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.

And this is the slowdown. It feels like many people are passing from our lives.

Not that the death of a poet is any more devastating,

but when a poet dies, my grief is heavier.

The year 2023 saw the loss of many poets I admire, including Benjamin Zephania and Louise Glick.

When poet Donald Hall died in 2018,

I noticed a great shift of voices.

One generation exiting as another emerged.

We will no longer hear their music and language.

Maybe this has always been the case.

I am lucky to have shared dinners with former US poet laureate Don Hall.

He modeled a pitched reverence for writers that I share. Before audiences, he'd extemporaneously talk about celebrated poets beginning, the year was 1954. I had just arrived in London and who should I run into in Russell Square, but T.S. Elliot himself?

Some joked his stories traveled back in time when he wasn't even alive.

The year was 1897.

Oscar Wilde was just released from prison.

We had tea at a quaint cafe near Trinity College.

I recently visited the Stuart Rose Manuscript Library at Emory University

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