1602: No Guarantees by Kelly Grace Thomas

Today’s poem is No Guarantees by Kelly Grace Thomas.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Something I think about more and more as I age, and as I watch my parents age, is how in this country, our finances determine the level of care we receive. The speaker of today’s poem understands these complex issues, as she navigates infertility and a parent’s illness.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle by Mary Szybist.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem eavesdrops on two girls playing together, and I find the dialogue between them so charming.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is The Thing Is by Ellen Bass. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem is one that I seek out, and one that I’m always glad to come across in the wild.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Heading Out to Sea by José A. Alcántara.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “The truth is, all bodies are imperfect. But today’s poem reminds me, importantly, that this body is the only one I have. There’s no “spare,” no back up, no alternative. When I think of it that way, it’s impossible not to be grateful.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Advice to a Monolith by Talley V. Kayser.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Landscape is psychological. It impacts how we feel, how we see ourselves, how we understand our experience. When you change the landscape, you change everything!”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is On Children by Kahlil Gibran. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I’ve always believed my son and daughter came through me, not to me, like I’m the door they used to enter the world. In this way, I feel like they’ve been loaned to me, and my job is to be a steward and a guide while they’re young. Today’s poem articulates that better than I can here, and I think that’s what we turn to poems for: to tell us the truth, and to tell it beautifully.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Hares by Angela Ball. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Sometimes I read or listen to a poem, and I’m absolutely charmed — seduced — by the sentences: the way they move across the lines, like a river moving around a bend, breaking around stones. Sometimes I marvel at the word choices, at the sounds, at the way a narrative unfolds.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is My Shark by Ellie Black.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Writing is a process of discovery. When I’m working on a poem or an essay, I don’t know what I might find, and that sense of discovery doesn’t end when the piece is finished and published.”This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is The Grass Could Be Yours by Emily Lee Luan. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Feeling at home somewhere new is surreal. Surreal and comfortable. Freeing, in a way. I’m not where the memories of my life took place, but because of the landscape, and the people, my senses feel at home. And so my memories seem to be at home, too.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate

Today’s poem is Halloween in the Anthropocene by Karyna McGlynn. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Now that we’re past Halloween, I can admit that I’m not much of a Halloween person. It was fun when I was little, trick-or-treating with my friends, because, hey, free candy! And it was fun for me as a mother of young children. The speaker of today’s poem celebrates Halloween the way I do now: as an observer, outside of it all.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation today. slowdownshow.org/donate