← The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
1307: Field Guide as Sonnet by A. D. Lauren-Abunassar
00:05:52
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Transcript11 lines
- [00:01]
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- [00:28]
Samsung Representative
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Major Jackson
I'm Major Jackson and this is the Slowdown. I was in line at a coffee shop when a frustrated barista excused themselves after being yelled at by a customer. Someone whispered, they don't make them like they used to, they say. Well, at least they are not in a war zone or living as a hostage far away from their families. Yes, previous generations were steely survivors of wars, survivors of discrimination, not microaggressions, but macro aggressions. The people who could take a joke, the people with skins thick as football leather who swallowed their frustrations. But at what cost? Our literature, our films are replete with narratives of addiction and domestic abuse as responses to societal pressures I hear lately in public discourse. This language of resilience reassert itself again in private conversations and on social media. Several acquaintances remarked on the perceived fragility of young people today. These commenters often draw comparisons to their parents or grandparents generation. I consider this language deeply oppressive. It perpetuates the myth that life must be met with a hardiness rather than with accountability or righteousness. It is also a way to dismiss real demands such as that we treat each other with dignity, or that we expect more from life than perpetual hardship. But even more, this language eclipses very real ways. People were nurtured and protected by their families, communities, institutions of faith. I too have used this language to discount young people. But my frustrations led to an examination of my journey, and I realized that I never actually went it alone, merely getting by with my intellect and luck. In fact, I benefited from a long line of care from people who had no other choice but to watch over their children. Today's poem honors the spirit of courageous women who humbly persist, who do not hold back on love. Phil Guide as Sonnet by AD Lauren Abu Nasar My grandmother splits plums by the river. Her thumbs are the thumbs of a God. They divide, they multiply, they extend. She chews a mint leaf down until it is her own green colored spit, and when she smokes the ash does not fall without her say so. So she is a study in force how to channel the mighty in her own life. Hands I told her once I don't know how to not be shaped or how to move beyond this. She said, this is a question of life. Like get over it. Her mercy flows like a clumsy river, it moves mad and it carries a hazard of surprises. She surprises me by saying, Greece no more than a postcard in lieu of a letter. A plum where a garden should be a disappointment you pull from the root. Look the onwards in the looking, she says to the history of other derailments in the women who tendered their manner of moving on. She is a woman who knows pain is no more than a wager on survivability. She dreams in the language of history. When she eats, she keeps one hand open. When she prays she requires no answers. Still, when she sleeps she whispers what I whisper. I want something for keeps. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. This project is also supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts on the web@arts.gov to get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and sign up for our newsletter. And find us on Instagram @downdownshow and blue sky@downdownshow.org.
- [06:55]
Podcast Host
The soul to Story podcast is about how teaching kids to read went wrong. But now we have a story about a school district where things are going very right.
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Educator
Let me make sure my friends are sitting crisscross applesauce hands in their lap.
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Major Jackson
I've never had a child that couldn't read.
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Podcast Host
How did they do it?
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Educator
When I tell some of my other colleagues that may be at other schools that this is what I do and they would say, you kidding me?
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Podcast Host
New episodes of Sold a Story are available now in your podcast app.