872: Jabberwocky
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem is Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. This week’s episodes are for, and feature, young poets. Our producers met up with Nova at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens while the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. And as much as she loved the pink blossoms, the poetry she’s created there comes from more unexpected places. She is a pro at embracing the strangeness of the world, at finding the quiet places so she can really listen to that weirdness. I think this is a lesson that everyone can carry with them, regardless of age. Poets like Lewis Carroll, one of her favorites, have been doing it for generations.
We would love to hear your thoughts on these special episodes for young people. Please go to slowdownshow.org/survey to tell us what you think!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Perry from Santa Barbara, and I support the slowdown. Meeting a wide diversity of poets in their outstanding poems takes my mind and heart to a higher place. |
| 0:11.0 | The truth that feeds my day away from the debilitating misinformation or the plagues us. Join me by making a gift to the slowdown today. |
| 0:21.0 | Go to slowdownshow.org slash donate. |
| 0:31.0 | I'm Major Jackson, and this is the slowdown. This week we're doing something special. We're exploring poetry in all of its forms with kids who write, rhyme, and sing about their lives. |
| 0:48.0 | Our co-host today is named Nova. She's 11 years old, has pet guinea pigs named Oreo and Snickerdoodle, and loves hanging out at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. |
| 1:00.0 | I love the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens because there is so much nature here. |
| 1:05.0 | She also loves reading and writing poetry. |
| 1:08.0 | I find making nature beautiful and my poem is easy because it is beautiful. Poetry is just exaggerating something that already is. |
| 1:19.0 | We're always looking for inspiration here on the slowdown, so I invited her into the studio to chat. |
| 1:29.0 | Welcome to the studio, Nova. |
| 1:31.0 | Hi, Major. |
| 1:32.0 | So, Nova, when did you start writing poetry? |
| 1:36.0 | About when I was five or four, I think. |
| 1:39.0 | Do you remember the first poem you wrote? |
| 1:41.0 | Of course. I was in kindergarten. I remember that I saw a roly-poly. |
| 1:47.0 | So then I went to my mom at the end of the day, and I was like, mama, I have a story to tell you. |
| 1:52.0 | Not a story, really, but more of a poem, and she wanted to hear it. |
| 1:58.0 | Can I hear the poem? |
| 1:59.0 | Yes, I have memorized it. |
| 2:01.0 | Bring it. |
| 2:02.0 | I saw a roly-poly. |
| 2:05.0 | It was you. |
... |
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