We invited you, our community of listeners, to share poems that inspire the way you move through your daily life,

and you shared so many thoughtful recommendations with us. This week, we're featuring five of your selections,

along with a reflection from the person who chose each one. If you'd like to participate in the next

round of community selections, sign up for our newsletter.

We'll be sending a special Slowdown Postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week.

Find the link in the show notes.

I'm Micah Keelbaum, and this is The Slowdown.

Thank you. I'm Micah Kielbon, and this is The Slowdown. We asked you, our listeners, to help us select poems for the show.

Today, instead of hearing a moment of reflection from Maggie,

you'll hear from a member of our slowdown community, enjoy. I am Abdulmoit, Balogun, Adiwale,

from Ibadon, Nigeria. Of late, I've been contemplating the choices I've made till I got here. For example, I've been

reflecting on my undergraduate days. I spent a lot of my time running like athletics and I spent

those times on poetry, things like that. Then I was thinking, I'll those times actually watch it.

So that's just been the

reflection for me, but still, I think sometimes you can actually do without poetry, just like

taking a pause from it and to experience life outside of poetry and literature. So sometimes,

I kind of feel the same joy that I feel whenever I'm reading poetry when I'm running.

So for me, both of them are quite on the same skill and they kind of have the same weight.

The people I have in my life that make living worthy, presently, they are just my

nephews and my niece.

A number of times I've been thinking about giving up or like trying

to stop doing the things I'm doing like panting after some dreams. I've been contemplating a lot

...