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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

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...

[encore] 710: Acknowledgments by Nkosi Nkululeko

5 mins; June 30, 2025

[encore] 463: To be of use by Marge Piercy

6 mins; June 27, 2025

[encore] 403: The Book of Genesis by Morgan Parker

5 mins; June 26, 2025

[encore] 387: Stop Looking At My Last Name Like That by Michael Torres

5 mins; June 25, 2025

[encore] 448: Telephone of the Wind by Eddie Kim

5 mins; June 24, 2025

[encore] 377: Moon Pull by Carlina Duan

5 mins; June 23, 2025

[encore] 871: Flesh (“You in your ecstasy of coffee”) by Deborah Landau

7 mins; June 20, 2025

[encore] 1104: Black Book of Creation by Shanta Lee Gander

7 mins; June 19, 2025

1332: Slow Take: An Evening of Poetry and Reflection with The Slowdown and The Porch

79 hours 26 mins; June 18, 2025

[encore] 969: Us by Zaffar Kunial

6 mins; June 17, 2025

[encore] 1152: from "The Crystal Text" by Clark Coolidge

6 mins; June 16, 2025

[encore] 684: I Would Do Anything For Love, But I Won't by Traci Brimhall

6 mins; June 13, 2025

[encore] 531: anti-immigration by Evie Shockley

5 mins; June 12, 2025

[encore] 676: Last Sundays at Bootleggers by Carlos Andrés Gómez

5 mins; June 11, 2025

[encore] 516: In Response to Feeling Alone by t. liem

5 mins; June 10, 2025

[encore] 603: Sligo Abbey by Rebecca Lindenberg

5 mins; June 09, 2025

[encore] 373: Tracing the Horse by Diana Marie Delgado

5 mins; June 06, 2025

[encore] 459: The Feeling by Ari Banias

5 mins; June 05, 2025

[encore] 303: Telling My Father by James Crews

5 mins; June 04, 2025

[encore] 9: Portrait of the Alcoholic with Withdrawal by Kaveh Akbar

5 mins; June 03, 2025

[encore] 311: Listen, by Barbara Crooker

5 mins; June 02, 2025

[encore] 821: I Have No Idea What's Going to Happen by Justin Marks

6 mins; May 30, 2025

[encore] 1113: Egrets, While War by Tishani Doshi

6 mins; May 29, 2025

[encore] 1168: Refusing Rilke's "You must change your life" by Remica Bingham-Risher

5 mins; May 28, 2025

[encore] 1201: Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh

5 mins; May 27, 2025

[encore] 1029: If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso by Gertrude Stein

7 mins; May 26, 2025

[encore] 600: I Imagine the Butches' Stripper Bar by Jill McDonough

6 mins; May 23, 2025

[encore] 760: Song by Charif Shanahan

4 mins; May 22, 2025

[encore] 647: Walking Across Fire Island by Shelley Wong

5 mins; May 21, 2025

[encore] 571: Golden Age by Chris Santiago

5 mins; May 20, 2025

[encore] 708: Bruised Peaches by Bronwen Tate

5 mins; May 19, 2025

[encore] 236: Polaroid Ode by Cori Winrock

6 mins; May 16, 2025

[encore] 389: Kissing the Opelu by Donovan Kūhiō

5 mins; May 15, 2025

[encore] 168: What Does It Say by Tess Gallagher

5 mins; May 14, 2025

[encore] 386: Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong by Ocean Vuong

