Happy Poetry Month. Friends of the Slowdown are invited to celebrate with a special offer from Poetry Magazine.

This April, an annual subscription to poetry includes a limited edition notebook. The notebook features a devious quote from Dorothy Alaska on its cover. I'm almost always lying in a poem.

And the full poem is inside. Use the notebook for your own poems, lies, and secrets.

Subscribe today at poetry magazine.org slash lying.

Each episode of The Slowdown offers you a moment of attention, a poem and reflection that shift your perspective during busy days.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, you can now receive an added benefit when you support the Slowdown, a sponsorship-free version of the podcast.

Keep your listening centered on poetry because the best moments of your day are uninterrupted.

Learn more when you make your gift at Slowdownshow.org and thank you.

I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

Music The playwright Susan Lorry Parks once said,

There are aspects of music that I borrow and use in my work,

repetition and revision.

A big part of jazz is repeat and revise,

and repeat and revise.

That's what my work is all about.

Repetition is often a way of building momentum as I write.

With each repetitive word or phrase, I can feel myself chipping away at an idea, uncovering it,

getting closer to what I'm trying to articulate.

Repetition can also be a way of turning something over and over in my hands.

Often I'll vary the usage slightly, as if looking at the idea from various angles,

noticing how the light hits each facet.

One of the magic tricks of repetition is that it enacts remembering.

...