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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

980: Villanelle

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s poem is Villanelle by Michelle Lin. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.


In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s poem centers around the defining relationship of a mother and child. To bring obsession into language, Lin masterfully uses the repetitive poetic form of the villanelle. They fling open doors only to quickly shut them. I know this dance well. The dance of longing and revelation.”


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

We hope you enjoy this episode of The Slowdown.

0:03.8

For more updates from us,

0:05.6

subscribe to our newsletter at slowdownshow.org.

0:10.6

Hey there.

0:11.6

Today's episode is hosted by friend of the show,

0:15.0

Shira Erlichman.

0:16.8

Hang tight, and I'll be back on October 30th.

0:26.3

I'm Shira Erlichman,

0:27.8

and this is The Slowdown.

0:41.0

At 16, I came out to the girl I had a crush on.

0:45.7

Well, I told the girl I had a crush on.

0:49.1

I like girls, but I didn't say you.

0:53.5

When I came out to my parents a year later,

0:56.2

I said bisexual.

0:59.0

I didn't know how to say what I really felt I was,

1:02.8

which was gay.

1:05.5

So I planted a foot in the territory of heterosexuality,

1:09.8

a way of keeping the hope alive for everyone

1:12.2

that it was just a phase.

1:14.9

It was a combination of more than a dash

1:17.4

of internalized homophobia and my people pleasing streak.

1:22.7

Halfway through college, I began to say, gay,

...

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