I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. Thus slow down. I have this strong belief.

I have this strong belief.

Poetry dignifies lives, especially those whose existences

are not centered in our imaginations.

Many of my favorite poets do the work of seeing individuals who are invisible to us.

Poems like William Wordsworth's The Old Cumberland Beger and Langston uses mother to son are classic examples.

But Poets today also recognize those on the edges of society so that the record of our art

inspires connection and empathy. Such poets even invite us to ponder why some human beings go unrecognized.

For example, why we tend to turn away from the unhoused person begging for coins at an exit ramp?

Or why we brush past the elderly in grocery store owls?

I love hearing underrepresented people say I feel seen.

In those instances people might experience empowerment or affirmation.

Yet representation is not the only criteria of art.

Weave the task of advancing the technology of poetry too, so that it remains a vital means by

which we cut through the noise and speak to each other daringly with vulnerability.

As my colleague Hortense writes to enter the chain of significant differences. We are about to endure a season of political campaigning, a time when our differences will be used to divide us.

Groups of people will be harmed by misleading statements and fraught language.

More than ever, we might need poetry to heal us into an intentional compassion.

Today's wonderful poem models a courageous leap

beyond fear into a wholehearted kindness.

The poem invites us to lean into each other with generosity

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