The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Today’s poem is I do not mention the war in my birthplace to my six-year-old son but somehow his body knows by Julia Kolchinsky.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Children are so talented at asking unanswerable questions. Questions that cut you to the quick. I remember driving around with my daughter Violet when she was in preschool—three, four years old—and she would ask me the...

Today’s poem is The Situation in Our City by Ciona Rouse.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “This poem has me thinking more and more about chance, and about our circumstances. It also has me thinking about the ways we take care of one another, and how we can—and must—do BETTER. As James Baldwin famously wrote, 'The children are always ours.'"

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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 h...

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.”

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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.’”

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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.”

Ce...

Today’s poem is Laura, I Want You Pulling Your Hair Back by Natalie Dunn.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “A big part of loving someone, whether they’re a friend or a family member or someone you’re romantically involved with, is embracing them exactly as they are. Not hoping they’ll change, or waiting for them to change, or—worst of all—trying to change them yourself.”

C...

Today’s poem is Dear Absent, by Marcus Wicker.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is so relatable, because the speaker is doing what I so often do: watching videos on the internet in the middle of the night. But then the poem turns to address “the elephant in the room”: the absence at the heart of the poem. A note of preparation: This poem will touch you deeply if y...

Today’s poem is The Terror of New Love! by Tiana Clark. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Maggie writes… “When I got divorced, I remember the mixed feelings. A big part of me was devastated that we hadn’t made it work; another part of me was relieved, because it hadn’t been working. A part of me was terrified because I had no idea what the future held, and a different big part of me felt excit...

Today’s poem is Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is from a collection of prose poems that chronicles a woman’s journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder, from childhood into adulthood. I admire the way we’re invited into the speaker’s consciousness, to see her mind at work.”

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Today’s poem is My Body Knows its Limits by Page Hill Starzinger.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I know we often think of our intelligence as being related to our brains. Smart people are called “brainy.” Wise approaches to problem-solving are called “mindful.” But the body has its own intelligence. Some things we know, because we intuit them—as we say, we feel them in o...

Today’s poem is At Last the New Arriving by Gabrielle Calvocoressi.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I don’t know what might happen tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. I can’t know! That can be a source of stress, but it can also be a source of hope and excitement. The future is full of possibility. Some of life’s surprises are heartbreaking, yes—but some are heart-repairi...

Today’s poem is Soot by Kaveh Akbar.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “My friend, the poet Dana Levin, once said that my poems are “God Curious,” and I loved that description. Part of what I do in my poems is pose existential questions to myself, and think—and feel—my way into them. That’s not the same as answering them! Luckily, poems don’t require us to have answers.”

Cel...

Today’s poem is Six Hours Lost, Land Between the Lakes by Kathleen Driskell.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem tells a story about a tense encounter in the woods. I so admire how this poet unfolds the narrative, then leaves me sighing deeply at the end.”

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Today’s poem is Do You Consider Writing to be Therapeutic? by Andrew Grace.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The next time I’m asked if writing is therapy, I may just respond by reading today’s poem. I think it answers the question with succinct, heartbreaking beauty.”

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Today’s poem is Nostalgia by Matthew Minicucci.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I joke that I can be nostalgic about a moment while it’s happening. That might be the writer in me: part of me is in the moment, and part of me is already thinking about it from a distance, and seeking the language to write about it.”

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