1353: Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem invites us to look at ourselves at this moment of extreme, ongoing gun violence in America. And to think about our own responses, time after time after time.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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1:06.8	I'm Maggie Smith and this is the slowdown.
1:19.9	I was in college when the Columbine mass shooting happened.
1:25.5	I remember watching it on the news, two high school students and trench
1:30.5	coats with guns, hunting their teachers and fellow students. It was shocking to me. I think at the
1:40.0	time it was shocking to everyone. What would drive two teenagers to plan and carry out a massacre
1:48.5	at a suburban high school? How could something like this happen? I thought it was a freak
1:57.4	occurrence. Now that seems hopelessly naive. Since Columbine, we've watched it happen
2:05.7	again and again. It's chilling that mass shootings happen on such a regular basis. They are now
2:14.5	an expected part of American life.
2:20.8	It's chilling and infuriating.
2:23.6	I find myself asking,
2:26.8	why do we keep accepting this?
	...

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