Today’s poem is One Shies at the Prospect of Raising Yet Another Defense of Cannibalism by Josh Bell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

Around what has become known as “awards season,” casual conversations are abuzz with talk of the year’s movies. This week’s episodes explore how poets take up movies as subjects — how the two art forms intertwine to make us feel more closely this life we share.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem whimsically plays with faux intimacy as an aesthetic experience, and with the value of cinema, how our psychic needs for understanding are either thwarted or are actualized.”

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 Jaws by Emma Hine. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

Around what has become known as “awards season,” casual conversations are abuzz with talk of the year’s movies. This week’s episodes explore how poets take up movies as subjects — how the two art forms intertwine to make us feel more closely this life we share.

In this episode, Major writes… “As a kid, I saw Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws in 1975. It’s 2025. I now have an app that tells me the location of sharks. I do not have what psychologists call thalassophobia, a fear of the sea, but I just want notice of which beaches to avoid, you know, just in case.”

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 Genesis by Megan Pinto. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem makes it apparent how powerful human ingenuity is, how wondrous it is, but also, too, its limitations. Technology cannot console and quiet our restless, lonely spirits. Only we can.”

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 Hello, the Roses by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “It is said, poets are perpetually at odds with scientists. But the truth is, poets have long been inspired by advances in engineering, astronomy, and biology.”

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 Earth, Earth by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Lately, I have upped my message of abiding by — or living — an ethos of care and compassion; my work in the classroom and on the page has taken greater urgency.”

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 Jamboree, Evening, Midsummer by Austin Araujo. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “I have borne witness to some profoundly tender relationships over the years between siblings. I realize how quiet I have been in acknowledging the beauty of those bonds. So, consider today’s episode a shout out, a lifting of siblinghood that avoids traditional predictable codes and stereotypes.”

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 In Which I Become (Skywoman) by Kenzie Allen.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s beautiful, incantatory poem contains a rich message of communal nurturance, how we soften each other’s fall, as we learn to acknowledge our purpose in the universe.”

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 Wind Ode by Sharon Olds. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem is an ode, a poem of praise or celebration. It reminds me that attention is a form of love. If you love the world, give it the gift of your attention. Don’t be afraid to get up close, to look deeper, to go inside. To reach out and touch, to smell, to engage your senses. We’re only here on this planet for a short time. We might as well soak up every last bit.”

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 White Peonies by Reginald Dwayne Betts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “When I’m on a walk, I take pictures and make recordings so I can later identify what I’ve seen and heard. If my teenage daughter is with me, as she often is, she teases me when I use the birding app on my phone, or when I take photos of seed pods, or leaves, or bark, so I can identify a plant or a tree. She said once, “Why can’t you just see it and enjoy it? Why do you need to know its name?””

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 Washing the Elephant by Barbara Ras. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.
In this episode, guest host Maggie Smith writes… “Today’s poem walloped me with its deep wisdom about childhood, memory, and love.”

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