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Podcast Summary:

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Episode 1374: The Terror of New Love! by Tiana Clark
Host: Maggie Smith
Date: October 15, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Maggie Smith reflects on the emotional landscape of life after divorce, particularly the blend of fear and hope that accompanies new love. She introduces and reads “The Terror of New Love” by Tiana Clark, a poem that beautifully captures the vulnerability, excitement, and courage required to open one’s heart to new possibilities after the end of a significant relationship. The discussion and poem encourage listeners to lean into uncertainty, cherish presence, and bravely welcome emotional renewal.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Navigating Life After Divorce

Complex Emotional Terrain: Maggie candidly shares her personal experience with divorce, underscoring the contradictory emotions it can provoke—heartbreak, relief, abandonment, freedom.
Quote [01:13]:

“If you’ve been divorced or if you’ve experienced the end of a long romantic relationship, you know how complex it is. Maybe you’re heartbroken that it didn’t work out. Maybe you’re relieved that you’re no longer in that relationship. Maybe you feel abandoned and discarded. Maybe you feel alive and happy and free. In my experience, more than one of these things can be true.” — Maggie Smith
Mixed Feelings: She emphasizes that it’s possible—and normal—to feel both devastated and relieved, scared and excited about the future.
The Future’s Dual Nature:

“The trick of the future is it’s empty. That’s where the excitement and terror come in. The future is empty and we get to fill it.” — Maggie Smith [02:00]

The Poem as Emotional Compass

Choosing Presence: Maggie highlights how the poem urges us to “stay open, to have courage, and to risk our hearts again.” She frames the poem as an invitation to remain receptive to wonder and possibility.
Transition to New Love: “The Terror of New Love” explores the riskiness and beauty of love after loss, embracing vulnerability as a strength.

Notable Poem Excerpts & Interpretations

“The Terror of New Love” by Tiana Clark [03:00]

Capturing Moments: The poem opens with the narrator resisting the urge to capture the present via photograph, instead choosing to “live through the present moment instead.”
Sensory Details: Clark’s imagery—chilled noses, ferry sounds, November air—roots the reader in an intensely physical, present-tense experience.
Emotional Nuance:

“I wasn’t worried about being too much of myself, yet in love again, the first time since the damage of my divorce.” [04:30]
— An admission of vulnerability and self-acceptance in a new relationship.
Gradual Healing:

“You slipped in like a beloved book or special knick knack that had always been there, but somehow I’m just now seeing it on the shelf, stacked and floating in the part of my heart I’m trying to keep, a jar with a keener warmth.” [05:00]
— A metaphor for the subtle, unexpected ways love returns.
Brave Renewal:

“Not totally erasing the old fears, but welcoming the chance to try again, to be brave.” [05:30]
— The poem concludes with a call to bravery, acknowledging both lingering wounds and the hope inherent in risking love again.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

Maggie’s reflection on uncertainty:

“The future is unwritten and we get to decide what the story will be. We get to choose what comes next.” — Maggie Smith [02:10]
Musing on being oneself in new love:

“I wasn’t worried about being too much of myself, yet in love again, the first time since the damage of my divorce.” — Tiana Clark, “The Terror of New Love” [04:30]
Invitation to courage:

“Welcoming the chance to try again, to be brave.” — Tiana Clark [05:30]
Host’s takeaway:

“Today's poem captures the exhilaration and fear of falling in love again after divorce. It's a poem that I think encourages us to stay open, to have courage, and to risk our hearts again.” — Maggie Smith [02:25]

Timestamps for Key Segments

01:06 — Maggie’s reflection on divorce and moving forward
02:00 — The nature of the empty, unwritten future
02:25 — Introduction to the poem’s theme
03:00 — Start of “The Terror of New Love” by Tiana Clark
04:30–05:30 — Key verses on vulnerability and renewal
05:45 — Closing thoughts and poetic call to bravery

Conclusion

This episode blends Maggie Smith’s personal reflections with Tiana Clark’s evocative poetry, offering listeners a thoughtful meditation on moving forward after heartbreak. It centers on the courage it takes to love anew and reminds us of the beauty, poignancy, and hope that spring from embracing change. The reading and analysis create a resonant space for anyone reimagining their future after loss, using poetry as a pathway to mindfulness, healing, and renewed possibility.

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Transcript4 lines

[00:01]
A
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[01:06]
B
I'm Maggie Smith and this is the Slowdown it's no secret that I'm divorced. I've written about the end of my marriage in poems and in my memoir, and you could make this place beautiful. If you've been divorced or if you've experienced the end of a long romantic relationship, you know how complex it is. Maybe you're heartbroken that it didn't work out. Maybe you're relieved that you're no longer in that relationship. Maybe you feel abandoned and discarded. Maybe you feel alive and happy and free. In my experience, more than one of these things can be true. When I got divorced, I remember the mixed feelings. A big part of me was devastated that we hadn't made it work. Another part of me was relieved because it hadn't been working. A part of me was terrified because I had no idea what the future held. And a different big part of me felt excited and free. I wrote in a poem once, the trick of the future is it's empty. That's where the excitement and terror come in. The future is empty and we get to fill it. The future is unwritten and we get to decide what the story will be. We get to choose what comes next. Today's poem captures the exhilaration and fear of falling in love again after divorce. It's a poem that I think encourages us to stay open, to have courage, and to risk our hearts again. The Terror of New Love by Tiana Clark for D. I thought about taking a picture to capture what I decided to live through the present moment instead. Ephemeral glaze, Sentimental risk with the numb tips of our chilled noses grazing as we kissed and kissed. The deep droning whir of the ferry boat bloating over Casco Bay, sailing away from the fringe of Portland, Maine. It's inside the small, silent slices of time, right? The terror of new love. The sun stung ripples which made our eyes drop, drip refracting and whiting out the landscape to bright cream as we approached Peak's Island. Who lives there? We wondered and imagined as we gasped at the pristine houses with massive windows perched along the periphery, talkless minutes dotted with intermittent seagulls squawking overhead, cold crunch of November air, gentle foam frothing and trailing the stern. It was almost sunset when I leaned back, softened and nuzzled deep in the camber of your embrace, your chest another miracle of comfort, your arms another possible home. I wasn't worried about being too much of myself, yet in love again, the first time since the damage of my divorce. It was gradual, subtly somatic, without the anxiety attached. You slipped in like a beloved book or special knick knack that had always been there, but somehow I'm just now seeing it on the shelf, stacked and floating in the part of my heart I'm trying to keep, a jar with a keener warmth. This it or itness? A gentleness, a personal dispersal, not of light but a fresh, odd, familiar feeling, this bluing calmness, not totally erasing the old fears, but welcoming the chance to try again, to be brave. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. 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 bluesky slowdownshow. Maggie here, host of the Slowdown Listening to and reading poetry helps us find our footing in an uncertain world, especially during challenging times. You can help keep these moments of poetry and reflection going by making a gift today. Visit slowdownshow.org donate.