The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 27, 2026 • 7min
[encore] 1381: What Is This Air Changing, This Warm Aura, These Threads of Air Vibrating Rows of People by Ariel Yelen
The show revisits a favorite poem about communal song and the feeling of voices blending. Memories of childhood choir and bell choir surface, explaining why group singing can move us. Reflections on wonder, environmental stewardship, and a Chautauqua visit add context. A heartfelt reading of Ariel Yelen’s poem highlights communal tenderness and shared effort.
Mar 26, 2026 • 6min
[encore] 1460: Poem to Remind Myself of the Natural Order of Things by Donika Kelly
A reflective stroll through priorities, parenting, and the messy business of planning life. Short scenes consider flexibility, what truly feels like home, and trusting changing desires. A careful introduction to a poem that uses a displaced baby hippo to evoke belonging and longing.
Mar 25, 2026 • 6min
[encore] 1429: Midlife Crisis by Jane Zwart
A reflective journey through surprises of middle age and why feeling younger can replace old expectations. Short meditations on perspective, letting go, and what truly matters as time’s river bends. A poem reading that reimagines midlife as an unexpected palindrome of moments.
Mar 24, 2026 • 6min
[encore] 1383: The Situation in Our City by Ciona Rouse
A reflection on simultaneous lives unfolding in a city, from unseen joys to quiet losses. A poem reframes rain as grief and explores birthplace, violence nearby, and collective trauma. Memories of parental fear and protection surface alongside a call to witness chance and the duty to care for one another.
Mar 23, 2026 • 6min
[encore] 1444: Congratulations! Your Grief Is About to Stop Being Relevant! by Bridget Bell
Poems about grief and how communal support can ebb over time. Reflections on the quiet that follows initial care. A reading that explores grief’s ongoing presence even when it feels less visible.
Mar 20, 2026 • 7min
1481: from Mosaic by Supritha Rajan
Reflections on how productivity language carries capitalist baggage and the need to protect creativity. A candid take on the messy, kitchen-like process of writing and how it began in youth. Thoughts on listening, waiting, and valuing idle thinking as creative labor. A poem turns simple bedrest into rich material, exploring inertia, comfort, and texture.
Mar 19, 2026 • 7min
1480: Reverse Requiem by Ina Cariño
A reflective look at the requiem form and its Latin origins. Short explorations of how requiems function in liturgy and music. Thoughts on how requiems became broader metaphors for endings and loss. A reading of Ina Cariño’s poem invites quiet reflection.
Mar 18, 2026 • 6min
1479: After Dinner by James Ciano
A meditation on rituals and how small routines hold us together. Memories of a father’s after-dinner trip to the driving range surface. Vivid sensory scenes—sweat, moonlight, a black dog cutout, and an unmowed field—anchor recollection. The piece explores how repeated acts link who we are now with who we have been.
Mar 17, 2026 • 6min
1478: If Night You Were a City by Adam Wiedewitsch
A meditation that imagines night as a golden-jacketed city and an urban escape. Images of lifting past bricks toward stars, neon, and perched moons appear. Heat, longing, and solitary nights mingle with memories of missing seasons and recreated metropolis life abroad. Dreams, identity, distant drums, and caution about flying too high round out the piece.
Mar 16, 2026 • 6min
1477: Surety by Anna Zumbahlen
A meditation on how poems freeze sensory moments and act as portals to the past. Reflections on choosing presence versus noting details. Thoughts about admitting the effort to memorize moments aloud. A reading that catalogs small images, sounds, and quiet epiphanies.
