Today’s poem is The Presence in Absence by Linda Gregg. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “As poet Elizabeth Alexander asks in one of my favorite poems, “Ars Poetica #100”: “and are we not of interest to each other?” While not its only function, for poetry also thrives beyond the affairs of societies, poetry deepens our appreciation for people. Their perspectives and life events take central stage. It’s as if they are with us, though not with us.”

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Today’s poem is That's My Heart Right There by Willie Perdomo. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I did not appreciate the depth of emotions behind the songs my grandfather sang, until one morning when I arrived early to high school for track practice to see my crush holding hands with my best friend. Whew! I could have sung a hundred blues songs, and would have felt none the better. But I came to understand something about love; we are creatures with wild hearts.”

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Today’s poem is On the Death of a Young Lady Five Years of Age, a reinscription by Aracelis Girmay. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Last year, a group of poets celebrated the 250th anniversary book publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) by Phillis Wheatley Peters. In honor of this important milestone editors Danielle Legros Georges and Artress Bethany White solicited Black female poets to write in the manner of Phillis Wheatley, or creatively reinscribe what is found in the text as some of her abiding images and important themes. The anthology, Wheatley at 250, from which today’s poem is taken, honors and celebrates the immense legacy of Phillis Wheatley Peters, whose work matters to all of us who cherish the possibilities of poems and poets to represent the highest ideals of literacy, and the miracle of language to free us.”

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Today’s poem is The Canonization by John Donne. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s classic poem knows that loving hearts create possibilities for us to exist as full and whole human beings. We need as many examples as possible of sweet passion and friendship. It might be the key to our survival.”

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Today’s poem is On Living by Nazim Hikmet, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “My walk that morning brought forth the world in technicolor, piercing green trees, a blue sky screeching loud as a free jazz concert, a jogger’s passing smile, soft, otherworldly. The earth hummed and throbbed. At a stoplight, I was suddenly filled with an inexplicable joy. My day of explosive happiness was counterintuitive. My inner world was actually gray; a family member has been battling cancer, another a victim of hurricanes, and then there was myself, ever negotiating the psychic demands of being present in a world where kindness feels in short supply.”

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Today’s poem is 52 Blue by Sappho Stanley. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today's poem probes into the ocean within the self — the mysteries of love.”

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Today’s poem is Farmers’ Market by Molly Fisk. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “When I was younger, as an introverted kid, I did not value large family gatherings during holidays, especially not Thanksgiving. Now, I appreciate what I once shunned. Gather me among kinfolks. Let’s talk loudly with drinks in our hands. Let’s enjoy the bounty of family and rituals that fill us with connection and the purpose of loving each other. And when we sit down to dinner, let our blessings surround us. Let us relish joyful interactions.”

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Today’s poem is Listening to Monk's Misterioso I Remember Braiding My Sisters' Hair by Christopher Gilbert. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “The phrase “take me away” sounds passive. But music requires work, requires paying attention to changes, knowing a passage is an improvisational homage to some legendary artist. I love keeping up with the fast thinking behind the notes like little sunbursts. The nuances, say, of a Thelonious Monk off-chord is an intentional discordant act which announces presence.”

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Today’s poem is A Garden and a Street by Teresa Cader. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry holds that place of both awakening and frustration, of perseverance against unimaginable violence and the flight away from the pains of our fragile world. Someday the bombs will stop falling. Someday the rhetoric of hatred will not have an audience. Isn’t this something that we all should work toward? Until then, so says the speaker in today’s poem, we must find a way to restore ourselves to a place of harmonious connection with and belief in all life.”

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Today’s poem is Big Purple Peonies by Margaret Ross. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s deeply satisfying poem arrives from an exacting eye. The poet’s kinetic imagination and mental roaming feel gorgeously reportorial and cinematic, mapping self-reflection through their portrayal of vibrant landscapes.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp