[encore] 688: [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Today’s poem is [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back on Monday, August 18 with episodes from our new host, Maggie Smith. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host.

In this episode, Ada writes… “I have a friend who will stare at something and say, “Now that’s a poem.” A glove in the snow, a bird feather stuck in the fence post, a good meal. It feels like she is blurring the lines between what we think is a poem and what is poetic, between what is real life and the language we use to capture it.

Today’s poem, by the beloved poet E.E. Cummings, does that work of showing us the resounding “yes” to the poem—and also “yes” to the real, tangible, touchable, life.”

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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1:00.2	Hi, it's Maggie Smith. I'm the new host of The Slowdown, and I'm so looking forward to sharing
1:06.3	new episodes with you starting August 18th. In the meantime, we're revisiting some favorites from
1:13.3	the archive, like today's episode from Ada L'amone. I'm grateful to share her work with you today.
1:26.5	I'm Ada Limo, and this is the slowdown.
1:30.3	You wouldn't know this about me, but there are times.
1:38.3	You wouldn't know this about me, but there are times that I actually hate talking about poetry.
1:47.1	I mean, even when I was studying at NYU as a young poetry graduate student, even when I teach,
1:54.1	even when I talk casually with friends, there are times when I want, like, a petulant child,
2:00.5	to say, you're ruining it.
2:03.0	You're ruining it by talking about it too much.
2:06.7	I once sat with a friend in Central Park, and he asked me if I could explain what I did with my endings.
2:14.3	And I felt suddenly betrayed, as if we were talking about something so intimate and dangerous
	...

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