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The Slowdown
@slowdownshow.org
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Maggie Smith delivers a different way to see the world – through poetry. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Sign up for our daily poem newsletter --> bit.ly/3AWdEMl

Produced in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.
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“I think there is always a gap between what we want to express and what we can articulate with words," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode of The Slowdown. "Language can only say so much."

Read “Echo” by Pura Lopez-Colomé, translated by Forrest Gander: bit.ly/3K5tHzU
November 25, 2025 at 4:45 PM
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“The speaker of today’s poem imagines loved ones coming to their funeral—and they have some directives, and some requests," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1402.

Read "Gloria Mundi" by Michael Kleber-Diggs: https://bit.ly/3Xb2ezJ
A text graphic featuring a portion of Michael Kleber-Diggs' poem: Come to my funeral dressed as you would for an autumn walk in the woods. Arrive on your schedule; I give you permission to be late, even without good cause. If my day arrives when you had other plans, please proceed with them instead. Celebrate me there — keep dancing. Tend your gardens. Live well. Don’t stop. Photograph of poet Michael Kleber-Diggs. He's a black man standing in front of a tan brick wall. HE's wearing glasses and has a salt-and-pepper beard.
November 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
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“Today’s poem dreams its way into an imagined scenario: finding oneself on this planet, an alien, a stranger, and doing one’s best to be seen as belonging, so as to stay," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1401 of The Slowdown.

Read "LeaveTaking" by Rita Dove: bit.ly/49VUARa
Text graphic featuring a portion of Rita Dove's poem. It reads: I was waiting I knew they were coming over the hill I knew the moment I stepped out onto the grass I too would disappear What a curious sensation being the stranger If I thought about it too long I would be seen for what I was but try too hard to blend in I might forget myself and miss my pickup and be stranded forever Photograph of poet Rita Dove. She is a Black woman with chin-length brown, curly hair.
November 21, 2025 at 7:51 PM
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“More than any genre, perhaps, poetry can help us say the unsayable," host Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) shares in episode 1400 of The Slowdown. "It helps to let poets take the reins."

Read "The Eulogy I Didn't Give (I)" by Bob Hicok and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/49omPYz
A text graphic featuring a portion of Bob Hicok's poem. It reads: I am now fathered but fatherless, a being whose being can half be traced to a hole in the ground, where my father’s beard is, and his bones. His beard will grow for a while down there and his bones will never cast a shadow, and I’ll always know where to go to look at his name cut in stone. A photograph of poet Bob Hicok. He is working on a construction project and wearing a white t-shirt and baseball cap.
November 20, 2025 at 9:03 PM
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“All of this talk about 'my time' and 'your time' is so odd, anyway, when you think about it—as if any time is ours," host Maggie Smith shares in episode 1399 of The Slowdown.

Read "Alarm Clock" by Jennifer Maier: bit.ly/481NQ1N

📖: @upittpress.bsky.social
Text graphic featuring a portion of Jennifer Maier's poem. It reads: each second breaks like a salt wave at your feet and returns to the sea, which is only ever the now—alive and infinite. This is what time tells you: the fact I whisper 60 times per minute but that you will not hear. You and the others, roused to waking only by my screams. Photograph of poet Jennifer Maier. She has shoulder-length light brown hair and wears cat-eye-rimmed glasses.
November 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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“What can literature, or music, or film, or performance, or visual art do for us, particularly when we are struggling, individually and collectively?" asks @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today's episode, number 1398.

Read "A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem" by Rachel Dillon: bit.ly/4oLpz7f
Text graphic featuring a portion of Rachel Dillon's poem. It reads: Please, someone— tell me a poem can coax oil from a sea bird’s throat. Tell me what to do with my hands—my hands— what can my hands do now? A photograph of poet Rachel Dillon. It's shot in double exposure, so she appears in the image twice, with one version of her looking to the side and one looking forward.
November 18, 2025 at 5:56 PM
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“Today’s poem makes us consider how we write about other people," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode number 1397 of The Slowdown.

Read “Palinode" by Lisa Low and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/4p7SOAO

📖: University of Wisconsin Press
Text graphic featuring a portion of Lisa Low's poem "Palinode." It reads: Your mother enters the poem with her sadness intact. When your mother enters the poem, should she be a strict, sad, hardworking, or immigrant mother? Your mother enters the poem wearing all her animal-print items at once, laughs holding a leopard-print lamp. Photograph of poet Lisa Lowe. She has short, dark hair and is wearing a black-and-white patterned blouse in front of a green hedge.
November 17, 2025 at 4:52 PM
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"There's a distinct disenchantment when the spell of the relationship has broken, and the magic’s gone. You’re not seeing the world through love’s rosy lens anymore," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1396.

