Today’s poem is Where are the girls who were so beautiful? from “33” by Julia Alvarez.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “Lately, I’ve heard many bemoan the end of movie stardom, but it’s comforting to remember that it’s an old argument. Three decades ago, we were already wondering what had happened to the glamor and melodrama of 1950’s Hollywood and Hollywood stardom that we were sure had so much to teach us.”

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 Stereo by Anne Waldman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “‘Tis the season of weddings! In years past, I’ve poured libations; I’ve even read a poem, but this summer, I have the privilege and am hugely excited to officiate the nuptials of our friend and digital producer of The Slowdown, James Napoli and fiancé Britta Greene. Regarding, I’ll just say this: Love is an unrestrained force of tenderness and light in our world.”

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 Dear Past and Future Metastasis, by Chiyuma Elliott.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s fine poem makes delicate use of captured dialogue. The poem reveals our clumsy attempts to render legible who we are. Mostly we pass expected, typical speech between us but, occasionally, we make utterances so clear that they startle even ourselves.”

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 He Laughed With A Laugh by JonArno Lawson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Myka and I rescued today’s fun poem from the cutting floor of our children’s poetry episodes. We present it to you today. Enjoy!”

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 Extreme Close-up by Susan Rich.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Noticing and paying attention to my surroundings is more than for the purpose of writing poems. I’m trying to bring the world closer to me. To call up daily experience by zooming in, by locating language that is as lush as life yet elegantly sparse, well, then, that is an act of love and reciprocity.”

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 Pathology of Currency by Matthew Lippman.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem humorously parodies the secret nature of money and the endless, if not stressful, cycle of working and spending.”

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 She Loves Me, She Love Me Not by Desirée Alvarez.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Why do we make bad decisions, whether reasoned or rash, when we know deep down that they are not sound? I don’t believe people when they announce they have no regrets. I find feelings of regret slightly useful. They help us muse over missed opportunities or hasty actions. Regrets remind us to do better. To be more careful.”

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 Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish by Joshua Weiner.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem dramatizes the hidden transaction of our obsessions. We are claimed by the world as much as we take in — sometimes, even more.”

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 For the Poet Who Is Your High School English Teacher by Gary Margolis.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem honors the teachers among us who are also poets, whose passion for poetry helps students to reimagine and change their world.”

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 This Is My Vow by Lucia Mae Pitts.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, though written nearly one hundred years ago, knows that to live today is to heroically make a pledge of hope, to seek the positives, to practice the gospel of joy, and in doing so to defeat pessimism and stave off an all-consuming gloom.”

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 Lifeline by Pádraig Ó Tuama.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When natural disaster occurs, when catastrophe falls upon us, we humans lean into life. We need the counterbalancing force of creation and renewal to tilt the world back toward meaning and light. We pursue activities that resist a chaos of the mind and spirit, some endeavor that gives us a foothold on the unthinkable, an anchor, a reminder of the eternal nature of existence.”

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 Nowhere Else to Go by Linda Sue Park. This week’s episodes are for, and feature, young poets.

Climate change is an urgent issue for everyone — and our best reminder of this is the young people who are pushing for action. Today’s co-host, Durete, is one of those young people who has marched on the front lines. Her story, and today’s poem, point out a critical factor of this fight: that it is one we must take up hand in hand with our best friends.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these special episodes for young people. Please go to slowdownshow.org/survey to tell us what you think!

Today’s poem is Olympians vs. Modernity by Adelaide Sendlenski. This week’s episodes are for, and feature, young poets.

Adelaide, today’s co-host, is a dedicated tennis player. She’s so busy with school and sports that she writes poetry in the minutes between, thinking up lines while in motion. Today’s poem is one of her own, a poem which deftly connects the power of the Greek gods to the power we aim to claim through consumer culture.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these special episodes for young people. Please go to slowdownshow.org/survey to tell us what you think!

Today’s poem is Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This week’s episodes are for, and feature, young poets.

Ever since taking on the role as host of The Slowdown, I’ve been thinking a lot more about the importance of performance in poetry. An organization that teaches this art to young people is Poetry Out Loud, for which I’ve served as a national judge; today’s co-host, Cat, participated as a performer, winning her region in New York. Her reading of Ozymandias reminded me of something so important: by taking on characters from classic works, we can find new power in being ourselves.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these special episodes for young people. Please go to slowdownshow.org/survey to tell us what you think!

Today’s poem is Occasional Poem by Jaqueline Woodson. This week’s episodes are for, and feature, young poets.

Today’s co-host, Jasper, and I share an entry point to poetry – music. In the songs he’s written, he seeks an honesty and perspective in relationships, which reflects so many great poems. Sometimes, the best way to make sense of something is to bring sound to it – whether the spoken word, a guitar strum, or an onomatopoeia.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these special episodes for young people. Please go to slowdownshow.org/survey to tell us what you think!

Today’s poem is Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. This week’s episodes are for, and feature, young poets. Our producers met up with Nova at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens while the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. And as much as she loved the pink blossoms, the poetry she’s created there comes from more unexpected places. She is a pro at embracing the strangeness of the world, at finding the quiet places so she can really listen to that weirdness. I think this is a lesson that everyone can carry with them, regardless of age. Poets like Lewis Carroll, one of her favorites, have been doing it for generations.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these special episodes for young people. Please go to slowdownshow.org/survey to tell us what you think!

Today’s poem is Flesh (“You in your ecstasy of coffee”) by Deborah Landau.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When summer arrives, I run as fast as I can into its lushness. I am making new memories with family and friends that involve nights of alfresco dining, remote beaches, mountain ranges, and sun-drenched cocktail parties. Summer is the season that beckons most my senses; all that fruit bursting its wild colors: strawberries, apricots, and peaches. Whereas winter feels interminable, I am most aware summer’s bounty is numbered, finite.” 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 Hymn to Church Basements by Joan Kwon Glass.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exalts the unadorned spaces where those on the journey to recovery find acceptance and community.” 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 Ethnic Arithmetic by Sara R. Burnett.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “One of the deeply harmful and insidious ways white supremacy wounds people is having them believe they are superior to (or less than), based merely on skin color. There’s a deep sadness in not seeing each other as whole human beings, in not recognizing the gift and potential beyond bureaucratic designations that confine us. Even here, I almost wrote “define us.” Identity is fraught and never more so than when we are reduced to a box to check on a census document, employment record, or audience survey.”

