1425: The Ship by Bianca Stone
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem is The Ship by Bianca Stone.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Today’s poem feels right for today because it’s a “new year, same you” poem. Because being who you are, and nothing more, is exactly what you need to be doing—this year, next year, every year.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Maggie Smith, and this is the slowdown. |
| 0:18.9 | I'm ready for the new year. I'm ready for the new year. |
| 0:22.5 | I'm ready for all the possibilities it might bring, but I'm not making any resolutions. |
| 0:30.2 | I never do. |
| 0:32.8 | Yes, New Year's resolutions are positive. |
| 0:36.9 | It's good to aspire, to set goals, to strive to do and be better. |
| 0:44.2 | But also, all of the New Year, New You promotions this time of year make me a little uncomfortable. |
| 0:53.9 | I don't like the idea of starting January off with a spirit |
| 0:59.8 | of I need to level up, as if we are beginning at a deficit, as if on day one of the new year, |
| 1:10.3 | we are already behind. |
| 1:13.9 | This is where language can save us, though, and give us another option. |
| 1:21.0 | If you've been listening to the slowdown for a while, you know I'm a self-proclaimed word nerd. |
| 1:29.5 | I love knowing the origins of words. |
| 1:33.4 | So of course I was curious about the origin of resolution. |
| 1:38.9 | We can trace the word back to the Latin, |
| 1:43.2 | Resolvere, which means loosen or release. |
| 1:49.7 | Now, this is an idea, an image, that I can embrace. The origin of resolution suggests that we don't |
| 2:00.7 | need to do or be more. Maybe we actually need less. |
| 2:06.8 | We are enough on day one of the new year, and in fact, we may actually be carrying too much. |
| 2:17.1 | If this speaks to you, |
| 2:19.1 | maybe you want to make a different kind of New Year's resolution this year, |
| 2:24.7 | an invitation to loosen some old knots in your life, |
... |
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