Maggie Smith

Thank YOU!

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily Performing Arts Podcast · Updated Semiweekly · Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and ...

So grateful to have “Gloria Mundi” featured on The Slowdown podcast this morning. Thank you to the host, Maggie Smith, for seeing the poem fully and reading it beautifully.

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A text graphic featuring a portion of Michael Kleber-Diggs' poem: Come to my funeral dressed as you would for an autumn walk in the woods. Arrive on your schedule; I give you permission to be late, even without good cause. If my day arrives when you had other plans, please proceed with them instead. Celebrate me there — keep dancing. Tend your gardens. Live well. Don’t stop.

Photograph of poet Michael Kleber-Diggs. He's a black man standing in front of a tan brick wall. HE's wearing glasses and has a salt-and-pepper beard.

“The speaker of today’s poem imagines loved ones coming to their funeral—and they have some directives, and some requests," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1402.

Read "Gloria Mundi" by Michael Kleber-Diggs: https://bit.ly/3Xb2ezJ

Thank you!

1402: Gloria Mundi by Michael Kleber-Diggs Today’s poem is Gloria Mundi by Michael Kleber-Diggs.

Oh, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, I love your "confession" at today's @slowdownshow.org: "I have a funeral playlist—a list of songs I want played at whatever my memorial service turns out to be." www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2025...

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Ah the good old days! I’m so glad we met, Kate. Your friendship is a gift.❤️

Text graphic featuring a portion of Rita Dove's poem. It reads: I was waiting I knew they were coming over the hill I knew the moment I stepped out onto the grass I too would disappear What a curious sensation being the stranger If I thought about it too long I would be seen for what I was but try too hard to blend in I might forget myself and miss my pickup and be stranded forever

Photograph of poet Rita Dove. She is a Black woman with chin-length brown, curly hair.

“Today’s poem dreams its way into an imagined scenario: finding oneself on this planet, an alien, a stranger, and doing one’s best to be seen as belonging, so as to stay," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1401 of The Slowdown.

Read "LeaveTaking" by Rita Dove: bit.ly/49VUARa

This afternoon a long call with my friend @theferocity.bsky.social worked some magic for me.❤️

Earnest post alert. I know, when I look back at the weirdest & most complicated times in my life, the not-enough-sleep times, I’ll see what got me through, & it will be my friends.

A text graphic featuring a portion of Bob Hicok's poem. It reads: I am now fathered but fatherless, a being whose being can half be traced to a hole in the ground, where my father’s beard is, and his bones. His beard will grow for a while down there and his bones will never cast a shadow, and I’ll always know where to go to look at his name cut in stone.

A photograph of poet Bob Hicok. He is working on a construction project and wearing a white t-shirt and baseball cap.

“More than any genre, perhaps, poetry can help us say the unsayable," host Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) shares in episode 1400 of The Slowdown. "It helps to let poets take the reins."

Read "The Eulogy I Didn't Give (I)" by Bob Hicok and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/49omPYz

Text graphic featuring a portion of Rachel Dillon's poem. It reads: Please, someone— tell me a poem can coax oil from a sea bird’s throat. Tell me what to do with my hands—my hands— what can my hands do now?

A photograph of poet Rachel Dillon. It's shot in double exposure, so she appears in the image twice, with one version of her looking to the side and one looking forward.

“What can literature, or music, or film, or performance, or visual art do for us, particularly when we are struggling, individually and collectively?" asks @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today's episode, number 1398.

Read "A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem" by Rachel Dillon: bit.ly/4oLpz7f

AWP Award Series

AWP is elated to announce Kiese Laymon, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, Justin Torres, and Weike Wang as judges for the 2026 AWP Award Series! Check out our website to learn more about each judge and award. Submissions open January 1, 2026.

Text graphic featuring a portion of Lisa Low's poem "Palinode." It reads: Your mother enters the poem with her sadness intact. When your mother enters the poem, should she be a strict, sad, hardworking, or immigrant mother? Your mother enters the poem wearing all her animal-print items at once, laughs holding a leopard-print lamp.