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 Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Tranströmer.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "Contemporary art and poetry encourage uncertainty and a spirit of inquiry. If we are willing to let go of our frustration, abandoning the quest for meaning can be its own spiritual reward. Today’s extraordinary poem constructs a fascinating and dreamy space where images sharpen into an immense and profound notion of the land and human interdependence." 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 Four-in-Hand by Kweku Abimbola.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… "When I was young, I played basketball for hours. As much as I enjoyed playing back then with my friends, I loved shooting hoops even more with my dad. In my youth, we never lived together. I wince when I think of myself back then, always trying to dazzle him during visits or whenever I spent time at his home. I continually tried to prove myself worthy of his affection, which was everything to me. Before he arrived to pick me up for the weekend, I carefully placed my new championship trophies within sight in the living room, so that when he saw them, he would heap praise. Do we ever stop seeking our parents’ affirmations and affection?" 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 Tea with Ann by Mary Brancaccio.

In this episode, Major writes… “I had always thought my friendships would last forever, but life subverts the noblest of intentions. So, kudos to all those who have stayed friends without the aide of an algorithm or social media platform.”

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 Worry (the Dybbuk) by Anthony Immergluck.

In this episode, Major writes… “After living through all manner of personal and communal tribulations, I’ve come to believe things will work themselves out. Yet, it’s not that the worries have gone away. Just like in my early days, I’ve learned to find ways to ease the burdens and uneasiness of living. Of course, I’m not trying to find a fully anxiety-free existence; it’s good to have a barking dog occasionally at one’s heels. I just try to walk past it when I need to.”

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 To the Buyer of Our Old Home by Helen Pruitt Wallace.

In this episode, Major writes… “If you are a writer, old houses are more than quaint. They send the imagination down the corridors of time. What did the children dream of? Which songs were sung? What stories did the elders share? What sadness fell upon their souls and how did they tend to their wounds?”

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 La Peste by Marilyn Nelson.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem states a truth about turbulent times. After sadness, fear, and uncertainty, we will inevitably feel that distinct sense of having surmounted some great hardship. This suffering makes life precious, and above all, makes our friends treasured. And may I suggest, that to follow this episode, you might queue up Destiny’s Child’s iconic song “Survivor.””

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 Last Night I Had Such Good Dreams by Jennifer Perrine.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem points out that sometimes that voice streaming in our heads isn’t even our own. Sometimes words directed back to ourselves as lack of worth, the self-critiques that we vocalize, though of our own making, are sentiments put there by someone else.”

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 Apologia by Cherene Sherrard.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, drawn from the language of biology, contains a strong and simple message about diversity in society.”

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 Learning Money in Reverse by Stephanie Niu.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s ingenious poem calls attention to the lived realities of financial literacy, how it’s touch and go, and how it’s thrust upon us if we are not fortunate to receive those lessons in our home.”

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 Diving at Blue Hole by Ally Young.

In this episode, Major writes… “In the spirit of Walt Whitman who heard the chorus of voices that made America and its geography, today’s poem continues the rich tradition of celebrating a poetry of place, utterly unique and rich for its ability to cultivate its poets to sing our land into our literary record.”

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 from BOOK OF THE OTHER by Truong Tran.

In this episode, Major writes… “Names carry family histories, maybe even indicate what region of the country we reside in, or from where our ancestors traveled. This is why it comes as an affront when someone fails to learn how to say our name or worse, makes up a name for us, like my fourth-grade teacher who, instead of learning to pronounce the “ethnic” names of her students, renamed all of us after French painters.”

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 And Everywhere Offering Human Sound by Joan Houlihan.

In this episode, Major writes… “Through my many years of reading poetry, I feel as though I’ve absorbed other people’s stories and feelings. I strongly believe this has fortified me with a spirit of kindness, poetry as a daily pill of compassion. This is a grounding tenet in my belief in poetry as a communal and righteous good. We get to see through each other’s eyes and feel through each other’s hearts.”

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 "I Want" Song by Rachel Richardson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “On occasion, I question whether or not my desires are my desires. Or has my subconscious merely given into the massive amounts of stimuli of our modern age? For example, take this almond milk grande cappuccino with one-pump sugar-free vanilla syrup. Now that it sits on my desk, half-full and cold as a wet day on the beach, I am not convinced I really wanted an espresso drink. Plus, over several days, I guess I had been seeing them everywhere… and that made it feel like a natural need.”

Today’s poem is Placebo by Preeti Vangani. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When medical science runs its course, we desperately pursue other pathways to healing. Such was the case with my grandmother. Today’s poignant narrative poem highlights the extent of our vulnerability when we wish to save those we love.”

Today’s poem is To be brave, I look to the daffodil by Susan Nguyen. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I live in that between space of Play it safe and Go for it. I mostly proceed with caution but then again, foolishly, I brave activities that put life and limb at risk, like jumping off a cliff into an unknown depth of water. Literally and figuratively. I’ve never jumped out of an airplane, and I probably would be that guy who’d need to be pushed into a skydive. But I see writing poetry as equally not for the faint of heart.”

Today’s poem is from LET IT BE BROKE by Ed Pavlić. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem celebrates the bonding that occurs when music and art are at the center of our treasured relationships. There is gratitude for the ways we learn to talk to each other as family and friends, that make music a spiritual bridge across time.”

Today’s poem is Forestbathing (or Trees) by francine j. harris. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “As we stroll slowly beneath the earth’s giants, amidst fungi, moss, lichen, and ferns, we are being workshopped in dappled light. What’s restorative isn’t merely the smells and sounds of woodlands, chirping birds and glimpses of wildlife. We are forced to confront the illusions of modern life. We are awash with a simplicity that takes us to idylls of clarity, that encourages introspection. We are reoriented toward human’s first encounter with beauty. It might be, too, that the trees, in communicating amongst themselves across distances, connect us even more to earth’s innate will toward life.”

