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. I stood before an applauding audience.

I stood before an applauding audience.

After just finishing a reading in Mystic, Connecticut,

I thought, how is this my life?

One in which a quest for language is a welcome source of communal joy and

discovery. Even here on this podcast I get to share with you poems written by poets that hopefully you experience

as moving and even as a necessary part of your day.

What a life.

Over the years, because of this art, I have made friends and students who are like family, and readers who challenge me to do more than Dilly Dally

who seek a spiritual purpose to words and how we use them. Recently, I sat with my son Langston on my roof,

as a sunset on the horizon bewitched the hills off in the distance. I had a similar feeling. I fell in love

with writing and reading poetry just as he entered the world. He and I have journeyed together and alone. It wasn't easy for us at

times. I am lucky and proud of him and me.

We've overcome personal challenges that have in its wake

placed us in greater tune with each other.

Looking on my past, I think to myself,

...