I'm Major Jackson and this is the Slowdown.

Several years ago, as D.D. and I watched Movers load the last remaining boxes from our Vermont

basement onto one of three trucks, I realized how much of a gamble we were taking.

What if, after the honeymoon period, our new Nashville colleagues were not as collegial,

welcoming, and warm as we perceived during our interviews?

What if the divisive politics of our nation played out in our new city and was too much

to bear?

We were, well, I was, hesitant and doubtful in the wake of friends who expressed concern

about our move.

Moving to Nashville seemed like the right thing to do in my life at that time.

Normally, I am not a risk taker, but I needed to shake things up.

I take risks in my poems all the time.

Engine adventure are important aspect of a poet's growth.

To write against convention is to test the limits of poetic form, of language, of our

imagination.

Sometimes that risk looks like writing in forms different than what is generally expected.

Sometimes shaking it up is approaching topics that feel vulnerable, personally and communally.

And I think the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Today's poem appropriates the lexicon of securities and financial markets to spotlight the

mental and emotional work of the artist that strategizes and takes chances.

Portrait as Derivatives Trader by Jose and Mundo Ocampo Reyes.

Poetico character does no harm from its relish of the dark side of things, any more than

...