Today’s poem is I Was Wrong About So Much by Eugenia Leigh. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem exquisitely models one of my new and favorite acts of speech, that moment when we hold ourselves accountable for our mishaps and make amends — which feels like taking time to grow.” 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 Split by Paul Hlava Ceballos. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poet makes use of the poem as a repository of autobiographical facts, all while dramatizing larger questions of origin, citizenship, immigration, and nationhood.” 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 If There Is Another World by Malena Mörling. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s compelling poem makes an implicit argument—that evidence of a parallel world might just be in front of our eyes. Instead of smashing atoms, we merely need to observe and record our daily singularities, which feel, at times, surreal and otherworldly. As with life, every decision made in a poem creates a new universe.” 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 Six for Gold by Kate Hanson Foster. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Confession: As a young parent, when my children barraged me with questions, so many times, I wanted to [poof] disappear. We’ve all experienced this moment (right?) when a child suddenly becomes a human question generator or a “you-think-you’re-smart-but-I’m-going-to-bring-you-to-your-knees-in-recognition-of-your-ignorance” kind of a child? No, there was never malice, but the onslaught felt relentless. Today’s poem models the pitch of imagination that goes into satisfying a child’s curiosity in a way that leaves room for magic.” 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 Liturgy for Family Circles by Joanna Currey.

Today’s poem is Some Madness There by Charlotte Pence.

Today’s poem is Dear Future Me (#12) by Lena Moses-Schmitt. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Writing poetry is chiefly a search for language that makes a tidy explanation of both the present and the past, with the hope our mind grabs on so that the poem emerges also as a visceral experience of thinking, that is, thinking as an unfolding and awakening, both for the author and the reader or in this instance, a listener. But then occasionally, writing poetry is also an offering to the future: poem as a container of time, whose language signifies the era in which it was written.” 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 A Ruin by Paul Muldoon.

Today’s poem is Family Court by Patricia Kirkpatrick. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s heartbreaking poem conveys those acute emotional feelings of failure and sheer disbelief that arrive when a marriage is irreparably damaged. Once again, poetry, in its restorative powers to name the inner life, sets us on a journey to restoration and rebuilding.” 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 Zelda Fitzgerald by Aria Aber. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “We have a long history in American poetry of dramatic monologues, of taking on a character in our own expression. Lately, however, I’ve had trouble working out the ethics of portraying someone other than myself. And yet, as one poet says, the dramatic monologue has been an important tool in recuperating silenced voices. Today’s phenomenal poem does just that. It avoids what my friend Akshya calls the “performance of marginality” by portraying a full, interior life of a woman writer, whose story of mental illness often eclipses her genius.” 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 Whole World is the Best Land I Ever Lived by Lynn Melnick.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I’m always looking for people who don’t want to retreat from the world, but to charge into it with gusto and love. I want to learn their secret. Today’s poet helps me learn. She meditates on being so devoted to the world that she decided to bring someone else into it. To offer the unlikeliness of being to her daughter out of love and wonder.” 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 Agoraphobia by Natasha Sajé. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “I didn’t learn to drive until I was twenty-seven. It’s not because I’m a New Yorker—I finished High School in Maryland, and it’s not because I had a principled opposition to fossil fuels, though I wish I could say it was. It’s because I was in a car accident when I was seventeen. I didn’t learn to drive not because I was afraid of driving, but because I was afraid of what could go wrong if I drove. It took me another ten years to face my fears. Finally, like the subjects of today’s poem, I realized I was living a smaller life because I was afraid.” 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 Pieta by Michelangelo: Marble, 1499 by Darrel Alejandro Holnes. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “Today’s poem considers an unpainted statue by Michelangelo, depicting Mary holding her son Jesus just after his removal from the cross. I remember seeing this statue when I was very young and being deeply moved both by the posture of Mary’s sorrow, and by the incredible skill of sculpting, by which the cold marble seems as warm and soft as flesh. Here, the poet wonders what color might do to us as the light carrying the image of the statue enters our eyes.” 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 Truth by Natasha Rao. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “A pretty common response to loss is to encourage other people to cherish what…and whom… they still have. When someone loses a parent, they remind the people around them to call their own mom and dad more often, or they post on social media to exhort you to hold your loved ones a little bit closer tonight. It’s not bad advice, of course, but in my experience, it’s not the saying I love you that’s hard, or the hug that’s hard, it’s the showing up every day, the long conversations that veer into awkward moments of disagreement or the demands imposed by care or necessity.” 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 Fire Destroys Beloved Chicago Bakery by Nathan McClain. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “Today’s poem starts with a conceit, an idea or premise that motivates the poem. The speaker misreads the word “fire” as “father”— and then proceeds along the twin lines of malapropism and Freudian slip. At times the usage is funny and clever, and at times dire and significant, and sometimes — because this is a poem — it’s both.” 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 A City Like a Guillotine Shivers on Its Way to the Neck by Ilya Kaminsky. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Jason Schneiderman writes… “Today’s poem is from a sequence of poems about a town that has been invaded by an occupying force. Both sides believe that they are on the side of right, and both sides justify their violence by calling it a response to the other side’s violence. The poet’s sympathy is certainly with the occupied people, and as a Ukrainian American poet, Ilya Kaminsky’s poems have become relevant in a new way, as they speak to the atrocities we are currently witnessing in his country of origin.” 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 "anyone can be beautiful: by Kay Gabriel. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “Today’s poem is from a sequence of sonnets celebrating Candy Darling. The poet starts her poems with a quote from Darling’s diaries, engaging her intellect, but never forgetting the beautiful surface she presented to the world.” 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 Two Boys Ago by Kazim Ali. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “There’s something wonderful about having no context, about the first time you encounter an idea in art or life, that shock of recognition and that glimpse of a new world, but there’s also something wonderful about being able to see how that idea fits into a bigger picture. Today’s poem offers us those puzzle pieces one by one, but as a negative. In refusing the things the speaker no longer wants, fragments of life come into focus, and we discover a gorgeous portrait of the artist and the poet, and the mystery of negation that makes each piece present.” 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 Railroad Worm by Kimiko Hahn. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “Night can be cozy or night can be sexy, and night is always spiked with a little bit of danger. Night has always felt full of possibility to me. In college, I loved coming back to the dormitories at night, seeing the lights on in my friends’ windows. We humans are fascinated by anything that illuminates the darkness. We love the moon, and we love the stars. We love lightning bugs, and glow sticks, and I might know a little something about neon body paint under the black lights of the dance floor.” 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 Illiterate by William Meredith. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “Today’s poem is about taking time to turn over and over the mysteries of gratitude and the ways in which desire makes us strange to ourselves. The poet uses the mysteries of writing and the figure of illiteracy not to pin down what it meant for him to know love, but to open up the space where love might be seen in all its confusions.” 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 Panama Hat by David Lehman. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s instructive poem realizes that sometimes, simply saying what happened with accuracy is the poem, naming in such a way that we become enchanting to ourselves.” 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's Been Caged by Jamaica Baldwin.

