))
Stories you didn't know about the things you know!
…
continue reading
Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Ma ...
…
continue reading
Smoky Signal is a show about the science behind Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In season one, we explore three stories on the theme of Collections. We learn about renewing traditional plant gathering practices in the park, a natural history museum with thousands of specimens, and even the collection of something pretty stinky (in the name of science, of course). What can we learn about the Smokies—and ourselves—through these acts of collection?
…
continue reading
1
1194: Theories of Influence by Anselm Berrigan
5:36
5:36
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:36
Today’s poem is Theories of Influence by Anselm Berrigan The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Reading is like wandering through our dreams where the details blur once we awaken yet we are still changed throughout our day. Sometimes, we want to be lost, but what is to be gained when we find where we’re going? Whe…
…
continue reading
1
1193: Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, with special guest Jacques Pépin
5:43
5:43
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:43
Today’s poem is Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, with special guest Jacques Pépin. He is a French chef, author, culinary educator, television personality, and artist who has appeared on American television, has written for The New York Times and Food & Wine and has authored more than 30 cookbooks. He has been honored with 24 James Beard Foundati…
…
continue reading
1
1192: Narcissus and the Namesake River by Reginald Shepherd
5:53
5:53
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:53
Today’s poem is Narcissus and the Namesake River by Reginald Shepherd. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem takes up the myth of Narcissus, the nymph who falls in love with his own image.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tiny…
…
continue reading
1
1191: For Mac Miller and 2009 by Kayleb Rae Candrilli
5:26
5:26
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:26
Today’s poem is For Mac Miller and 2009 by Kayleb Rae Candrilli. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Because of my family’s addiction issues, I spoke out of fear to my children, and often rather harshly. I worried particularly that they would fall prey to the opioid epidemic that hit the state of Vermont, a fen…
…
continue reading
1
1190: At the Museum of Empress Livia’s Garden Room by Pimone Triplett
6:09
6:09
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
6:09
Today’s poem is At the Museum of Empress Livia’s Garden Room by Pimone Triplett. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s lyric poem walks us through a villa garden painted on a fresco. Reading the poem, it is as though we eavesdrop on the speaker’s awe, but also how a rich, imagined replica of fruit, birds,…
…
continue reading
1
1189: Nature Poem About Flowers by Matthew Rohrer
6:01
6:01
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
6:01
Today’s poem is Nature Poem About Flowers by Matthew Rohrer. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “They say clothes make the man. Frequently though, clothes hide the person, particularly a person’s depth of feeling.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference…
…
continue reading
1
1188: In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown
7:58
7:58
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
7:58
Today’s poem is In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown. Through her writing, which includes short- and long-form fiction, nonfiction, spells, tarot decks and poetry; her music, which includes songwriting, singing and immersive musical rituals; and her podcasts, including How to Survive th…
…
continue reading
Today’s poem is Picking Favorites by George Franklin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem finds a capacious way of existing that honors an entire life and everyone in it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp…
…
continue reading
1
1186: Oh, y’know, just your standard Q&A by Alex Z. Salinas
5:50
5:50
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:50
Today’s poem is Oh, y’know, just your standard Q&A by Alex Z. Salinas. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem is the kind of interview that I long to give, one full of non sequiturs and expansive evasions.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a differen…
…
continue reading
1
1185: Fragment 31 by Sappho, translated by Christopher Childers
6:01
6:01
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
6:01
Today’s poem is Fragment 31 by Sappho, translated by Christopher Childers. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “If you listen close enough to a poem, especially to the very best of them, you can hear on their surface, the poet’s breathing and silences shaped by the pace and noise of their age. You can hear a voi…
…
continue reading
1
1184: End of December by Ashjan Hendi, translated by Moneera Al-Ghadeer
5:15
5:15
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:15
Today’s poem is End of December by Ashjan Hendi, translated by Moneera Al-Ghadeer. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Tests to long-term commitments are bound to happen. Expending too much affection can lead to exhaustion and the bruise of eventual disappointment. As today’s poem suggests, one of the secrets t…
…
continue reading
1
1183: maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings, with special guest Eric Whitacre
5:46
5:46
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
5:46
Today’s poem is maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings, with special guest Eric Whitacre. Whitacre is a Grammy Award-winning composer, conductor, and speaker. A graduate of The Juilliard School, his works are programmed worldwide, and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united well over 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries.…
…
continue reading
1
1182: from “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” by L. Lamar Wilson
7:20
7:20
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
7:20
Today’s poem is from “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” by L. Lamar Wilson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Humans, it seems, are bound to feel adrift. So many times in my life, I have worked to muster a belief that all of it matters. I have made great efforts to not be lulled into amnesia nor medicate myself blin…
…
continue reading
Today’s poem is Enlightenment by Vijay Seshadri. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem points to how people’s sense of desolation and lack of meaning sometimes fuel a desire to save the world, work they go about with patronizing superiority and condescension.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift…
…
continue reading
1
1180: The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath Tagore
6:17
6:17
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
6:17
Today’s poem is The Gardener 85 by Rabindranath Tagore. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry has a way of collapsing time, and by working the senses, having us experience an era. In the blues rhythms of Langston Hughes’ poetry, I hear early twentieth century New York, and going back, I hear the plurality …
…
continue reading
Today’s poem is Nude by James Kelly Quigley. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I long to write poems of a mystical nature, where the wisdom of the ages is carried forth in new forms and phrases. Today’s brief poem, in its associative leaps, could be the seed to a new way of seeing, if we just let its words wo…
…
continue reading
1
1178: America by Claude McKay, with special guest Tonya Mosley
7:07
7:07
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
7:07
Today’s poem is America by Claude McKay, with special guest Tonya Mosley. Tonya is the host and creator of Truth Be Told and founder of TMI Productions. She is also a co-host of Fresh Air, and a correspondent and former host of Here & Now, the midday radio show co-produced by NPR and WBUR. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, …
…
continue reading
