Today’s poem is Hunger by Kelli Russell Agodon.

Last spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. This week we’re revisiting these selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Jeannine from Washington.

In this episode, Major writes… “What is it about this stage of dating that has us turn off the radar, render us blind to the red flags, to what we hope our instincts should catch? We become wild in our desperation to present ourselves as worthy of love. Our passionate hearts render us prey to the lost souls who present facades of well-being.”

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 Separation Wall by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Last spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. This week we’re revisiting these selections. Today’s selection was submitted by Meital from Washington, D.C.

In this episode, Major writes… “Coexistence on the planet demands that we transcend reactionary treatment of each other. For this reason, we need poems to tease out our innocence, that part of us untouched by the callousness of the world, to bring us to a sanity beyond inherited hurts and old fears, away from the logic of ‘an eye for an eye.’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that this kind of violence ‘destroys communities and makes humanity impossible. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.’”

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 Sono by Suji Kwock Kim.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. Last spring, we asked our community to submit poems that have helped you slow down in your lives. This week we’re revisiting these selections.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s poem coordinates a masterful flow of language, simulating the journey of a child crossing into our time through another’s body. The poem reminds us, with sound and texture, to not lose our sense of marvel.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp