Hi, I'm poet and editor Leslie Signs.

I'll be taking on the host chair for the slowdown the next two weeks,

but don't worry.

Major will be back on July 1st.

I can't wait to share my selections with you.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. Prince, Whitney, Whitney, Drake, Bay, Taylor, icons.

So familiar, we need only call them by their first names.

How startling the time and accumulated effort

that fashions a household celebrity.

And not just the hours put in by these talented musicians,

but also their teams and collaborators.

To build an image and reputation from dreams

requires Herculean efforts

that often involve doubts, failures,

and sacrifices.

But as we hear in today's poem, a devotedness to one's art that

transforms a passion into a stratospheric journey into the self.

Dollywood by Julie E Blumicky.

It's too easy to pigeon forge Dolly into 9 to 5,

Double D. Twang, to not heed her better day concert advice,

darling, own your truth.

Because Dolly became Dolly in a fallen chapel of deep woods Tennessee

...