1504: The Beginning by Katherine Gibbel
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem is The Beginning by Katherine Gibbel.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I have the worst spring fever every year, because the winters in Ohio are so long and so bleak and gray. When the landscape comes alive and turns green again, I’m nearly drunk with joy. I’m in noticing heaven: ‘Look at the buds on the trees!’ and ‘Breathe in that green smell!’ I don’t even mind that the birds wake me up at four o-clock in the morning with their too-early songs. It’s the best alarm clock.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | During National Poetry Month, pass a poem along. Your gift to the slowdown turns your |
| 0:06.3 | personal listening ritual into a public good, helping classrooms, caregivers, commuters, and late-night |
| 0:14.1 | listeners to experience a few grounded minutes of poetry and perspective, free of charge. Your support today widens the circle, |
| 0:24.5 | so tomorrow's episode finds someone who needs it. Pass a poem along when you donate today |
| 0:30.9 | at slowdown show.org. I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown. |
| 0:43.3 | My daughter is a decisive, intuitive person. |
| 0:58.0 | If you ask what her favorite of anything is, she has an answer. |
| 1:04.0 | Her favorite place? New York City. |
| 1:08.0 | Her favorite dessert? chocolate layer cake. |
| 1:12.8 | And her favorite season? |
| 1:15.2 | She's clear. |
| 1:17.1 | Fall. |
| 1:18.4 | She loves the coziness of the cooling temperatures, |
| 1:22.4 | the changing leaves, the sweater weather. |
| 1:26.1 | She loves bonfires and hot tea and fall holidays. She also claimed to know |
| 1:33.5 | which seasons are her brother's favorite and mine. She said Rett is, and I quote, a summer kid. |
| 1:42.9 | He likes to play outside all day, and he loves barbecue and popsicles, |
| 1:49.1 | and he tans easily, while she and I freckle and burn. I smiled at how she'd clearly been paying |
| 1:58.5 | attention, and I agreed with her characterization. |
| 2:02.8 | "'But what about me?' |
| 2:04.6 | "'Spring,' she said. |
| 2:07.8 | "'Definitely spring.' |
... |
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