Podcast Summary: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1396: “Panama” by Sarah Green

Host: Maggie Smith
Release Date: November 14, 2025
Brought to you by: American Public Media & The Poetry Foundation

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Maggie Smith reflects on the aftermath of relationships and the gratitude that can emerge from their loss. Through personal reflection and the presentation of Sarah Green’s poem “Panama,” Smith explores the bittersweet perspectives that come after love ends, emphasizing not only the sorrow but also the transformative beauty and lessons left behind.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Processing the End of a Relationship

• Maggie Smith opens with a reflection on the common experience of questioning and re-examining relationships after they end.
• She describes a phase of “distinct disenchantment,” when the “spell of the relationship has broken and the magic’s gone.” (01:07)
  • Insight: This phase invites introspection—parsing what was real from what was illusion and learning to separate the story’s end from its entirety.
  • Personal connection: “I’ve been there. Most of us have been there more than once.” (01:40)

Acceptance and Gratitude

• The journey from heartbreak to acceptance is described as long and complex, sometimes requiring “a lot of time and a lot of work and maybe some therapy.” (01:53)
• She discusses the challenge—and importance—of feeling gratitude for what the relationship provided rather than focusing solely on its demise.

Citing Jack Gilbert: Celebrating the “Flying”

• Smith references Jack Gilbert’s poem “Famous Failing and Flying” and the line: “Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.” (02:13)
  • Memorable Quote: “Even when a relationship ends before we’re ready, even when it hurts, I think there’s something to celebrate in it. Maybe lots of things to celebrate. One of those things we can celebrate is the flying that occurred before we fell.” (02:18)

Introduction to Today’s Poem

• Smith sets up Sarah Green’s “Panama” as a poem that captures “the balance of sadness, wry humor, and gratitude despite it all” after a breakup.
  • She encourages listeners to find gratitude and celebrate the beautiful and real moments from past relationships—no matter how they ended.

Featured Poem: “Panama” by Sarah Green

(Read by Maggie Smith at 03:07)

Key Themes in the Poem:

• Appreciation for specific, intimate gestures and memories (e.g., carrying the air conditioner, sharing a moment in afternoon light).
• The mix of hope and disappointment (the proposal conversation, aborted plans to see art at the Met).
• Playful remembrance (getting pregnant “so many times in dreams”).
• The contrasts between intention and outcome, certainty and loss (observing the steelhead in the creek as a metaphor for something trying and failing to hide).
• The beauty in shared mundane moments—a memory at the farmer’s market, a blue knit hat, the simplicity of standing by a creek.

Notable Excerpt from the Poem:

“There was a time when we were certain of our love we stood looking over Canada Way Creek and it wasn’t a shadow,
that steel head twisting in the water trying but failing to disguise itself against the shale.” (03:48)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Smith on reflection:
  • “You might ask yourself, was the time I spent with that person real? Was any of that real? Or at least some of it?” (01:19)
• On gratitude:
  • “It can take even longer to get to a place of gratitude, to be able to parse how or why it ended from what it was, to be able to separate the end of the story from the story as a whole, to be grateful for what the relationship gave you and taught you.” (01:53)
• On celebrating the good:
  • “Maybe it will inspire you to think about what you’re thankful for in a past relationship—something you learned about yourself or an experience you had that was particularly joyful and transformative, maybe even though it ended.” (02:36)

Important Segments with Timestamps

• Maggie Smith’s opening reflection on breakups: 01:07 – 02:10
• Jack Gilbert’s “Icarus” reference and celebration of ‘the flying’: 02:13 – 02:23
• Introduction to the poem’s themes and invitation for gratitude: 02:24 – 02:53
• Reading of “Panama” by Sarah Green: 03:07 – 04:13

Episode Tone

Gentle, reflective, and encouraging, Maggie Smith approaches the topic of relationship endings with sensitivity and hope, urging listeners to hold onto gratitude and the “real” beauty in what was, even as they move forward.

Summary Takeaway

This episode invites listeners to remember the airborne moments in relationships—the joys and certainties—amidst the pain of an ending. Through Sarah Green’s tender poem and Maggie Smith’s warm reflections, we’re reminded that love may fail, but it was still real, and those flights are always worth celebrating.