Read "Panama" by Sarah Green and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4nLJS2Y
A text graphic featuring a portion of Sarah Green's poem, which you can listen to in full at the link in our bio! A photograph of poet Sarh Green. She has long brown hair and is wearing turquoise earrings.
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
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“Surely I would be different if I had different children. Surely they would be different with other parents," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says in episode 1395 of The Slowdown.

Read “The Night Angler" by Geffrey Davis and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4hRLXJx

📖: @boa-editions.bsky.social
A text graphic featuring a portion of Geffrey Davis' poem, which you can listen to in full at the link in our bio or wherever you get your podcasts. A photograph of poet Geffrey Davis. The photograph is in black and white. He has a short beard and mustache and is wearing glasses and a button-up jacket.
November 14, 2025 at 4:03 AM
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“I’d like to preface today’s poem with a fact: Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says in today's episode of The Slowdown.

Read “Puerto Rico Goes Dark" by Juan J. Morales: bit.ly/3WKt0yH

📖: @unmpress.bsky.social
Text graphic featuring a portion of Juan J. Morales' poem, which you can listen to in full by visiting the link in our bio. A photograph of poet Juan J. Morales. He is wearing a brown button up shirt and smiling while posed outside.
November 12, 2025 at 6:53 PM
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“While we don’t have access to the answers, this poem is a beautiful place for the questions to live," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1393 of The Slowdown.

Read “The Night Where You No Longer Live" by @meghanor.bsky.social: bit.ly/4qSoA6s

📖: @wwnorton.com
A text graphic featuring a portion of Meghan O'Rourke's poem, which you can listen to in full at the link in the post.
November 11, 2025 at 3:04 PM
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“Sometimes I prefer to engage with art — to listen to a record or see a film — without expectations," host Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) shares in episode number 1392 of The Slowdown.

Read “Local Mission" by Kai Carlson-Wee and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/47QaRVl
A graphic featuring a portion of Kai Carlson-Wee's poem. It reads: in early July (maybe the exact same street corner) looking at maple leaves catching the rain, I will see only pity and lichen-shades, barely-there shadows that fall to the street, and the light will be too far away to remember, and the words will be drizzle and maple and green, and before I know it the language will not let me leave it–– the traffic will pass as it always has passed: dependably, rumbling west of the bridge.
November 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
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“Today’s poem is one I’ve carried around in my mind for years, one whose language I flash to instinctively when I see a flock of birds," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1391.

Read "Never-ending Birds" by David Baker (@davidbakerpoet.bsky.social): bit.ly/4ouhPWU

📖: @wwnorton.com
Graphic featuring a portion of David Baker's poem. It reads: That's us pointing with our delible whorls into the faraway, the true-born blue- white unfeathering cloud of another year. Another sheet of their never ending. Photograph of poet David Baker. He's wearing a black collared shirt and round-rimmed glasses.
November 7, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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“There is power in naming, as today’s poem reminds us," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1390 of The Slowdown. "Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Nor should you."

Read “The Poem Climbs the Scaffold and Tells You What It Sees" by @natashaoladokun.bsky.social: bit.ly/49At8by
A quote graphic featuring a portion of Natasha Oladokun's poem. It reads: decked in black from scalp to heel scythe in hand ready and eager to meet yourself pounding at your own door for all the talk you keep hearing these days about the need for gallows humor you have to wonder who is putting what or whom on the scaffold as you drive Old Lynchburg Road so curved and steep you cannot see the faint parting of light lying beyond it A photograph of poet Natasha Oladokun. She has long, dark curly hair, tattoos, and is wearing a flannel shirt.
November 6, 2025 at 4:53 PM
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“Today’s poem introduced me to a new word for longing or yearning — and it showed me a way to use that expansive desire as a frame for the magic of everyday life," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode.

Read “Sehnsucht" by @michaeldumanis.bsky.social: bit.ly/47Y85hR
A text graphic featuring a portion of Michael Dumanis' poem. It reads: My daughter is swan. Is crab grass run riot. Meanwhile, I am becoming unrecognizable to everyone except myself, and it does not matter: before it is time to resemble no one I have had the mixed fortune to resemble most things. My shadow lingers in the corner of the photo of the painting. I may not know more than a bedraggled llama craning its neck past the impregnable fence. Still, I participated in the world.
November 5, 2025 at 5:17 PM
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“Today’s poem unexpectedly merges the playfulness of anagrams with the gravitas of a terminal diagnosis — the weight of reckoning with the end of one’s life," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1388.

