943: The Dictator in Prison

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is The Dictator in Prison by Adélia Prado, translated by Ellen Doré Watson. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “In one lifetime we’re tasked with bearing a range of horrors. It amazes me that underneath it all––the denial, dissociation, or rage––the heart keeps going. I used to think this gust of empathy was my weakness. I now know it’s a superpower.” 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	Hey Slowdown listeners, today's episode is hosted by the poet Shira Erlichman.
0:06.2	Don't worry, I'll be back on August 28th.
0:15.4	I'm Shira Erlichman and this is the Slowdown.
0:30.0	My elementary school art teacher would drive two hours round trip to her job.
0:35.0	I wondered why.
0:37.0	She didn't seem to like her students.
0:40.0	She was a person of few words, rarely affectionate and always strict.
0:46.0	During the paper mache unit, we created molds of our faces.
0:50.0	I painted mine with abstract blue and purple swirls.
0:55.0	The art teacher insisted I repaint it.
0:58.0	That's not realistic, it doesn't look like you.
1:02.0	I was new to English, but I could sense pain under her language.
1:08.0	But to my eight-year-old antenna, her strictness registered as loneliness.
1:14.0	But this is how I see myself.
1:17.0	Standing there, holding my unapproved face, my small heart broke.
1:23.0	It still breaks my heart.
1:26.0	Adults have so much power over children.
1:30.0	There are days where it seems that the pain of those in power runs the whole world.
1:36.0	Against the brutal backdrop, what does it mean to be empathic creatures?
1:42.0	Doesn't it seem like a glitch in the design?
1:46.0	The heart, I mean.
1:48.0	So soft, capable of being broken.
	...

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