This isn’t a book, but it is a very literary listen. The Thread producer Tracy Mumford has been working on this podcast with U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith — and the two Tracys are on to something wonderful!
In each five-minute episode, Smith chooses a poem and reflects on its contemporary meaning to her life, to the world around us, to its historical meaning. I’d been catching The Slowdown in brief spurts — walking through St. Paul’s skyways or driving home after work.
But I recently listened to a bunch of episodes on a hike through the mountains and it was delicious to have Smith’s resonant voice in my ear as I climbed to a tall peak and gazed out to a shadowed valley and the sunlit mountains beyond. (Be sure to listen to Episode 22 where Smith reflects on the meaning of memorizing poetry.)
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