[encore] 470: Say Thank You Say I'm Sorry by Jericho Brown

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Today’s poem is Say Thank You Say I'm Sorry by Jericho Brown.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on September 11, 2020.

In this episode, Tracy writes… “I like it when I pass into the orbit of a stranger and, without expecting or even wanting to, I feel a very accidental, very fleeting form of kinship. For me, this happens sometimes when I’m traveling and far from home — far from my everyday me. Or when I’m moving through public space while also deeply lost in thought. Talking to myself maybe. Or laughing at something I think only I have seen. And then I meet unfamiliar eyes, and I understand that we are in the same moment together. How wonderful would it be if trust, or even love, might be possible between any of us — or even all of us. I mean, if we let ourselves believe such a thing is possible.”

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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1:00.1	Hi, it's Major.
1:01.7	The slowdown is on a break right now, but we'll be back soon with a new host.
1:06.8	In the meantime, we're bringing you some of the best episodes from our archives.
1:12.1	Today, we revisit an episode from Tracy K. Smith's time at the helm.
1:17.3	Enjoy.
1:22.6	I'm Tracy K. Smith, and this is The Slowdown.
1:41.2	Think of how vulnerable each of us is, vulnerable to unkind words, to slights, to graver forms of harm.
1:52.2	And yet, I'm trying to figure out how to say this.
1:55.5	There is someone, somewhere, who, having never even met you, fears what you represent. So many fears are
2:06.3	rooted in ideas or suspicions about people we don't even know firsthand. I like it when I pass
2:15.4	into the orbit of a stranger and without expecting or even wanting to,
	...

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