1093: When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s poem is When Your Month is Lonely… by Christine Kwon. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… "I read all those articles that proclaim how lonely we are becoming; I believe there’s some truth to it. Here’s my fear: all my work is making me alien to myself and others. I’m happy people are in my life. I wish not to skirt over their humanity, nor my own. I do not want our relationship to devolve to obligation, or come off as transactional. But we naturally negotiate that space of difference between ourselves and others; how rewarding when we can really connect to others.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The slowdown is supported by W. W. Norton and Company,
0:04.0	publishers of Poetry Unbound by Padreck Ottumah,
0:08.0	a poetry anthology that offers immersive reflections, keen insights, and personal anecdotes on 50 powerful poems.
0:18.0	Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Poetry Unbound engages with a diverse array of voices that includes
0:26.7	Aida Lamone, Ilea Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vong, Lally Long soldier, and Reginald Wayne Betts.
0:36.1	Poetry Unbound, now in paperback. I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.
0:45.0	I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. Since moving to Nashville, I've made plenty of new friends,
1:04.5	but I regret that my time is so little I cannot spend
1:08.0	more precious moments with them.
1:11.1	They are funny, smart, and curious.
1:15.0	Traits I'm just a sucker for.
1:18.0	And they love to laugh.
1:20.1	I love to laugh.
1:22.2	We share the same interests. One recently invited me to see
1:27.3	Ava D'Vir Duvernay's latest film, another to a gala to support our local parks and another to a concert which are many here in Music City,
1:39.0	but alas my deadlines, always my deadlines. A rigorous travel schedule of readings shrinks my calendar
1:49.8	too. Over bagels, I complained to my son, Romeo and said,
1:55.0	next year I'll cut back on saying yes to every opportunity.
2:00.0	He laughed.
2:02.0	Dad, you said the same thing last year.
2:06.0	Oof, no fun getting called out by your kid.
2:11.0	In Washington, D.C. some retired friends whom I met for lunch before a reading,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.