The slowdown is supported by W. W. Norton and Company,

publishers of Poetry Unbound by Padreck Ottumah,

a poetry anthology that offers immersive reflections, keen insights, and personal anecdotes on 50 powerful poems.

Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Poetry Unbound engages with a diverse array of voices that includes

Aida Lamone, Ilea Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vong, Lally Long soldier, and Reginald Wayne Betts.

Poetry Unbound, now in paperback. I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

Every day I ask myself, do I understand what is being asked of me today and what was asked of me yesterday and what will be asked of me tomorrow. That purview implicates my art

and how I understand the purpose of poetry

in a world that suffers daily political violence.

Rather than flail and saunter blindly

into the symptoms of a culture that enables aggression,

rewards compliance to states of unfeeling, perpetuates misguided allegiance, and

difies our place in this wilderness.

Maybe more acutely.

How do I protect my language from being used in the service of more hurt and harm?

I refuse to give in to vitriol and hatred, subtle or direct. I speak strictly

to the sanctity of life, precious human life.

I promote creativity that joyously affirms

who we are even in the face of horror. I honor my forebears and the legacy of

struggle that currently grants and renders sacred the conditions of my

freedom. And the freedom of my freedom.

...