Today’s poem is Don't Touch by Sarah Carson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “When I hear of violent shootings in some part of the country, places of worship in Pittsburgh and Charleston, or a grocery store in Buffalo, concert venues and clubs, our schools, not only am I devastated and returned to early trauma, I think once again how we continually fail each other by not passing gun control laws that are substantive and impactful — even more, how we fail our children who deserve every day, minute, hour their birth promises them. We are arming ourselves against our senses of compassion.” 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 Against Poetry by Diane Seuss. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The truth is, I have questioned poetry’s value, and my role in making it. I don’t know what to do when people ask “What kind of poetry do you write?” Picture me, wide-eyed blinking with a fake smile, like I was thrust onto a red carpet. Or what to do when someone states with mild revulsion: “I don’t get poetry.” Or, in the company of a contrarian, with a disdain for the here and now, asserts: “Poetry written today does not hold a candle to the poetry of the past.” I just read such an editorial . . . oh well, his loss.” 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 Naming the Waves by Alison Prine. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The love language in today’s poem can be classified as “words of affirmation” — in this case, words that describe the seaside, but also the world that the speaker and their love share. It models a spirit of full immersion, one in which the power of seeing becomes a vow of commitment and a gorgeous illustration of affection.” 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 How by Heid E. Erdrich. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Isn’t it a pleasure sometimes to simply live in the ineffable? I have noticed lately that running to retrieve my phone to source answers short-circuits one of my favorite feelings in life: the evocative experience of being awed, encountering something vast and grand. Today’s poem is full of the music of wonder and the miracle that makes itself visible to us in both the extraordinary and the ordinary.” 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 Hotter Than July by DaMaris B. Hill. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I love my aging body because it is a living record of my growth. It holds all the history of my feelings and perceptions. When I hear music and begin to unselfconsciously dance, that’s my body calibrating once again, tuning. Do I wish to return my body to its former state? Yes, I guess I do, which is why I bike and walk frequently, to bring me closer. But ultimately, I love my body against all the messages from outside that I should not. It’s the only body I have to love.” 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 Head of Anahit / British Museum by Peter Balakian. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem imagines a father’s future funeral and voices an intention to both preserve and remember the small moments, that which becomes large once our parents are no longer present in our lives.” 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 Salmon by Gabrielle Bates. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem imagines a father’s future funeral and voices an intention to both preserve and remember the small moments, that which becomes large once our parents are no longer present in our lives.” 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 Cricket Song by George Kalogeris. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “At times, no words exist to capture our rapid, forward-marching world. Life outpaces language. It is then we attempt to create fresh language or rinse cycle words until we have a new purchase on old concepts. For example, for about a decade, I’ve been trying to formulate a word that explains the phenomenon of contagious yawning. It’s a thing and I’m haunted by this lack in our speech. It is what leads me to sing.” 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 I Have No Idea What's Going to Happen by Justin Marks. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s understated poem shows us how impromptu encounters with art, those that are unforeseen, disruptive in the best sense, have us dwell outside time and exist within the spirit of the maker, then return us to our days with a new purchase on our lives.” 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 Jesus Saves by Jae Nichelle. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s sly poem riffs off that famous setup of three holy men walking into a bar. Instead of a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, Jesus walks in, and instead of a bar, he saunters into a coffee shop. I enjoy when poets ask themselves the question “What if,” which is the crux of any joke, but also of many great poems.” 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 Egrets (in memory of Barry Lopez) by Ralph Black. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Writers build universes out of letters and words from mere marks of a pen or keystrokes on a keyboard: an interiority to be heard and imagined in the reader’s mind. Which is to say: poets rely on readers to make pictures in their head or to hear the thoughts of the speaker in a poem. Poetry shocks us into a recognition of the world and helps renew our lost, or maybe, lapsed capacity to feel.” 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 Everything Lies in All Directions by Hua Xi.

Today’s poem is Context is all by Erica Hunt. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem underscores the implied racial and class dynamics at the center of American life. How we are defined and claimed and rendered opponents; how the ongoing battles and struggles construct an “Us vs Them.” Even when it means abandoning an authentic selfhood separate from, yet a part of, the groups we get put into.” 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 Freeways Considered As Earth Gods by Dana Gioia. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s terrifically imagined poem personifies our system of roads and thoroughfares as commanding mythic figures. In this way, it dramatizes the extent to which we are profoundly enmeshed with and dependent on that system, which has made life convenient for humankind, but in the process, imperiled our planet.” 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 My Mother Talks to Her Son About Her Heart by Kerrin McCadden. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I marvel at our capacity to love each other, beyond artificial categories and social boundaries. I am awed by how we fill in the gaps for each other.” 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 on persona by Raena Shirali. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I often think about poetry’s distinct ability to mute what estranges and highlight more of what we share. In writing poems about our lives, we provide pathways for others to feel and understand our common journey of breathing together on our shared planet, and in the best case, to inhabit our various freedoms.” 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 Forgiveness, Perhaps by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem, through repetition, reminds us that forgiveness takes serious effort; it is an ongoing act of affording grace, mercy, and compassion, whose result allows us to live more fully in the present, rather than be destroyed by the past.” 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 September by Nathaniel Perry. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s gorgeous poem invokes the enigmatic energy of an impending storm, the kind that mesmerizes, that beckons us to read the symbolism of nature, that points to both destruction and life.” 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 Possum by Todd F. Davis.

Today’s poem is There Is No Touchdown Here, Belichick by Vi Khi Nao.

Today’s poem is A Statement from No One, Incorporated by Justin Phillip Reed.

Today’s poem is Birds in Home Depot—December by Richard Maxson.

Today’s poem is Short Essay on Love by Sarah Manguso.

Today’s poem is Polycardial by James Hoch.

Today’s poem is Discourse by Orlando White.

Today’s poem is Foxglove by Ambalila Hemsell.

