The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily 1483: How to Write by Anne Waldman
Mar 31, 2026
A reflection on nonstop consciousness and how poetry offers a mental refuge. A meditation on the fatigue and gift of constant thought. A reading that evokes urban life, poetic awakening, and vivid images of being awake inside the city.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Poems As Relief For Relentless Consciousness
- Consciousness is relentless and exhausting because there's no built-in 'power down' for the mind.
- Maggie Smith frames poems as useful spaces where that constant mental activity can live, play, and be worked through.
Bus Memory That Felt Like A Past Life
- Anne Waldman recalls sudden, vivid sensations of past lives and being a man on a bus, illustrating disorienting moments of consciousness.
- She describes rushing to concerts, city scenes like 'not too many trees on 2nd Avenue,' and a bus memory that felt like prior life travel.
Poetry As Radical Wakefulness
- Being a poet, for Waldman, means being awake and digging everything, even what makes her sick or want to die.
- She links poetic aliveness to a willingness to engage painful, complex feelings rather than escape them.