The Slowdown is supported by the Collective Trauma Summit.

You're invited to attend a free online event featuring in-depth interviews and poetry readings

by eight award-winning poets, including Ada Lemone, Natasha Trethway, Jericho Brown,

Carolyn Forshey, Andrea Gibson, Claudia Ranking, Jake Skeets, and Podrick Otuma.

They will all be appearing at the Collective Trauma Summit,

an online gathering of artists, activists, scientists, and visionaries

to explore the effects of trauma in our society and to inspire a collective healing movement.

Go to collectivetrauma-summit.com slash poets to register for the free event which starts September

26. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Life can be overwhelming when my calendar is filled to the

broom is hard to concentrate on anything else. My thoughts are constantly racing with a never-ending

to-do list until I remember what therapy taught me to slow down and be present. If you're thinking

of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online and suited for business schedules,

like mine. Get a break from your thoughts with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash slowdown

today and get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash slowdown.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

Once, preparing to introduce one of my poems, I stood in front of a gallery

audience in Philadelphia, telling a story about meeting the ghost of Betsy Ross in Elfrif's alley.

How an apparition of a woman and a bonnet with an American flag emerged out of a mist that

covered cobblestone streets. As I talked, I emptied my pockets in search of the handwritten palm.

Loose change, cafe receipts, a number two Taikon Deroga pencil. I looked but droggled. I wore

wrinkle gray suit. I had spent the previous four days traveling on a rickety tour bus with a

dynamic group of poets, the east coast leg of wave books infamous poetry bus tour. When not in hotels

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