Today’s poem is Articulation of Solace by Yongyu Chen.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’ve read a lot of books over the years, and some have fundamentally changed not only the way I write but the way I think. I mean books that broke everything wide open for me, showing me possibilities — in form, and in content — that I couldn’t access before. Today’s poem impacted me like those beloved texts, with its jewellike sentences and its use of the field of the page.”

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Today’s poem is Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Wherever you live, you don’t have to be nice. But please be kind. We need more genuine, altruistic kindness in this world. So, how can you be more kind? By helping others without being performative about it, and without needing recognition. By letting people know you’re thinking of them, by reaching out when you know someone is struggling, and by practicing simple acts of kindness: holding a door open, letting someone go ahead of you in line, offering a sincere compliment. And one more thing: You can take in the wisdom of today’s poem and pass it along.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Nobody's Job by Ronna Bloom.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “We call an ending “resonant” because it does what a bell does: After it’s rung, the vibration lingers. It reverberates. It sticks with you long after you’ve read the piece, humming in your head. Today’s poem is beautiful start to finish, but the ending astonished me. It moved me to tears, which caught me by surprise! If you don’t know this poem, I’m envious that you get to experience it for the first time.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is When you have to remind me to do the dishes by Isaac Pickell.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When I think back to my own upbringing and what I learned from my mother and father, almost none of it has to do with growing up as a girl. I got my work ethic, sense of humor, and sense of fairness from both of them. I remind myself of all of that whenever I wonder if my son is getting what he needs from me. And I remind myself that he has a village around him.”

This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Mother Church No. 3 by Robin Coste Lewis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “It’s incredible to me that less than two hours from my home in the Midwestern suburbs is an enormous ancient earthwork. But that’s the thing about history — it layers on top of itself in unexpected ways. No matter where you live in the United States, you live on land that has long been home to Indigenous people.”

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Today’s poem is Laurelhurst by David Biespiel.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem makes its many, intentional observations at the pace of a good, long walk.”

This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is The Interpretation of Dreams by Kate Farrell.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The grand adventures or scary disasters that happen in our sleep are most interesting to the dreamers themselves, because a dream is a window into the subconscious. It’s a little peek into what your mind is actually chewing on, maybe without you even realizing it. You thought you were over that thing a friend said to you, or that awkward situation at work, but when it popped up in your dream, you realized no, it’s still on your mind.”

This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Thirst Trap by Caleb Curtiss.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “People post seductive selfies for all kinds of reasons. They might want validation in the forms of likes and comments. They might be single and hoping to meet someone online. They might be trying to build a following, or promote a product. Someone’s face or body is going to grab a lot more eyes on social media than text on a plain background. Which means we’re often attaching our bodies to our labor or art. Regardless of how you feel about this, it is, in a way, deeply intimate.”

This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is You're Supposed to Enjoy Dying by Colin Pope.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “There are so many things to fear — spiders, snakes, heights, deep water, the dark. I have a friend who is so fearful of rats, you can’t even say the word in her presence. I’d say that most of these fears are rational. Snakes and spiders can bite, and some are venomous. You could drown in deep water or fall from a great height. The one thing that humans seem almost universally afraid of is also the only part of life that is certain: death.”

This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Northern Flicker Reconsidered by Susan Rich.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Once, during a Q&A after a reading, a woman raised her hand to ask, ‘What’s with all the birds in your poems?’ I had to laugh. She was right: the hawks, grackles, and starlings of my neighborhood have called and swooped into many of my poems. I told her that birds are wildlife that we all have access to, no matter where we live. Birds are everywhere … in cities, in suburbs, in the country. They make cameo appearances in many of my poems, and sometimes they’re even the stars.”

This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate