The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Epizode

• 1551: Laurelhurst by David Biespiel 03.07.2026 7min

  Today’s poem is Laurelhurst by David Biespiel.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem makes its many, intentional observations at the pace of a good, long walk.” This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1550: The Interpretation of Dreams by Kate Farrell 02.07.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is The Interpretation of Dreams by Kate Farrell. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The grand adventures or scary disasters that happen in our sleep are most interesting to the dreamers themselves, because a dream is a window into the subconscious. It’s a little peek into what your mind is actually chewing on, maybe without you even realizing it. You thought you were over that thing a friend said to you, or that awkward situation at work, but when it popped up in your dream, you realized no, it’s still on your mind.” This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1549: Thirst Trap by Caleb Curtiss 01.07.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is Thirst Trap by Caleb Curtiss. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “People post seductive selfies for all kinds of reasons. They might want validation in the forms of likes and comments. They might be single and hoping to meet someone online. They might be trying to build a following, or promote a product. Someone’s face or body is going to grab a lot more eyes on social media than text on a plain background. Which means we’re often attaching our bodies to our labor or art. Regardless of how you feel about this, it is, in a way, deeply intimate.” This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1548: You're Supposed to Enjoy Dying by Colin Pope 30.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is You're Supposed to Enjoy Dying by Colin Pope. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “There are so many things to fear — spiders, snakes, heights, deep water, the dark. I have a friend who is so fearful of rats, you can’t even say the word in her presence. I’d say that most of these fears are rational. Snakes and spiders can bite, and some are venomous. You could drown in deep water or fall from a great height. The one thing that humans seem almost universally afraid of is also the only part of life that is certain: death.” This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1547: Northern Flicker Reconsidered by Susan Rich 29.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is Northern Flicker Reconsidered by Susan Rich. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Once, during a Q&A after a reading, a woman raised her hand to ask, ‘What’s with all the birds in your poems?’ I had to laugh. She was right: the hawks, grackles, and starlings of my neighborhood have called and swooped into many of my poems. I told her that birds are wildlife that we all have access to, no matter where we live. Birds are everywhere … in cities, in suburbs, in the country. They make cameo appearances in many of my poems, and sometimes they’re even the stars.” This show is made possible by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1546: Pocket Dial by James Davis May 26.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is Pocket Dial by James Davis May. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes... "It’s a strangely intimate thing, the pocket dial. When we’re on the receiving end, we find ourselves listening from a tucked away place close to someone’s body. It’s a pitfall of carrying our devices with us. Previous generations, generations who grew up without cell phones, didn’t have to contend with things like pocket dials."This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1545: Panis Angelicus by Carol Muske-Dukes 25.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is Panis Angelicus by Carol Muske-Dukes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… "There is music everywhere — played from the stereos of passing cars, sung by unselfconscious walkers wearing headphones. There’s the slamming of screen doors. The barking dogs. The occasional siren. And those noises are a kind of music, too."This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1544: Versions of Girlhood by Tina Chang 24.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is Versions of Girlhood by Tina Chang. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… "Today’s poem makes me feel seen as a mother, and it also reminds me to stay present — to appreciate exactly where we are together, right now."This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1543: What the Suitcase Bearing My Family Name Might Have Contained When It Arrived at Auschwitz by Ava Nathaniel Winter 23.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is What The Suitcase Bearing my Family Name Might Have Contained When it Arrived at Auschwitz by Ava Nathaniel Winter. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… "It is a privilege to have lived in the same part of the same country, safely, for generations. It is a privilege to have a basement, an attic, or a garage filled with boxes: books, family photos, children’s artwork from years of school. They are just things, yes. And they are not just things at all. I try to remember this privilege when complaining about clutter."This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1542: What We Wanted by Carol Moldaw 22.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is What We Wanted by Carol Moldaw. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… "Maybe humans have muscle and sense memory not unlike my dog on her walk around the block. We instinctively know the way, and we are most comfortable traveling the paths we’ve traveled before. It becomes a part of who we are, of how we know ourselves. But sometimes we want or need to travel “off the beaten path,” as they say. Sometimes, as we see in today’s poem, we have to find — or create — a new way."This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1541: Poem to Watch over You by Omotara James 19.06.2026 7min

