4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2022
⏱️ 4 minutes
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Today’s poem is A Man in My Bed Like Cracker Crumbs by Sandra Cisneros. Today’s episode features guest host Nate Marshall.
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0:00.0 | I'm Nate Marshall and this is The Slowdown. |
0:18.9 | I admit that I love solitude. |
0:22.1 | I suspect that this tendency towards aloneness is one that was cultivated in me as a child |
0:28.1 | because I was bookish and because I was the only boy in the house which meant that |
0:32.6 | past a certain age, I was given more space and thus more solitude. |
0:38.6 | This is not to say that I don't love people, I certainly do. |
0:43.3 | But as much as I can enjoy a night out dancing or a raucous tailgate before a football game |
0:48.9 | or a great dinner party with abundant conversation and libation, there is just something about |
0:56.2 | being in my own space with my own thoughts and being able to place things just so. |
1:03.9 | It is perhaps a good thing that I find solace in solo moments since it is so often what |
1:10.6 | is required to make writing happen. |
1:13.6 | I do love being invited to social functions and sometimes I deeply enjoy being at the function |
1:19.9 | but there is a deliciousness in declining with regrets just to brew my own tea and have |
1:26.1 | my own time. |
1:28.7 | I think one of the richest forms of aloneness is just after a beloved takes their exit, |
1:34.5 | particularly on good terms. |
1:37.5 | In those moments you can feel safe in the knowledge that you are not alone in the world, simply |
1:43.2 | alone in this moment and what a precious freedom that can be. |
1:48.3 | Today's poem is about that delight and solitude, especially when it might have come after |
1:54.9 | a lover overstaying their welcome just a bit. |
2:01.0 | A man in my bed like Cracker Crumbs by Sandra Cisnetos. |
2:06.3 | I've stripped the bed, shaken the sheets and slumped those fat pillows like tired tongues |
... |
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