5 mins; May 13, 2025

[encore] 496: a brief meditation on breath by Yesenia Montilla

5 mins; May 12, 2025

[encore] 1025: I Am Trying to Love the Whole World by Jenny Browne

6 mins; May 09, 2025

[encore] 995: Dear—, by DéLana R.A. Dameron

6 mins; May 08, 2025

[encore] 1202: If only by Dawn Lundy Martin

6 mins; May 07, 2025

[encore] 860: Learning Money in Reverse by Stephanie Niu

6 mins; May 06, 2025

[encore] 1132: Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod Avant

5 mins; May 05, 2025

[encore] 789: hoop snake by Rebecca Wee

6 mins; May 02, 2025

[encore] 547: Travel by Edna St. Vincent Millay

4 mins; May 01, 2025

[encore] 661: The Field by Rick Barot

5 mins; April 30, 2025

[encore] 765: a fishing story. by Mia S. Willis

5 mins; April 29, 2025

[encore] 723: Divorce by José A. Alcántara

5 mins; April 28, 2025

[encore] 476: Minneapolipstick by Rachel McKibbens

6 mins; April 25, 2025

[encore] 499: Leaving Tulsa by Jennifer Elise Foerster

5 mins; April 24, 2025

[encore] 143: Untitled by Sesshu Foster

5 mins; April 23, 2025

[encore] 282: Waiting for Happiness by Nomi Stone

5 mins; April 22, 2025

[encore] 305: Wake Up by Carl Phillips

5 mins; April 21, 2025

[encore] 1045: Sonnet for Ochún by Leslie Sainz

7 mins; April 18, 2025

[encore] 865: Worry (the Dybbuk) by Anthony Immergluck

6 mins; April 17, 2025

[encore] 915: Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic? by Garrett Hongo

6 mins; April 16, 2025

[encore] 848: Six for Gold by Kate Hanson Foster

6 mins; April 15, 2025

[encore] 846: Some Madness There by Charlotte Pence

7 mins; April 14, 2025

1331: The Party is Downstairs by Didi Jackson

7 mins; April 11, 2025

1330: Playback by Lauren Camp

5 mins; April 10, 2025

1329: Mantle by Kevin Young

5 mins; April 09, 2025

1328: Forge by Ethel Rackin

5 mins; April 08, 2025

1327: Gertrude: In the Rooms by Kate Daniels

6 mins; April 07, 2025

1326: The Slowdown Live

86 hours 14 mins; April 04, 2025

1325: Flame by C.D. Wright

3 mins; April 03, 2025

1324: Why I Write Poetry by Major Jackson

7 mins; April 02, 2025

1323: The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson

5 mins; April 01, 2025

1322: [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings

4 mins; March 31, 2025

1321: The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data by Heather Christle

6 mins; March 28, 2025

1320: mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton

5 mins; March 27, 2025

encore [902]: Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo

5 mins; March 26, 2025

1319: The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky

8 mins; March 25, 2025

1318: Desert Sayings by Donovan McAbee

5 mins; March 24, 2025

1317: Grinning in Sardinia by Tomás Q. Morín

6 mins; March 21, 2025

1316: Portrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship Exam by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva

5 mins; March 20, 2025

encore [1224]: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel

5 mins; March 19, 2025

1315: Milestone 2 (We Laugh About the Weather, Its Permanence) by Divya Victor

5 mins; March 18, 2025

1314: If we had known, by Marissa Davis

6 mins; March 17, 2025

1313: A Little Slice of Heaven by Jaswinder Bolina

6 mins; March 14, 2025

1312: small comment by Sonia Sanchez

5 mins; March 13, 2025

[encore] 1078: Ferment by Monica Rico

5 mins; March 12, 2025

1311: Gratitude by Patrick Dundon

5 mins; March 11, 2025

1310: Divinity School by Ariana Reines

5 mins; March 10, 2025

1309: 5 A.M. by Michael Ondaatje

5 mins; March 07, 2025

1308: Mother's Rules by Yalie Saweda Kamara

6 mins; March 06, 2025

[encore] 1039: What Good Is Silence by Phuong T. Vuong

5 mins; March 05, 2025

1307: Field Guide as Sonnet by A. D. Lauren-Abunassar

5 mins; March 04, 2025

1306: Ode to the Pink Cowboy Hat by Quinn Carver Johnson

5 mins; March 03, 2025

1305: An Apology for Trashing Magazines in Which You Appear by Nicole Sealey

7 mins; February 28, 2025

1304: Cinema Paradiso by Claire Booker

6 mins; February 27, 2025

1303: Chaplinesque by Hart Crane

6 mins; February 26, 2025

1302: One Shies at the Prospect of Raising Yet Another Defense of Cannibalism by Josh Bell

6 mins; February 25, 2025

1301: Jaws by Emma Hine

6 mins; February 24, 2025

1300: Genesis by Megan Pinto

6 mins; February 21, 2025

1299: Hello, the Roses by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge

7 mins; February 20, 2025

1298: Earth, Earth by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson

6 mins; February 19, 2025

1297: Jamboree, Evening, Midsummer by Austin Araujo

5 mins; February 18, 2025

1296: In Which I Become (Skywoman) by Kenzie Allen

5 mins; February 17, 2025

1295: Wind Ode by Sharon Olds

5 mins; February 14, 2025

1294: White Peonies by Reginald Dwayne Betts

5 mins; February 13, 2025

1293: Washing the Elephant by Barbara Ras

5 mins; February 12, 2025

1292: Rabbitbrush by Molly McCully Brown

5 mins; February 11, 2025

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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

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