Hey, it's Major. The team is taking some time to slow down as we ramp up for back to school,

whether we're students, teachers, parents, or just, you know know students of life.

In the meantime we're featuring some favorite episodes from this season so far.

We'll be back with new episodes Monday, September 16th.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. Long ago, after a poetry event at Fergis Pub in Philadelphia, my father approached me to say he really enjoyed himself.

He never attended a live reading.

I thanked him and shot back my

appreciation is shoe size is 11, not 10.

Excuse me, I fumbled.

In the poem, you mentioned my feet, he stated.

My stepmother looked off and took a sip of wine. I was flummox for a second,

then realized he misconstrued the phrase

my father in one of the poems written

as a persona as a reference to him. How could he think otherwise?

But then how to explain the intricacies of taking on the voice of someone else. A truth revealed itself to me that day.

Whether I intend or not, those close to me will seek themselves out in my poems.

Early in my writing career, my mother attended one of my readings, only one.

She was already ill and fragile. The room at Robbins Bookstore was packed and I was nervous.

She sat up front and smiled throughout to hear a world familiar to her in my poems.

With her eyes closed, she rocked and smiled.

My mother did not live long enough to read my poems about her.

I'd like to think that she would have appreciated how I processed our shared history and relationships, even the difficult moments.

...