour and follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Today’s poem is Nursery by Kiki Petrosino.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem draws on the language of fairy tales and the strange, sometimes inexplicable things that happen in these stories. After all, strange, sometimes inexplicable things happen in life, too.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: ...
Today’s poem is Elephants Born Without Tusks by Allison C. Rollins.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It’s one thing to think about animals that have evolved to adapt to their habitats: maybe they are camouflaged from predators, or they develop physical traits to help them withstand the elements. But what about humans? We have the ability to live anywhere, thanks to human techn...
Today’s poem is by R.A. Villanueva.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is one about parents and children, bedtime fears, and the ways we communicate love and safety. It references a lyric from a song I love: ‘Not Strong Enough’ by the band boygenius.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyu...
Today’s poem is On Proliferation by Cass Donish.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “As a poet, I think one of my personal stages of grief is writing. When I experience deep loss, there is a part of me that needs to try to articulate that loss. I wouldn’t say that writing about loss is healing; writing doesn’t restore who or what’s been lost. There are distances we can’t cross, t...
Today’s poem is Ledge (ars poetica) (love poem) (true story) by Amorak Huey.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem calls itself an ars poetica, a love poem, and a true story. That’s a lot of work for one poem to do—a lot of layers of meaning! But this poet does speak to the precarity of it all: writing, and loving, and living.“
Celebrate the power of poems with a ...
Today’s poem is Laura, I Want You Pulling Your Hair Back by Natalie Dunn.
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes. Today’s episode was originally released on October 17, 2025.
In this episode, Maggie writes… A big part of loving someone, whether they’re a friend or a family member or someone you’re...
Today’s poem is /’mīgrent/ by Tiana Nobile.
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes. Today’s episode was originally released on September 2, 2025.
In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem looks at the word migrant and its meaning apart from the current political climate. Movement from place to ...
Today’s poem is Do You Consider Writing to be Therapeutic? by Andrew Grace.
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes.
Today’s episode was originally released on October 7, 2025. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The next time I’m asked if writing is therapy, I may just respond by reading today’s poem....
Today’s poem is Tea by Leila Chatti.
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes.
Today’s episode was originally released on August 18, 2025.
In this episode, Maggie writes… “Maybe the ultimate self care is learning to give yourself the respect, the tenderness, and the grace you extend to others. ...
Today’s poem is Hiking Moraine State Park by Violeta Garcia-Mendoza.
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. We’ll be back on Monday, December 15 with new episodes. Today’s episode was originally released on October 1, 2025.
In this episode, Maggie writes… “A big part of loving someone, whether they’re a friend or a family member or someone you’re roma...
Today’s poem is Amalgam by Rebecca Foust.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I have a hard time not using metaphors and analogies in everyday conversation. My kids sometimes tease me about it: “Look out, the poet has entered the chat!” my son recently laughed. Maybe it is a poet thing, but I think we all naturally use analogies and comparisons when we’re trying to explain an expe...
Today’s poem is Go by Kathleen Ossip.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Other poems are like strands of pearls, long and lustrous and nearly impossible to gather into your hands all at once.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Today’s poem is Sal, 1950 by Paula Colangelo.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem explores PTSD as experienced by a POW, or prisoner of war. I admire this poem for the way it speaks to the resilience of the human spirit. I sometimes find myself in awe of what humans can survive, and what trauma survivors can keep intact inside themselves, and what they can still find ...
Today’s poem is Noah's Nameless Wife Takes Inventory by C.T. Salazar.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “In many of the stories I grew up with, the men are named but their wives and daughters are not. That makes it pretty clear who the main characters are, doesn’t it? For example, in the story of Noah’s Ark, in the book of Genesis in the Christian bible, there are four wives on t...
Today’s poem is At the Base of the Mountain by Amanda Hawkins.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’m not a religious person, but I think everyone has places that are sacred to them—places we might return to as pilgrims, as seekers. I think of how people visit the graves of their ancestors, or the places where they once lived. When we stand where our loved ones once stood, it doe...
Today’s poem is Paperweight by Ryan Teitman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem charmed me immediately with its imagination and its restraint. It’s a poem that makes me ask, “What if?” It’s also a poem I want to read again as soon as I finish it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4sy...
Today’s poem is Entry by Chet'la Sebree.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It's human nature to want to know for oneself, not only to trust in the knowledge of others. It’s human nature to want to make decisions for oneself, not only to trust in the decisions of others. It’s human nature to want to see for oneself, firsthand, not mediated by others.”
Celebrate the power of ...
Today’s poem is Before Lunar New Year, Our Mothers Go Missing by Uyen Phuong Dang.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem references the Lunar New Year, which happens in February, but it’s a timeless, seasonless poem. It has me thinking about the relationship between mothers and daughters, and between one generation and the next.”
Celebrate the power of poems with a ...
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