1270: The Gift to Sing by James Weldon Johnson

Today’s poem is The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Treat poetry like a rollercoaster. You may not know the laws of physics, but it does not prevent you from enjoying the ride. Poetry values ambiguity and it is okay not to know all of its layers.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is Refuge by Nehassaiu deGannes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s formally rich poem positions gardening as a powerful means of holding on to one’s culture, to one’s culinary identity in a new land.”Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is The Gift to Sing by James Weldon Johnson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “For those of us who want to hold onto the light as long as we can, we make sure to embrace more than the material comforts — we can make sure to surround ourselves with family, friends and song.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is Grace by Orlando Ricardo Menes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I believe in grace, which arrives from a sacred belief that all of us are deserving of it.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is The Pacific by Jennifer Jean. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “What I appreciate in today’s poem is the speaker’s indomitable outlook that echoes my grandparents’ optimistic spirit, especially in the face of deprivation and difficulty. Today’s poem lands on what is both a beautiful notion and a pragmatic belief: that even in our states of lack, we still live a miraculous existence, where love and natural beauty abound.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is What the Body Gives Away by Saba Keramati. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I like to believe that my senses are open as I take in music, food, travel, new adventures, new friends. I like to think poetry makes me extrasensory. But, then again, my wife would argue I spend too much time in my head, thinking my life away. I enjoy how today’s poem makes it a goal to be keenly aware, intuitive, and innate.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is Echo by Christina Rossetti. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem calls back to a deceased beloved, to return to this side of existence, to traverse the layers of time — an incantation that wishes to reunite us with the bliss we once knew.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is Something Sweet by Hannah Lowe. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on November 24, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, a sonnet, holds the truth that the world is capable of awakening us out of our petrified states. We can be charmed back into our bodies and repaired, so that we feel again, sometimes acutely, the sweetness of our existence more than the hostile and profane.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is abundance of light by erica lewis. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on September 13, 2023. In this episode, Major writes… “I hear in today’s poem a haunting, reckoning, and nostalgia – dominant themes among poets on the road. On stages and podiums, we traded poems about heartbreak, childhood memories, and personal loss. What emerges is a triumphant questioning spirit that overcomes grief and uncertainty.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Today’s poem is Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me by Jane Hirshfield. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We’re taking a break this week, so we’re sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archive. We’ll be back with new episodes on January 6, 2025. This episode was originally released on January 1, 2024.In this episode, Major writes… “The clocks have struck another year. Soon, I will box up and archive 2023 in the mental basement of my mind, although I'm sure certain events of the past 365 days will reverberate in both predictable and not-so-predictable ways into the future. Today’s poem makes a powerful assertion that maybe what we bring to the problems of the world, to our sense of survival, is our attention—and our joy.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp