Are you attending the AWP 2025 conference in L.A.?

Join the Slowdown Show for a live off-site event with me, Major,

Padraq O'Tuma, Jason Snyderman, and Samia Bashir for poetry, conversation, and some fun and games.

Friday, March 28th at 7 p.m. at the Crawford in Pasadena. Tickets at

LAist.com slash events.

I'm Major Jackson, and this is the slowdown.

When I was younger, I frequented many jazz clubs up and down the East Coast.

I have fond memories of leaning forward at low-lit tables with friends.

The musicians I was drawn to played hard bop or modal.

The music taught me to listen to form

into the spirit of improvisation.

Where others heard screeching,

I heard freedom and possibility.

Where others felt only sheets of chaos,

I felt a nimble mind at work, soloing. I hear in today's poem that same

spirit of riffing and casting forward in expressive notes. The speaker progresses by way of

shifts and variations that ultimately arrives like a jazz solo,

is where I find solace and movement and truth in an embrace of simplicity.

The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky.

After Tiana Clark and Padraig Otuma. other things, by Leah Umansky.

After Tiana Clark and Padrake Otuma.

My sister tells me, don't get caught in the rain, but I don't mind a little damp, a little dampening.

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