Read “When I learn Catastrophically " by the late Martha Silano: bit.ly/43SNIA9
A text graphic featuring a portion of the poem "When I learn Catastrophically," written by the late Martha Silano. It reads: The sky does all sorts of marvelously uncatastrophic things that winter I shimmy between science & song, between widgeons & windows, weather & its invitation to walk. Walking, which becomes my lose less, my less morsels, my lose smile while more sore looms. Sometimes I wander for hours, my mile pace over half an hour, everyone passing the lady at dusk talking to herself about looming rooms, soil lies, ire & else. Chuckling about my mileage gone down the toilet, I plant the rose of before, the oil of after. A photograph of the late poet Martha Silano. She is a middle-aged woman with long, wavy brown-grey hair and clear-rimmed glasses. She is photographed outside, with leaves/trees behind her.
November 4, 2025 at 7:53 PM
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“It can be so hard to accept help from others, especially if you pride yourself on being self-sufficient," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1387 of The Slowdown.

Read “Different Kinds of Sadness" by @jennymolberg.bsky.social and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4oIADBE
A text graphic featuring a portion of Jenny Molberg's poem. A photograph of poet Jenny Molberg. She has long dark blonde hair and is standing in front of a textured wall. Her hair is covering her face.
November 3, 2025 at 4:07 PM
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"Today’s poem has been a favorite of mine for years, and it seemed like the right choice for Halloween," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode.

Read "Night of the Living, Night of the Dead" by Kim Addonizio and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/47iJbcx
a graphic featuring a portion of Kim Addonizio's poem: The living have plans: to get to the pickup parked in the yard, to drive like hell to the next town. The dead with their leaky brains, their dangling limbs and ruptured hearts, are sick of all that. They’d rather stumble blind through the field until they collide with a tree, or fall through a doorway like they’re the door itself, sprung from its hinges and slammed flat on the linoleum. a photograph of poet Kim Addonizio. She has short, brown, wavy hair and is leaning up against a tree.
October 31, 2025 at 6:23 PM
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"Today’s poem is by one of my favorite poets," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1385. "Stan understood the double bind of deep solitude: that for the poet, for the artist, it’s as lonely as it is necessary."

Read "At Night" by Stanley Plumly: bit.ly/3WvzWQ4
Photo and text graphic featuring a portion of Stanley Plumly's poem "At Night"
October 30, 2025 at 9:04 PM
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We're looking for a new production intern! If you ...

- love the art of podcast storytelling
- are passionate about creating audio that resonates with diverse audiences
- have an eye for creating impactful content

... we encourage you to apply!

Learn more: bit.ly/4nPafpK
a photograph of Maggie Smith, host of The Slowdown, accompanied by text that reads: "Apply Now! Podcast Production Intern"
October 29, 2025 at 4:51 PM
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"Children are so talented at asking unanswerable questions. Questions that cut you to the quick," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1384.

Read "I do not mention the war in my birthplace to my six-year-old son but somehow his body knows" by Julia Kolchinsky: bit.ly/48Yk4Nz
October 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by The Slowdown
andypgrace.bsky.social
Thrilled about this little film the folks over at @slowdownshow.org made of my poem "Do You Consider Writing to Be Theraputic?"

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20 reactions | Poem by Andrew Grace. Read by Maggie Smith. For a new poem each weekday, listen to The Slowdown on your favorite podcast app! | The Slowdown
Poem by Andrew Grace. Read by Maggie Smith. For a new poem each weekday, listen to The Slowdown on your favorite podcast app!
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October 27, 2025 at 10:43 PM
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"This poem has me thinking more and more about chance, and about our circumstances," shares host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today's episode of The Slowdown.

Read "The Situation in Our City" by Ciona Rouse @cionarouse.bsky.social and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/3Lh50R3
photo and text graphic featuring a portion of Ciona Rouse's poem "The Situation in Our City"
October 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
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“Today’s poem brought me right back to being a young girl with a beloved doll," shares host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in episode 1382. "Back then, it would have been unbearable to be separated."

Read “Lamb" by Richie Hofmann and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/43FoFR0

📸: Ryan Hagerty
A graphic featuring a portion of Richie Hofmann's poem, "Lamb": At the train stations, all the grown-ups would say, be mindful of your things, little boy, someone will steal right out of your pocket or take the watch off your wrist. My dad had a beautiful overcoat. A photograph of poet Richie Hofmann. He is a white man wearing a white button-up shirt and standing in front of a field of grasses.
October 27, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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“Stories themselves are like seeds in our lives; so much can grow from them," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1380 of The Slowdown.

Read "Like Apple from Seed" by Molly Johnsen and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/43pkHMd

📖: @greenwriterspress.bsky.social
text and photo graphic featuring a snippet from Molly Johnsen's poem photograph of poet Molly Johnsen
October 23, 2025 at 4:22 PM