Today’s poem is In Light of Stars by Bruce Willard.

Today’s poem is Heirloom by Zeina Hashem Beck.

Today’s poem is Landscape with Things by Alexandria Hall.

Today’s poem is We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Today’s poem is Fragment (Stone) by Ann Lauterbach.

Today’s poem is Improvement by Danusha Laméris.

Today’s poem is Night Terrors in America by CJ Evans.

Today’s poem is Shucking Oysters by Khalisa Rae. This episode was originally released on August 15, 2022.

Today’s poem is Hammond B3 Organ Cistern by Gabrielle Calvocoressi. This episode was originally released on November 24, 2021.

Today’s poem is Don't Think by Elisa Gabbert. This episode was originally released on March 14, 2022.

Today’s poem is Final Poem for the "Field of Poetry" by Phillip B. Williams. This episode was originally released on June 7, 2022.

Today’s poem is Asking About My Mother by Crystal Wilkinson. This episode was originally released on December 20, 2021.

Today’s poem is Reading Szymborska at Friday Harbor by Patrycja Humienik. This episode was originally released on June 14th, 2022.

In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown's new host, Major Jackson, for new episodes beginning January 23, 2023.

Today’s poem is Red-ish Brown-ish by Trevino L. Brings Plenty. This episode was originally released on January 4th, 2022.

Today’s poem is Not everything is a poem by Maggie Smith. This episode was originally released on March 7th, 2022.

Today’s poem is It Must Be The Supermarket in Me by Major Jackson. Major Jackson will be the new host of the Slowdown, starting on January 23rd, 2023.

Today’s poem is Eventually / One Point Where We Arrive by Adam Clay. This episode was originally released on March 28th, 2022.

Today’s poem is Museum of Sex by Ellen Hagan. This episode was originally released on July 15, 2022.

Today’s poem is Private Property by Analicia Sotelo. This episode was originally released on November 29, 2021.

Today’s poem is On Friendship by Hagit Grossman. This episode was originally released on September 28, 2022.

Today’s poem is Romantics by Lisel Mueller. This episode was originally released on September 30, 2021.

Today’s poem is Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali. This episode was originally released on September 23, 2022.

Today’s poem is Cherry Blossoms by Toi Derricotte. This episode was originally released on August 12, 2022.

Today’s poem is Bury Me in the Woods of My Childhood by Erin Rodoni. This episode was originally released on December 23, 2021.

Today’s poem is The Lonely Humans by Jennifer Chang. This episode was originally released on December 8, 2021.

Today’s poem is Trees at Night by Helene Johnson. This episode was originally released on May 30, 2022.

Today’s poem is Taking Down the Tree by Jane Kenyon. This episode was originally released on December 8, 2021.

Today’s poem is Don't Say Love Just Signal by Tyree Daye. This episode was originally released on March 9, 2022.

Today’s poem is Marte by Gustavo Hernandez. This episode was originally released on January 7, 2022.

Today’s poem is Photosynthesis by Ashley M. Jones. This episode was originally released on June 17, 2022.

Today’s poem is Besaydoo by Yalie Saweda Kamara. This episode was originally released on December 15, 2021.

Today’s poem is Present Tense by Maya Pindyck. This episode was originally released on September 28, 2021.

Today’s poem is How I Learned Bliss by Oliver de la Paz. This episode was originally released on December 27, 2021.

Today’s poem is Self-Portrait With Woman On The Subway by Hayan Charara. This episode was originally released on March 2, 2022.

Today’s poem is Other Women's Babies by Rachel Long. This episode was originally released on June 8, 2022.

Today’s poem is Travel by Edna St. Vincent Millay. This episode was originally released on November 17, 2021.

Today’s poem is Metro-North by Jason Barry. This episode was originally released on May 2, 2022.

Today’s poem is Parable of Childhood by Wayne Miller. This episode was originally released on December 3, 2021.

Today’s poem is sunrise through mount vernon, wa. by Jasmine Khaliq. This episode was originally released on April 8, 2022.

Today’s poem is In the End You Get Everything Back (Liza Minnelli) by Jason Schneiderman. This episode was originally released on April 15, 2022.

Today’s poem is Afterlife with a Gentle Afterward by Matthew Henriksen. This episode was originally released on July 13, 2022.

Today’s poem is Wondrous by Sarah Freligh. This episode was originally released on September 24, 2021.

Today’s poem is The Bats by Mark Wunderlich. This episode was originally released on June 27, 2022.

Today’s poem is Nest by Sarah Arvio. This episode was originally released on March 18, 2022.

Today’s poem is Missing Cat by Freesia McKee. This episode was originally released on October 8, 2021.

Today’s poem is Elegy for Kentucky by Joy Priest. This episode was originally released on February 24, 2022.

Today’s poem is Training by Diannely Antigua. This episode was originally released on April 12, 2022.

Today’s poem is Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones. This episode was originally released on June 3, 2022.

Today’s poem is Our Valley by Philip Levine. This episode was originally released on October 14, 2021.

Today’s poem is Rehearsal for the New World by Hazem Fahmy. This episode was originally released on September 23, 2021.

Today’s poem is New Town by Aleksandar Hemon. This episode was originally released on May 12, 2022.

Today’s poem is Invocation by W. Todd Kaneko. This episode was originally released on October 12 2021.

Today’s poem is To Be in Love by Gwendolyn Brooks. This episode was originally released on April 27, 2022.

Today’s poem is After the Fire by Gregory Fraser. This episode was originally released on February 16, 2022.

Today’s poem is Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem by Matthew Olzmann. This episode was originally released on November 19, 2021.

Today’s poem is The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings. by Donika Kelly. This episode was originally released on October 29, 2021.

Today’s poem is Love is a Luminous Insect at the Window by Martín Espada. This episode was originally released on April 7, 2022.

Today’s poem is Georgia O'Keeffe, "From the Faraway, Nearby," 1937 by Camille Carter. This episode was originally released on April 1, 2022.

Today’s poem is During the Pandemic I Listen to the July 26, 1965, Juan-les-Pins Recording of A Love Supreme by Ellen Bass. This episode was originally released on February 15, 2022.

Today’s poem is every exquisite thing by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes. This episode was originally released on April 5, 2022.

Today’s poem is Pegasus Autopsy by Julio Pazos Barrera. This episode was originally released on January 24, 2022.

