819: Egrets (in memory of Barry Lopez)

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Egrets (in memory of Barry Lopez) by Ralph Black. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Writers build universes out of letters and words from mere marks of a pen or keystrokes on a keyboard: an interiority to be heard and imagined in the reader’s mind. Which is to say: poets rely on readers to make pictures in their head or to hear the thoughts of the speaker in a poem. Poetry shocks us into a recognition of the world and helps renew our lost, or maybe, lapsed capacity to feel.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Major Jackson and this is The Slow Down.
0:20.0	I recently saw a dystopian movie in which a protagonist self mutilates and shares off
0:28.2	a finger for performance.
0:31.9	The camera pan closed to make sure audiences took in the full action.
0:38.1	During the scene, a man directly across the owl from me in the theater not only gasped
0:45.8	and horror expected but grown painfully, unexpected.
0:53.6	His groans brought attention to himself, the whole while the fake finger dripped with
0:59.2	fake blood.
1:01.2	I could hear people shifting in their seats in discomfort, not from the gruesome scene,
1:07.0	but from the audible sounds of agony just a few seats away.
1:12.9	The moaning man did not need to suspend disbelief.
1:18.2	Life and art were the same to him.
1:22.9	I once saw a Tarantino film on a first date.
1:27.0	I know.
1:28.0	I know.
1:29.0	Probably not the most considered way to make a first impression.
1:33.6	Tarantino's signature violence started within the first five minutes of the film.
1:39.3	My date squirmed and cringed.
1:42.5	She reared back with every punch as though she were being pummeled.
1:47.0	I thought she was acting.
1:49.4	She too made audible sounds of terror.
1:53.7	She jumped into her seat and grabbed her knees.
	...

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