Photograph of poet Lisa Lowe. She has short, dark hair and is wearing a black-and-white patterned blouse in front of a green hedge.

“Today’s poem makes us consider how we write about other people," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode number 1397 of The Slowdown.

Read “Palinode" by Lisa Low and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/4p7SOAO

📖: University of Wisconsin Press

Get to it!

Hear, hear.

I don’t know how you reset your vibe, but tonight I’m playing “Dopamine” by Robyn on repeat & dancing around the house & I’m telling you…it’s working.

Writing Rage — Off Assignment

Hey next Feb/March I'm helping the incredible @meganstielstra.bsky.social with a class she's teaching called "Writing Rage." The amazing @smashfizzle.bsky.social and @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social and Carmen Maria Machado are also helping. Will be wild. www.offassignment.com/writing-rage

I’m so glad to hear this! Thank you.

Can’t wait for these new poems!!!

I'm so honored to have my work featured on the Slow Down! Thank you, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social.

Wonderful timing, as I'm writing poems again and trying to finish a manuscript. New poems coming soon from some magazines near you! ✨

A text graphic featuring a portion of Meghan O'Rourke's poem, which you can listen to in full at the link in the post.

“While we don’t have access to the answers, this poem is a beautiful place for the questions to live," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1393 of The Slowdown.

Read “The Night Where You No Longer Live" by @meghanor.bsky.social: bit.ly/4qSoA6s

📖: @wwnorton.com

A graphic featuring a portion of Kai Carlson-Wee's poem. It reads: in early July (maybe the exact same street corner) looking at maple leaves catching the rain, I will see only pity and lichen-shades, barely-there shadows that fall to the street, and the light will be too far away to remember, and the words will be drizzle and maple and green, and before I know it the language will not let me leave it–– the traffic will pass as it always has passed: dependably, rumbling west of the bridge.

“Sometimes I prefer to engage with art — to listen to a record or see a film — without expectations," host Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) shares in episode number 1392 of The Slowdown.

Read “Local Mission" by Kai Carlson-Wee and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/47QaRVl

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Stumbled upon @shelflifebooksrva.bsky.social while walking around Richmond, VA today. What a great little bookstore! Grabbed The People’s Project for my flight home tonite. Perfect carry-on size. Been on my TBR for a while. Thank you, @theferocity.bsky.social & @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social

Graphic featuring a portion of David Baker's poem. It reads: That's us pointing with our delible whorls into the faraway, the true-born blue- white unfeathering cloud of another year. Another sheet of their never ending.

Photograph of poet David Baker. He's wearing a black collared shirt and round-rimmed glasses.

“Today’s poem is one I’ve carried around in my mind for years, one whose language I flash to instinctively when I see a flock of birds," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1391.

Read "Never-ending Birds" by David Baker (@davidbakerpoet.bsky.social): bit.ly/4ouhPWU

📖: @wwnorton.com

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A quote graphic featuring a portion of Natasha Oladokun's poem. It reads: decked in black from scalp to heel scythe in hand ready and eager to meet yourself pounding at your own door for all the talk you keep hearing these days about the need for gallows humor you have to wonder who is putting what or whom on the scaffold as you drive Old Lynchburg Road so curved and steep you cannot see the faint parting of light lying beyond it

A photograph of poet Natasha Oladokun. She has long, dark curly hair, tattoos, and is wearing a flannel shirt.

“There is power in naming, as today’s poem reminds us," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1390 of The Slowdown. "Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Nor should you."

Read “The Poem Climbs the Scaffold and Tells You What It Sees" by @natashaoladokun.bsky.social: bit.ly/49At8by

"You can also save someone’s life by loving them, by just being with them so they’re not alone." - @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in the intro to this beautiful and gutting poem about friendship by @jennymolberg.bsky.social