Today’s poem is The Studio by Cedar Sigo. This episode was originally released on February 21 2022.

Today’s poem is Halfway by Paula Mendoza.

This episode was originally released on 3/11/2022.

Today’s poem is I Have a Rendezvous With Life by Countee Cullen.

This episode was originally released on 5/26/2022.

Today’s poem is Metamorphosis: The Female Into by Maggie Queeney.

This episode was originally released on 10/7/2021.

Today’s poem is How to Hold the Heavy Weight of Now by Dana Levin.

This episode was originally released on 3/22/2022.

Today’s poem is The End of Poetry by Ada Limón.

Today’s poem is High Fidelity by Tara Betts.

Today’s poem is Children Listen by Roger Reeves.

Today’s poem is Trash by Joshua Bennett.

Today’s poem is Love Poem by Jayme Ringleb.

Today’s poem is Anxiety checks her phone again by K.A. Hays.

Today’s poem is hoop snake by Rebecca Wee.

Today’s poem is John Muir, A Dream, A Waterfall, A Mountain Ash by Robert Hass.

Today’s poem is The Orange by Wendy Cope.

Today’s poem is Compassion Comes Late by Fady Joudah.

Today’s poem is Magdalene—The Seven Devils by Marie Howe.

Today’s poem is Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds.

Today’s poem is The Beginning of the Beginning by Phuong T. Vuong.

Today’s poem is The Strength of U by DeShara Suggs-Joe.

Today’s poem is Cut Apple by Richelle Buccilli.

Today’s poem is Edward Hopper Study: Hotel Room by Victoria Chang.

Today’s poem is My Rock by Pat Mora.

Today’s poem is Batter My Heart, Transgender'd God by Meg Day.

Today’s poem is The Lightkeeper by Carolyn Forché.

Today’s poem is Bonfire Brides by Faylita Hicks.

Today’s poem is A Case Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies by Keisha Cassel.

Today’s poem is Uncertainty Principle at Dawn by Catherine Barnett.

Today’s poem is The Dead Are Beautiful Tonight by Luther Hughes.

Today’s poem is On Friendship by Hagit Grossman.

Today’s poem is Your Damage by Mary Biddinger.

Today’s poem is And by Nicole Sealey.

Today’s poem is Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali.

Today’s poem is Lately I Am Trying by Sanna Wani.

Today’s poem is Love Poem by Megan Fernandes.

Today’s poem is All I Know by Paul Guest.

Today’s poem is a fishing story. by Mia S. Willis.

Today’s poem is Fides, Spes by Willa Cather.

Today’s poem is Erasure of Girlhood by Sarah María Medina.

Today’s poem is Home is still possible there… by Kateryna Kalytko, translated by Olena Jennings and Oksana Lutsyshyna.

Today’s poem After by Andrea Cohen.

Today’s poem is Song by Charif Shanahan.

Today’s poem is Gitanjali 60 by Rabindranath Tagore.

Today’s poem is What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin.

Today’s poem is February Augury by Sarah Ghazal Ali.

Today’s poem is Songs for the People by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

Today’s poem is On Being Asked, "What Is Your Dream Job?" by Ally Ang.

Today’s poem is from SHIFTING THE SILENCE by Etel Adnan.

Today’s poem is List of Things To Say Instead of "I'm Fine" by Marlin M. Jenkins.

Today’s poem is Snow by Louis MacNeice.

Today’s poem is Behaving Like a Jew by Gerald Stern.

Today’s poem is Ars Poetica by Valzhyna Mort.

Today’s poem is Sun Goes Up by Hilary-Anne Farley.

Today’s poem is gather them & give them back to me. by Renia White.

Today’s poem is The rest of a life by Mahmoud Darwish.

Today’s poem is A Study of Beauty by Patrick Rosal.

Today’s poem is My Name Is Not The Cruelest Month by April Ranger.

Today’s poem is Contentment by Rüştü Onur, translated by Hüseyin Alhas and Ulaş Özgün.

Today’s poem is And the Word Was God by Savannah Sipple.

Today’s poem is In the end we are humanlike: Blade Runner 2049 by Nina Mingya Powles.

Today’s poem is Another Attempt at Rescue by M.L. Smoker.

Today’s poem is Shucking Oysters by Khalisa Rae.

Today’s poem is Cherry Blossoms by Toi Derricotte.

Today’s poem is Park Benches with Teeth by Mohammed El-Kurd.

Today’s poem is A Small Moment by Cornelius Eady.

Today’s poem is For the Korean Grandmother on Sunset Boulevard by Christine Kitano.

Today’s poem is Deep Learning by Ryann Stevenson.

Today’s poem is A Man in My Bed Like Cracker Crumbs by Sandra Cisneros. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Disease Is Not the Only Thing That Spreads by Seema Yasmin. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Caregiving by Maya Marshall. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is n̶o̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶e̶e̶t̶ by Aurielle Marie. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Borderland Apocrypha by Anthony Cody. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Fiery Young Colored Girl by Alison C. Rollins. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Grief Symphony by Noor Hindi. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Ode to the Crossfader by John Murillo. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is After Abolition by Kyle Carrero Lopez. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Black Light by A. Van Jordan. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.

Today’s poem is Conditionally by Devin Kelly.

Today’s poem is Divorce by José A. Alcantara.

Today’s poem is Ghazal for Dogeaters by Danni Quintos.

Today’s poem is Self-Portrait as Duckie Dale by Nicky Beer.

Today’s poem is The Trees are Down by Charlotte Mew.

Today’s poem is Museum of Sex by Ellen Hagan.

Today’s poem is Weeding by Dan Rosenberg.

Today’s poem is Afterlife with a Gentle Afterward by Matthew Henriksen.

Today’s poem is Without by Joy Harjo.

Today’s poem is I Dream of Horses Eating Cops by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza.

Today’s poem is A Personality Test by Maureen Thorson.

Today’s poem is how to make her stay by Shauna M. Morgan.

Today’s poem is Saguaros by Javier Zamora.

Today’s poem is Droplet by Caitlin Scarano.

Today’s poem is Acknowledgments by Nkosi Nkululeko.

Today’s poem is Work Song by Dawn Lundy Martin.

Today’s poem is Bruised Peaches by Bronwen Tate.

