Maggie Smith

text graphic featuring a portion of Cynthia's poem, which reads: They explain: The earth is a school. The earth is a projection. The earth’s vibration is rising and you’ll either be shaken off or taken up with the vibration. Earth souls stay to learn the lesson they haven’t learned yet. Our human world is not operating at frequencies as high as most other worlds. Which explains a lot.

photograph of poet Cynthia Arrieu-King. She has dark hair and is wearing a black shirt.

"The world is for learning and becoming, and we humans — we students — have so very much to learn," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1470 of The Slowdown.

Read “Common Denominators” by Cynthia Arrieu-King and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4rfuAW3

text graphic featuring a portion of Jane Hirshfield's poem. it reads: It was like this: you were happy, then you were sad, then happy again, then not. It went on. You were innocent or you were guilty. Actions were taken, or not.

photograph of poet Jane Hirshfield. She has wavy, hair and is resting her head in her hand.

"Whatever my life has been like, I’m lucky to have lived it. I know that now, and I hope I feel that way at the end," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1471 of The Slowdown.

Read “It Was Like This: You Were Happy” by Jane Hirshfield and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/47utOgF

text graphic featuring a portion of Marcus Jackson's poem. it reads: Pardon my heart if you have to kick it out. After you’ve muzzled the music and brightened the lights to tidy, my heart will ignore and keep doing its little two-step, aglow in the middle of the room, never happier to have nowhere else to go.

"I can’t imagine feeling less, or caring less. That’s not the heart I have," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1469.

Read "Pardon My Heart" by Marcus Jackson — from PARDON: POEMS — and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/4lbRRqu

Graphic featuring a portion of Kelly Hoffer's poem, which can be found in full at the link in the post.

Photograph of poet Kelly Hoffer

"It’s odd, when I think about ... how we are soothed by the contained version of something that can harm us," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1465.

Read "Or am I a room with a roof taken off, still holding onto my idea of ceiling" by @kellyrosehoffer.bsky.social: bit.ly/40ird5P

text graphic featuring a portion of Matthew Dickman's poem. it reads: But if he can't come back. If he can't ever wake up again, then I want nothing but his absence. I want that absence whole and warm and alive.

Photograph of Matthew Dickman. He is wearing eyeglasses with black frames and a navy blue t-shirt

“Poems so often say the things we can’t," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1463. "They give language and shape to ideas that feel too big for words — like love, and mortality, and grief.”

Read "Sleep" by Matthew Dickman: bit.ly/4cefn3F

text graphic featuring a portion of Adam J. Gellings, which can be found in full at the link in the post

photograph of poet Adam J. Gellings

"All of this is either useless information — time of day, day of the week, month of the year — or it’s part of our own myth-making," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1464.

Read “Somewhere Else” by Adam J. Gellings, originally published by @poetsorg.bsky.social: bit.ly/4cTNXQK

Document By Maggie Smith The day is winter bright. I blink against it. Each time the sun glints in my eyes, each time I close my lids & let them go orange & freckled with light, my mind files it into a folder that contains every other time it’s happened before: folders nested inside folders going back, I imagine, to one morning standing in my crib, waiting for my mother to reach down & lift me out, the sun keeping me company until her arms appeared. In the file: sun, sun_2, sun_3, sun_75, sun_700. Each a document I can return to & open, even revising old experience with new thinking. As if the eye has its own memory— not the mind’s eye but the eye’s mind— cataloging material it claims as its own. Cataloging as long as I live. Sun_7000, sun_final, sun_final_revised, sun_final_final.

A person with short hair is smiling at the camera. They wear a black top and a geometric necklace. The image includes text about Maggie Smith, highlighting achievements as a New York Times bestselling author and host of The Slowdown.

“Document” by Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) from the January/February 2026 issue of POETRY magazine.

Link to poem here: https://bit.ly/3ZCVc7X

graphic featuring a portion of Kevin Craft's poem

photograph of poet Kevin Craft

"Today’s poem is about paying attention to the beauty around us, and to the life around us, even if we don’t fully understand it," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode, number 1461.

Read "Word for It" by Kevin Craft and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4ayfOmM

a text graphic featuring a portion of Corey Van Langindham's poem

photograph of poet Corey Van Landingham

"Today’s poem is an ekphrastic poem, a poem inspired by a piece of art," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode, number 1462.

Read “Perspective, Coyoacán” by Corey Van Landingham and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4tQ6Bzf

Text graphic featuring a portion of Raena Shirali's poem.