  Today’s poem is Poem to Watch over You by Omotara James. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “On Juneteenth, freedom feels like a welcome long denied. It is also a welcome we must keep making possible for each other every day. Not only in law, but in practice. Freedom should be both a declaration and a way of living. Today’s poem imagines that kind of welcome. It speaks to that miracle of arrival, to a life entering the world without needing justification. It reminds us that before the world teaches us otherwise, there is the simple and sacred fact of being received.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1540: Boombox Ode: Enjoy the Silence by K. Iver 18.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is Boombox Ode: Enjoy the Silence by K. Iver. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “There was a time when love, or the possibility of it, came to you as a mixtape or burned CD. The songs were carefully chosen and painstakingly ordered. It wasn’t limitless, like today’s playlists. You had maybe seventy or eighty minutes, which meant every song had to mean something. And when you got one, you’d sit there rewinding and replaying, trying to decode the hidden message the music played back.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1539: Pluto by Maggie Dietz 17.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is Pluto by Maggie Dietz. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “When I was younger, I learned the order of the planets through a sentence I’ll never forget: “My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.” This mnemonic device was playful and ridiculous, but I can see now how it was a way of holding something vast inside something small. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Back then, Pluto was still a planet. But that changed in 2006 when scientists said Pluto didn’t meet the definition of a planet anymore. Its gravitational pull wasn’t dominant enough, so it was reclassified and renamed a dwarf planet. Pluto didn’t disappear, though. Out there in the astronomical unknown, it kept its shape. It kept orbiting the sun. Even its five moons remained, just as always. The only thing that changed was what we decided to call it.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1538: Maps by Yesenia Montilla 16.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is Maps by Yesenia Montilla. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “Today’s poem questions what it means to erase borders and barriers. It imagines a world in which belonging is not something granted or denied, but something we share. It asks what it might mean to move through the world without the illusion of ownership, to see one another beyond names and borders.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1537: Against Melancholy by Nathan McClain 15.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is Against Melancholy by Nathan McClain. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “I often hear the phrase “the risk of joy,” and I keep returning to it. Is joy a risk? And if it is, what is it that we are risking? Can I open my chest to joy, knowing it might hurt me if it leaves?” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1536: i love you to the moon & by Chen Chen 12.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is i love you to the moon & by Chen Chen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “The moon is about 238,855 (two hundred thirty-eight thousand, eight hundred fifty-five) miles away from Earth, which is roughly 30 Earths lined up end to end. But moonlight only takes about 1.3 seconds to reach us.The distance feels impossible, and yet the light arrives almost instantly. It makes me think about how love can work like that, too. How it can stretch across time and space and still arrive right when we need it.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1535: Goldfish by Francisco Márquez 11.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is Goldfish by Francisco Márquez. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “When it comes to death, we often have a need to witness. It is our human instinct to see and touch, to hear their silence. I remember wondering why it was called a wake service and learning that it comes from staying awake, from keeping vigil over the body before burial. We’re keeping the dead company as they transition, much like we would with a friend at a train station before they move across the country.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1534: There Is Always Space in My Life for More Life by Natasha Rao 10.06.2026 6min

  Today’s poem is There Is Always Space in My Life for More Life by Natasha Rao. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “I firmly believe I became a poet because of my time in Spain. Something in me cracked open, and a little light came through. I came through. I learned that if I stepped outside the small world I’d been given, the loveliest things could happen. Today’s poem reminds me of the power of stepping into experience and coming away changed. It asks us to make room for the moments we didn’t know we needed.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1533: The Good Life by Tracy K. Smith 09.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is The Good Life by Tracy K. Smith. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “When my grandmother took us kids to the pharmacy, she’d let us pick one snack to share. We always picked raspberry and creme cookies. We’d take our time with them, taking little bites of the buttery shortbread and jammy filling, savoring each one. Sometimes I’ll buy those cookies just to remember how they once tasted like luxury. It’s in these moments that I learned how love moves. It makes meaning out of what’s available, and insists on joy. It makes something out of nothing.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
• 1532: Blue by Laura Villareal 08.06.2026 5min

  Today’s poem is Blue by Laura Villareal. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Diannely Antigua writes… “I believe color carries energy. It carries memory. I remember when I was young, coming home from the hospital after being sick. The teal paint on my bedroom walls suddenly felt overwhelming. It reminded me of sickness, of that version of myself I didn’t want to return to. A few days later, my dad and my uncle painted my walls a light beige. The color of cream. Or the pages of an old book. Or the color of my dog’s soft belly when she’d roll over, asking for a rub. I remember how calming it felt. How it erased what the room had previously carried and gave me the canvas to begin again.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate