[encore] 846: Some Madness There by Charlotte Pence

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Some Madness There by Charlotte Pence.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. We're currently taking a break and will be back soon with new episodes. This week, we’re revisiting some favorites from Major’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on March 31, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “When I arrived in Eugene, Oregon after an arduous yet stunning road trip of camping and driving through the midwest, the Rockies, the Arches National Park, Death Valley, and up California’s Route 101, I felt oddly reborn into an existence and landscape that felt like it was always a part of me. Today’s illuminating poem contends with that normal yet emotional experience of children leaving home, and posits that this wanderlust is maybe, genetically encoded in our natal spirit of adventure and discovery.”

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	Hi, it's Major. As I close my time as host of The Slowdown, I'm grateful for the opportunity
0:06.3	I've had to share poetry with you these past few years. The Slowdown has a deep store of
0:13.8	episodes, and for the next few months, we're reaching into the archive to bring you some of our
0:19.0	favorites. Here's one for my time on the show.
0:27.8	I'm Major Jackson, and this is The Slowdown.
0:33.4	Music I have a friend for my years in Philly, who, not knowing how she was going to pay the remaining balance of her college bill, sat on the edge of her seat the first few weeks of classes of her first year,
0:56.1	unable to concentrate.
0:58.5	Her parents wanted her to return home and enroll in a local and more affordable college,
1:05.1	believing she had made a poor decision to attend a school with such a high tuition.
1:14.8	Then, one morning, on a whim to use a new credit card mailed to her the previous day, she flew to parish for lunch. She decided to postpone
1:23.3	her worries by taking an impulsive weekend trip overseas. Much to the dismay of her parents,
1:32.7	she never returned home nor to the school with the hefty tuition. Instead, for a decade,
1:39.5	she worked six months a year as a waitress, collecting tips, then traveled the globe the other six months
1:46.5	of the year. She's one of the most adventurous, exciting, and independent people I know.
1:54.6	Years later, I was excited to tell my family that I was driving cross-country to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon.
2:04.7	We were gathered for some birthday occasion around a restaurant table.
2:09.7	But they pelted me with questions that harbored between harassment and hilarity.
2:16.5	My grandfather wanted to know if there were black barbershops or black
2:21.7	churches in the northwest. A distressed aunt asked if I could not have found a graduate program
2:29.2	half the distance. Conceptually, they could not imagine or conceive a world beyond the one we currently
2:37.5	inhabit it, one where they meticulously bestowed their nurturance and protection.
2:45.4	Albeit, given the history of violence against black bodies, this was a brand of paranoia that was grounded in truth.
	...

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