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.

Poetic language makes nations accountable.

One of the aims of literature, in my humble opinion,

is to reveal and call out nuances and abuses of power.

Democracy is presumed benign and egalitarian. However, in practice,

inequities in society reveal themselves, unequal public education, unfair housing practices, gender

discrimination at work, and lack of quality health care are but a few examples.

Poets like Ara D Matthews, Muriel Ruukizer, Langston Hughes,

CD Wright, and Aja Monone have made literature a place where we closely examine economic disparities

and social injustices. We protest all manner of unfairness.

Right now, as I speak, someone is pinning a poem against war.

This is what makes literature in a free society vibrant and vital.

Where principles of fairness are absent,

or reigning attitudes do not acknowledge the humanity of others, poetry serves as a

platform for valid discontent. This is true across the globe.

And yet, poets are fiercely committed to the art.

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