The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Maybe it’s possible to have a welcome haunting. To open ourselves up to visitors, and to seek their company, however they are able to make themselves known. Seeing — or even seeking out — signs from deceased loved ones helps people who are grieving feel more connected and less alone.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners.
Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
1525: The Burning Kite by Ouyang Jianghe, translated by Austin Woerner
2026-05-28 | 5 mins.
Today’s poem is The Burning Kite by Ouyang Jianghe, translated by Austin Woerner.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Every once in a while, a poem comes along with imagery so startling, phrasing so original, I have to read it several times in a row to be sure I’m taking it all in. Today’s poem is one of them.”
This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
1524: Coral, Again by Juliana Spahr
2026-05-27 | 6 mins.
Today’s poem is Coral, Again by Juliana Spahr.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “When we talk about the health of ocean ecosystems, I often hear the phrase “existential threat.” It’s a phrase that sounds massive. Because it is! It’s something so big that it’s hard to know what to do, how to make the right choices, as just one person. Today’s poem probes those depths and finds an endless possibility of existence in the relationships between tiny beings.”
This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
1523: The Village by Marc Harshman
2026-05-26 | 6 mins.
Today’s poem is The Village by Marc Harshman.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “A decade or so ago, I had the privilege of co-teaching a couple of workshops with the poet Stanley Plumly. He’d always say, in workshops, “exploit your territory.” He encouraged writers to lean into the regional instead of running from it. I now tell my students the same thing: Be exactly who you are, and be from where you’re from unapologetically. Show us that life. Tell us those stories. And let your people speak. Today’s poem exploits its territory — and does it masterfully.”
This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
1522: The Long Run by Linda Gregerson
2026-05-25 | 6 mins.
Today’s poem is The Long Run by Linda Gregerson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I have to remain optimistic — cautiously optimistic, because these are difficult days — that as we know better, we will do better. That we will learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of our forebearers, and that we will repair what we can, despite the harm we humans continue to do.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
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.
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