Today’s poem is Poem for My Children Born During the Sixth Extinction by Laura Cresté.

Today’s poem is Scavenged by Dion O'Reilly.

Today’s poem is The Bats by Mark Wunderlich.

Today’s poem is Hunter's Moon by Ansel Elkins.

Today’s poem is A Thousand Cardinals by Julian Randall.

Today’s poem is Slow Drag with Branches of Pine by Ama Codjoe.

Today’s poem is Summer Sorrow by Leonora Speyer.

Today’s poem is Juneteenth, 2020 by Mariama J. Lockington.

Today’s poem is Photosynthesis by Ashley M. Jones.

Today’s poem is Morning Freight by Sophia Terazawa.

Today’s poem is When Light Leaves Her Eyes by Kwame Dawes.

Today’s poem is Reading Szymborska at Friday Harbor by Patrycja Humienik.

Today’s poem is Pastoral by Djuna Barnes.

Today’s poem is Romance Is in the Air by Danny Caine.

Today’s poem is Portrait of the Artist by Dorothy Parker.

Today’s poem is Other Women's Babies by Rachel Long.

Today’s poem is Final Poem for the "Field of Poetry" by Phillip B. Williams.

Today’s poem is Deportation by Stella Wong.

Today’s poem is Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones.

Today’s poem is [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings.

Today’s poem is Ode to a Freckle above My Left Breast by Amy Haddad.

Today’s poem is The Wealth by Bianca Stone.

Today’s poem is Trees at Night by Helene Johnson.

Today’s poem is I Would Do Anything For Love, But I Won't by Traci Brimhall.

Today’s poem is I Have a Rendezvous With Life by ​​Countee Cullen.

Today’s poem is At Forty, the Mountains Are More Green by Keetje Kuipers.

Today’s poem is The Point by C. Dale Young.

Today’s poem is The Years That The Days and Months Turned Into by Shafer Hall.

Today’s poem is Self-Care by Solmaz Sharif.

Today’s poem is You're the One I Wanna Watch the Last Ships Go Down With by Brian Tierney.

Today’s poem is Practicing by Ciona Rouse.

Today’s poem is Last Sundays at Bootleggers by Carlos Andrés Gómez.

Today’s poem is [chiasmus with all the other animals] by Brenda Hillman.

Today’s poem is My Ornithology (Orange-crowned Warbler) by Hai-Dang Phan

Today’s poem is New Town by Aleksandar Hemon

Today’s poem is The Cattle Dog by Jenn Givhan

Today’s poem is September by Alexis Sears.

Today’s poem is Think of Me, Laughing by Major Jackson

Today’s poem is Blueberries for Cal by Brenda Shaughnessy

Today’s poem is Lament by Barbara Jane Reyes.

Today’s poem is Now That You've Met God, Where to Go From Here by Anthony Aguero

Today’s poem is Against Mastery by Brionne Janae.

Today’s poem is Metro-North by Jason Barry.

Today’s poem is Prayer Beginning with a Line by Czaykowski by Pablo Piñero Stillmann.

Today’s poem is The Evening Meeting by Matthew Zapruder.

Today’s poem is To Be in Love by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Today’s poem is The Field by Rick Barot.

Today’s poem is Flowers, Poems, Flower Poems by Rachelle Toarmino.

Today’s poem is soiree by caroline sinavaiana-gabbard.

Today’s poem is Shot in Sobriety by Joan Naviyuk Kane.

Today’s poem is Deep in the Rock by Laura Tohe.

Today’s poem is cycle by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Today’s poem is The Frolicsome Crests and Glistening by Rena Priest.

Today’s poem is In the End You Get Everything Back (Liza Minnelli) by Jason Schneiderman.

Today’s poem is Get Out of the Water by Monica Rico.

Today’s poem is Credo by Alex Lemon.

Today’s poem is Training by Diannely Antigua.

Today’s poem is Notes on Self-Care by Yesenia Montilla.

Today’s poem is sunrise through mount vernon, wa. by Jasmine Khaliq.

Today’s poem is Love is a Luminous Insect at the Window by Martín Espada.

Today’s poem is Walking Across Fire Island by Shelley Wong.

Today’s poem is every exquisite thing by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes.

Today’s poem is It’s 9:30am, I’ve ran four miles, cried four times, & eaten two chicken sandwiches by Christian Aldana.

Today’s poem is Georgia O'Keeffe, "From the Faraway, Nearby," 1937 by Camille Carter.

Today’s poem is Come give me a kiss on the cheek by Manahil Bandukwala.

Today’s poem is Burning Duplex by Janiru Liyanage.

Today’s poem is Old Growth by Natasha Rao.

Today’s poem is Eventually / One Point Where We Arrive by Adam Clay.

Today’s poem is An Algorithm Matches Me With a Nice Girl and I Tell Her by Jireh Deng.

Today’s poem is In the Bad Days by Kevin Prufer.

Today’s poem is ATLien Freestyles Over "Wheelz of Steel" by Marcus Wicker.

Today’s poem is How to Hold the Heavy Weight of Now by Dana Levin.

Today’s poem is until the meteor makes a shadow over home by Mihee Kim.

Today’s poem is Nest by Sarah Arvio.

Today’s poem is The Moth by Francisco Márquez.

Today’s poem is Touch Cave by Erika Meitner.

Today’s poem is Every Mourning by Michael Kleber-Diggs.

Today’s poem is Don’t Think by Elisa Gabbert.

Today’s poem is Halfway by Paula Mendoza.

Today’s poem is I Guess By Now I Thought I’d Be Done With Shame by Franny Choi.

Today’s poem is Don't Say Love Just Signal by Tyree Daye.

Today’s poem is Explication on a Nude Photograph Taken After Hours at the Bright Beach by A. Prevett.

Today’s poem is Not everything is a poem by Maggie Smith.

Today’s poem is Sunflowers in the Median by Natalie Homer.

Today’s poem is What Do You Want to Do Today by Sean Cho A.

Today’s poem is Self-Portrait With Woman On The Subway by Hayan Charara.

Today’s poem is The Wrong Question More Than Once by Matt Donovan.

Today’s poem is Egrets by Kevin Young.

Today's poem is Without Enchantment by Víctor Fowler Calzada, translated from the Spanish by Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann.

Today's poem is Elegy for Kentucky by Joy Priest.

