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

A decade or so ago, I had the privilege of co-teaching a couple of workshops with the poet Stanley Plumley.

Through those experiences, he became not only a mentor, but a friend.

At one point, I was thinking out loud to him about living in my hometown,

or at least in the surrounding suburbs, my entire life.

I was wondering about the wisdom or error in staying put.

Had it been limiting?

Would I benefit from a change?

In an email, Stan wrote,

You made an important choice staying home in Ohio.

It serves your work. American poetry is largely an issue of region. His words reassured me, and more than that, reaffirmed my pride of place

and my sense of being grounded in the art. He gave me permission

to embrace my own regionality as a writer. He'd always say in workshops, exploit your territory.

He encouraged writers to lean into the regional instead of running from it.

I now tell my students the same thing.

Be exactly who you are and be from where you're from unapologetically.

Show us that life.

Tell us those stories.

And let your people speak.

Today's poem exploits its territory and does it masterfully.

The Village by Mark Harshman.

Armageddon is not here, though the semis are hard at work,

...