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. On a flight to

on a flight to Kansas City,

just before the most recent Super Bowl, the pilot

taunted Chiefs football fans. Just before takeoff, he donned his Dallas Cowboys baseball cap.

In jest, he claimed, despite not having made it to the Super Bowl,

his team still carried the banner as America's team.

Half the plane booed.

He announced those who booed

could remove their seat cushions and sit on iron the entire flight.

The whole cabin laughed.

Texas often takes it on the chin.

I too once decried the second largest American state

maybe because my eagles often lost big games to the Cowboys.

My appreciation for Texas has grown over the years.

A work trip to Austin gave me a chance to experience firsthand to Hanau culture, Texas

barbecue and the city's famed music scene. Some years later, the Good People at Inprint, a literary nonprofit organization in Houston, brought me out for a poetry reading.

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