Today’s poem is Take This Poem by Elizabeth Willis. This episode was recorded live, in-person, at On Air Fest 2023. Onstage, Major described that “In coming to this role, I've been thinking a lot about how poetry shifts from the page to the voice. How the words hold different meanings written versus spoken. For when we speak out loud the words of the poets, we access their freedom and consciousness and rage for order. As my friend Robert Pinsky tells us, “poetry’s medium is the individual chest and throat and mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem.” It is a physical embodiment that changes us and the spaces we occupy. The poem creates an environment.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp