Hey, it's Major. What poems have you wanted to send to a friend or a loved one to help them slow down?

We want you to send us your selections for a series of upcoming episodes.

Head to slowdown show.org slash community to submit

or head to our Instagram at Slowdown Show to learn more. I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. There's nothing like family to keep you in check, lest your head gets too big or you forget from whence you came or in case you forget from whence you came or in case you thought all the book

learning made you somehow magically better than everyone else you grew up with or

who gave you love. A crime. I never committed because my family wouldn't permit it.

I thank them for their

lessons,

barbs felt when I was younger targeted,

meant to hurt a bit.

I know they're teasing, sometimes their reprimands, came from what they felt to be a little unfairness in the

Cosmos. To bring me down a few pegs, my grandfather's favorite admonishment was,

I've forgotten more than you'll ever know.

Another family member with Tease, all that book learning and still you don't know how to fill in the blank.

What is true, however, is that I am addicted to the vast knowledge of the world, to instructions,

to learning the right way.

I am quick to run to a book. I do all kinds of research before

launching into a project. I am a deep diver. For an 8,000-word

commissioned article that I've yet to write,

on the first black celebrity cyclists also named Major, Major Taylor,

I read three biographies. When writing poems and essays I saturate my brain, when in fact I should

instead let intuition and a meandering knowing take over.

...