1376: Laura, I Want You Pulling Your Hair Back by Natalie Dunn
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.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1375: Dear Absent, by Marcus Wicker
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 you have experienced pregnancy loss.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1374: The Terror of New Love! by Tiana Clark
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 excited and free. I wrote in a poem once, “The trick of the future is it’s empty.” That’s where the excitement and terror come in: the future is empty, and we get to fill it. The future is unwritten, and we get to decide what the story will be. We get to choose what comes next.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1373: Protection Spell Jar by Cynthia Marie Hoffman
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.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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1372: My Body Knows Its Limits by Page Hill Starzinger
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 our gut. I sense when I’m in danger, or when someone is lying to me. I might get a prickle on the back of my neck, or a speeding up of my pulse, or an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I sense when I can trust someone, too. My nervous system relaxes around them.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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.
Listen to The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily, The Bog Shaman: Manchán on Moriarty and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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