Photograph of poet Raena Shirali

"One of the things I love about poetry — one of the things I look forward to, and revel in, as a reader and listener — is the way a poet can make the familiar strange," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1458.

Read "on projection" by @raenainthemorning.bsky.social: bit.ly/4aHyy3x

Thank you for letting us share this on the show!

Graphic featuring a portion of Sophie Klahr and Corey Zeller's poem. It reads: Christmas in Virginia, your first time at his family’s home, and he presented the ring to you in front of everyone. It was a family ring, an opal. When you put it on you thought, My god, he doesn’t know me at all.

Photograph of poet Corey Zeller. He's wearing a plaid shirt, a baseball cap, and glasses and is standing in front of an open window.

Photograph of poet Sophie Klahr. She has red, wavy hair and is standing in front of a world map.

"I love the way [today's poem] begins with the legend of the Bermuda Triangle but then turns toward the incredibly personal," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1457.

Read “Untitled (Despite legend, the Bermuda Triangle...)” by @sophieklahr.bsky.social and Corey Zeller: bit.ly/4tFNIiq

I can’t wait to read these manuscripts.

Tonight I turned on the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs & got into the bathtub with a book & a cocktail…& I came out with pruny fingertips & the start of a new poem. That feels like a little miracle.

So whatever else there is, there’s that.

Looking forward to this local launch! April 2 ✨🎉

graphic featuring a portion of Heather Christle's poem

photograph of poet Heather Christle

"There’s a sense of relief when we realize we’re looking at an object, not a dead creature," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social notes in episode 1446 of The Slowdown.

Read “Mistake” by Heather Christle: bit.ly/3Z9Xc7t

📖: @weslpress.bsky.social

text graphic featuring a portion of Cecily Parks' poem

photograph of poet Cecily Parks

"Today’s poem is a kind of love poem — to a beloved tree, and to the sense of home it created," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1445.

Read "Hackberry" by Cecily Parks — from THE SEEDS (@alicejamesbooks.bsky.social): bit.ly/4bZhnwu

text graphic featuring a portion of Bridget Bell's poem

"Today’s poem captures a time of grief in the speaker’s life, when life goes a little quiet after a flurry of support and care," our host, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, shares in today's episode.

Read "Congratulations! Your Grief Is About to Stop Being Relevant!" by Bridget Bell: bit.ly/4tb8Vk4

text graphic featuring a portion of Camille Guthrie's poem

Photograph of poet Camille Guthrie

“One of the poets I discovered in college was H.D.," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1443. "I remember being wowed by her poems, which were experimental and strange, unlike anything I’d read before."

Read “Come Back!" by Camille Guthrie: bit.ly/4rarcfo

Let’s go! 🎉

❤️🙏

Book tour for A Suit or a Suitcase ☁️📖🧳 open.substack.com/pub/maggiesm...

text graphic featuring a portion of G.C. Waldrep's poem

A photograph of a brimmed hat with eyeglasses on top, belonging to poet G.C. Waldrep and shared in lieu of an author headshot

"Life will throw at us things that are hard or impossible to describe, both beautiful and awful things," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1442. "So I think [language play] isn't just a writing tool — it's a life skill."

Read “Apocatastasis” by G.C. Waldrep: bit.ly/3M2lI7D

Welcome to the American Winter In the frozen streets of Minneapolis, something profound is happening.

This is a really incredible piece. Share it widely 🎁https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/minneapolis-uprising/685755/?gift=C-rzmQ8PsUHt15odxTKJDn7xrpPNxSpotkNz_P27oI0

🙏

I randomly grabbed this book last night while straightening up my bedroom. When I opened it, I read and then reread and then read one more time this poem by Joy Harjo. I then sat, leaned back, and continued reading. Thank you for this book, @theferocity.bsky.social and @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social 🙏🏻

Abolish and prosecute.

text graphic featuring a portion of Kate Baer's poem

photograph of poet Kate Baer

"I don’t think there’s ever an expiration date on well wishes, and frankly, we need all the well wishes we can get for 2026," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says in today's episode.

Read "New Year" by @katejbaer.bsky.social — from WHAT KIND OF WOMAN (@harpercollins.bsky.social): bit.ly/3LZ8pEU

text graphic featuring a portion of Monica Ferrell's poem

Photograph of poet Monica Ferrell

"Today’s poem explores memory and loss — and how objects can help us resurrect the past," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1439 of The Slowdown.

Read "I Have Lost It" by Monica Ferrell — from THE FUTURE (@fourwaybooks.bsky.social) — and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/49W02SK