Today's poem is Places With Terrible Wi-Fi by J. Estanislao Lopez.

Today's poem is flight training by Shayla Lawz.

Today's poem is The Studio by Cedar Sigo.

Today's poem is On Being Asked, "What Is Your Dream Job?" by Ally Ang

Today's poem is City Lake by Chelsea DesAutels

Today's poem is After the Fire by Gregory Fraser

Today's poem is During the Pandemic I Listen to the July 26, 1965, Juan-les-Pins Recording of A Love Supreme by Ellen Bass

Today's poem is A Valentine by Priscilla Jane Thompson

Today's poem is 9 dreams by Nicole Cecilia Delgado.

Today's poem is Las Chácharas They Carried by Antonio de Jesús López.

Today's poem is Chelsea Piers by Joseph O. Legaspi.

Today's poem is The Lunch Counter of Eternal Tears by Nikki Wallschlaeger.

Today's poem is Birthday by Kathleen Rooney.

Today's poem is The Extravagant Stars by Nicole Callihan.

Today's poem is Sligo Abbey by Rebecca Lindenberg.

Today's poem is The Tyger by William Blake.

Today's poem is Life Preserver by Javier Velaza.

Today's poem is I Imagine the Butches' Stripper Bar by Jill McDonough.

Today's poem is Fatherteeth by Ashley Brooke Dailey.

Today's poem is Bioluminescence by Paul Tran.

Today's poem is Facelift by Jennifer L. Knox.

Today's poem is Prayer of the Palo Verde Beetle by Felicia Zamora.

Today's poem is Pegasus Autopsy by Julio Pazos Barrera.

Today's poem is What Bodies Move by Kristene Kaye Brown.

Today's poem is Fragments for Subduing the Silence by Alejandra Pizarnik.

Today's poem is Lavender by Joanna Fuhrman.

Today's poem is The Remaining Facts by Michael Robins.

Today's poem is "Let my anger be the celebration we were never / supposed to have." by Natasha Oladokun.

Today's poem is addy by moonheart (formerly known as kim mayo).

Today's poem is Good Death by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Today's poem is An Old Story by Tracy K. Smith.

Today's poem is Poem That Leaves Behind The Ocean by Jim Moore.

Today's poem is Complex Nonlinear Systems by Chelsea Dingman.

Today's poem is Marte by Gustavo Hernandez.

Today's poem is What We Talk About When We Talk About the Pursuit of Gender Euphoria by Levi Cain.

Today's poem is Marrying the Wind by Brett Elizabeth Jenkins.

Today's poem is Red-ish Brown-ish by Trevino L. Brings Plenty.

Today's poem is Walking the Dogs by Matthew Dickman.

Today's poem is My Empire by Kaveh Akbar.

Today's poem is Setting Lemon Curd by Megan Denton Ray.

Today's poem is Poem Beginning to Sound by Wendy Xu.

Today's poem is Taking Down the Tree by Jane Kenyon.

Today's poem is How I Learned Bliss by Oliver de la Paz.

Today's poem is Monday by Alex Dimitrov.

Today's poem is Bury Me in the Woods of My Childhood by Erin Rodoni.

Today's poem is Earth Evanescent by Maxwell Anderson.

Today's poem is Golden Age by Chris Santiago.

Today's poem is Asking About My Mother by Crystal Wilkinson.

Today's poem is Let's Crawl Into That Photograph & Stay There for a While by Rachel McKibbens.

Today's poem is When You're Young You Always Take Too Much by John McCarthy.

Today's poem is Besaydoo by Yalie Saweda Kamara.

Today's poem is [little tree] by e.e. cummings.

Today's poem is Go Inward by Jen Levitt.

Today's poem is Spell by Emma Hine.

Today's poem is Dust of Snow by Robert Frost.

Today's poem is The Lonely Humans by Jennifer Chang.

Today's poem is from "frank: sonnets" by Diane Seuss.

Today's poem is I, Lover by Elsa Gidlow.

Today's poem is Parable of Childhood by Wayne Miller.

Today's poem is City That Does Not Sleep by Federico García Lorca. Translated by Robert Bly.

Today's poem is from A Year by Jos Charles.

Today's poem is Our Land by Langston Hughes.

Today's poem is Private Property by Analicia Sotelo.

Today's poem is Sonoran Desert Poem by Jake Skeets.

Today's poem is Daylight Saving, Age 5 by James Crews.

Today's poem is Hammond B3 Organ Cistern by Gabrielle Calvocoressi.

Today's poem is Tangerine Peel by Mary Ruefle.

Today's poem is My Standard Response by Karenne Wood.

Today's poem is Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem by Matthew Olzmann.

Today's poem is I Wonder If I Will Miss The Moss by Jane Mead.

Today's poem is Travel by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Today's poem is Ouroboros (Or: A Brief Dip Into the Relationship I Have with My Mother) by Juliette Givhan.

Today's poem is Response, Years Later, to Two Male Poets I Overheard Discussing How Sick They Were of Women's Poems about the Body by Meghan Dunn.

Today's poem is Elegy for Estrogen by V. Penelope Pelizzon.

Today's poem is The Hummingbird by Blas Falconer.

Today's poem is In Gratitude by Abigail Carroll.

Today's poem is Little Grey Dreams by Angelina Weld Grimké.

Today's poem is far away from home I am hungry by Urvi Kumbhat.

Today’s poem is Full Moon by Elinor Wylie.

Today's poem is Declassified by Mai Der Vang.

Today's poem is Today I'm Not Thinking About Gender by Dennison Ty Schultz.

Today's poem is Hoodie by January Gill O'Neil.

Today's poem is This Close by Dorianne Laux.

Today's poem is The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings. by Donika Kelly.

Today's poem is Offering by Albert Garcia.

Today's poem is The Vine by Laura Kasischke.

Today's poem is anti-immigration by Evie Shockley.

Today's poem is Cattails by Nikky Finney.

Today's poem is [Somewhere In Los Angeles] This Poem Is Needed by Christopher Soto.

Today's poem is First by Carrie Fountain.

Today's poem is Rabbits and Fire by Alberto Ríos.

Today's poem is Saudade by Silvia Bonilla.

Today's poem is Bonsai Primer by Zang Di. Translated from Chinese by Eleanor Goodman.