867: Four-in-Hand

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

Om Podcasten

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 the lives of others, to help us live creatively and compassionately, to use that attention to lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope — to keep hoping. The Slowdown community knows that reflecting on a poem, every weekday, can connect us to our inner world and the world around us. Listen as you make your morning coffee, as you go on a walk in your neighborhood, as you pull away from the to-do list, as you resist the dismal, endless scroll to share five minutes of perspective through the lens of poetry, from poets old and new, well-loved and emerging onto the scene. Brought to you by American Public Media, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.