meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

711: Droplet

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2022

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s poem is Droplet by Caitlin Scarano.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Adely Moon and this is The Slowdown.

0:18.5

I have a friend who recently lost her father.

0:22.0

After a long time of suffering and hospice care, the funeral marked an end to an arduous

0:27.3

few years of intense emotions.

0:30.9

She visited me the day after her father's funeral.

0:34.8

When she arrived at my front door, she was somehow luminous.

0:39.2

A weight lifted off her shoulders, you could see a new light behind her eyes, eyes that

0:45.1

were clear from crying and bright with grief.

0:49.2

She was seeing symbols everywhere, deer off the side of the road, a certain phase of the

0:56.1

color purple, showing up everywhere in the form of lilacs or blue moon, wisteria.

1:04.1

As we talked, she kept picking up my dog and holding her and taking photos of her and

1:09.3

I was thinking about how quickly we become tender to the world when grief has opened

1:15.5

us up.

1:17.1

I remember once telling my friend Jen after my own grief that I was Napoleon blown apart

1:25.2

and we laughed and laughed, Napoleon blown apart, has been a key to our shared vocabulary,

1:33.1

one that, through laughter, can unlock this tenderness.

1:38.8

I also remember this strange moment when I couldn't even find the will to kill a cockroach.

1:47.2

Listen, I'll save a bee or a beetle any day and even trap a spider under a glass jar

1:54.6

so I can free him in the garden.

1:57.4

But cockroaches, come on.

2:00.5

Still, there was one on my sink in my old apartment on Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn

2:07.2

and I could not do it.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.