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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

By: American Public Media
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About this listen

 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.Copyright 2025 Minnesota Public Radio Art Entertainment & Performing Arts
Episodes
  • [encore] 792: Trash by Joshua Bennett

    [encore] 792: Trash by Joshua Bennett
    Aug 12 2025

    Today’s poem is Trash by Joshua Bennett. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back on Monday, August 18 with episodes from our new host, Maggie Smith. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host.


    In this episode, Ada writes… “Today’s poem is a perfect example of starting a poem in one place and ending it in another, unexpected place. I admire how this poem reveals a truth and a desire that pulsates under each stanza.”


    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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    6 mins
  • [encore] 688: [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings

    [encore] 688: [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings
    Aug 11 2025

    Today’s poem is [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings.


    The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back on Monday, August 18 with episodes from our new host, Maggie Smith. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host.


    In this episode, Ada writes… “I have a friend who will stare at something and say, “Now that’s a poem.” A glove in the snow, a bird feather stuck in the fence post, a good meal. It feels like she is blurring the lines between what we think is a poem and what is poetic, between what is real life and the language we use to capture it.


    Today’s poem, by the beloved poet E.E. Cummings, does that work of showing us the resounding “yes” to the poem—and also “yes” to the real, tangible, touchable, life.”


    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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    5 mins
  • [encore] 264: Sleeping with the Chihuahua by Tami Haaland

    [encore] 264: Sleeping with the Chihuahua by Tami Haaland
    Aug 8 2025

    Today’s poem is Sleeping with the Chihuahua by Tami Haaland.


    The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on November 28 2019.


    In this episode, Tracy writes… “Today’s poem describes the joy of falling asleep next to someone you love. Because whether you’re snuggled in with pets, people, or some combo of the two, it’s bliss when love makes you into a pack.”


    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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    5 mins
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